Orange juice made from Florida oranges might be disappearing from store shelves.
This has sent frozen concentrate orange juice futures to record highs and led to thousands of job cuts, billions of dollars lost for the state, and bigger risks that have scared away some futures traders.
The impact is so far-reaching because orange juice isn't just a breakfast drink, it relies on a real-world commodity that has propped up an entire industry for decades.
Here's what Florida's dying oranges can tell us about how the commodity market works and how it impacts the price you pay for orange juice.
A commodity is a basic good used in commerce that usually refers to a raw material used to manufacture finished goods.
So think lumber, gold, oil, and frozen concentrate orange juice, which became a commodity following World War II.
Researchers were trying to find ways to give soldiers in the United States military ways to drink tasty juice that also had the added benefit of giving them vitamins.
By evaporating some of the water from orange juice then freezing and packaging that, frozen concentrate orange juice, the commodity, was invented.
Shipment is in refrigerated trucks and trains only to keep the product frozen until the can is opened in the kitchen and the water is put back in.
Because it's something that is widely processed, widely available, and is generally of equal value or quality depending on where you are, that's something that could be traded.
