food and fuel

Coming to a store near you: Even higher prices. Most inflation this year has come from food and fuel, as retailers resisted passing along to strapped consumers the higher prices manufacturers charged them, but coming increases from companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Hasbro Inc. may leave them with no choice.

The economy showed the depth of its twin problems on Tuesday, slow growth and rising inflation, as the nation wrestled with a teetering financial system, a slumping dollar and rising prices for food and fuel.

Soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation at the fastest pace in more than a quarter-century.

The spiraling use of corn for food and fuel is creating heightened concerns about contamination of this staple crop with deadly aflatoxin.

Produced by certain fungi that grow on corn, this contaminant is a known human carcinogen that especially threatens food safety in the developing world and can potentially cause the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States each year.