“$10.81.”

I stared at the Safeway cashier with my bloodshot eyes, and then back at the one pound bag of conventional red seedless grapes on the conveyor belt. My eyes darted to the screen, where to my surprise, the item was correctly scanned. Dreary from a long night of studying, I shoved my card into the chip reader, and left in a state of confusion with an exorbitant bag of Chilean grapes in my hand.

My impulsive, after-midnight snack choice soon became the opener for every conversation I had. My friends and family were also in disbelief, thinking that grapes should only cost about four to six dollars per pound. My curiosity got the best of me, and between study breaks, I searched for reasons on why my grapes were so expensive.

Chile is one of America’s top suppliers for agricultural products, and the highest import category includes grapes. Part of the Patagonia region, southern Chile’s coast is surrounded by the largest number of glaciers in South America. Chile relies on freshwater reserves from glaciers for agriculture since they have a dry climate that receives low precipitation.

However, climate change has caused glaciers to melt at astonishing rates, and Chile is suffering the effects. The issue’s severity was apparent after a 1,148 foot-by-1,247-foot chunk of Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park broke off in November 2017.

Chilean farmers are struggling to supply enough water for their crops, especially grapes. The crop can survive with minimal watering but consequently won’t produce much fruit, which could explain the 8% decrease in Chilean companies exporting grapes in 2017. With fewer grapes, the law of supply and demand will result in an increase in price so long as demand remains constant.

Grape scarcity added to shipping and distribution costs inevitably makes Chilean grapes more expensive. Add that to the markup supermarkets place on their products, and you get an obnoxiously priced pound of table grapes.

I’ve always been aware of climate change, but if this hypothesis is true, then the effects extend beyond the environment. The economic and societal impacts have already taken place, and it’s only a matter of time before these changes are too obvious to ignore.

We as consumers should be concerned for the reasons behind this spike, and critically think about the factors that influence how our produce is made, shipped, and priced. Expensive conventional fruit should elicit more than an evanescent surprise, which is why this is a topic worth discussing.