this is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. schieffer: good evening, scott is off tonight, i m bob schieffer. hardly a day passes that we don t show you pictures of the great drought of 2012. but the government put out a report today that brings home just how severe it really is, and it s not just farmers and stockmen who are affected. it s going to mean higher priceses for everyone. nearly one quarter of the country is now in extreme or exceptional drought. today for the second month in a row the agriculture department said that means corn and soybean production will be down again. corn down 13%, soybean production down 12%. beef production will also be down 4%. what this means, of course, is that as food production goes down, food prices go up. anthony mason is covering this story. reporter: the worst drought in half a century sent corn prices to a record high on the floor of the chicago board of trade today. this is not inflation. we don t have any. reporter:
concealers in any way, shape, or form but manageable, i think. reporter: manageable because the u.s.d.a. says the prices of farm products like corn and soybeans make up only about 14% of the average retail food purchase. even if all farm products doubled, retail food prices would increase just just another 14%. but the drought is increasing demand around the world. the global price of corn jumped 23% last month. so you can see volatile prices and higher-than-normal prices until we get a good crop from our own farmers here next year. reporter: that s if we get a good crop. the overall impact on the u.s. economy is expected to be modest, though, because american households typically spend about a sixth of their budgets on food and shoppers often switch to cheaper items. schieffer: but, you know, anthony, if it does not rain and if these food prices go up 10%, that is going to have an impact. reporter: we re going to have a pinch and it won t help an economy already st