[Roberts:] Twenty-five and a half minutes after the hour, and Christine Romans here this morning, "Minding Your Business". And if you have noticed that the prices of things, including food, have been going up, you're not wrong, because they have.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] That's right. I mean, we've been talking about it here just about every week, talking about commodity prices rising and and that continues. And the latest news is I think that gas prices are going to go up maybe 10 or 15 cents a gallon. So watch for that.
[Roberts:] Yes. They're creep they're creeping up.
[Romans:] Creeping up because, you know, the Fed injecting all that money into the system is making commodities go up, and they already had been going up. I want to talk about Thanksgiving, though, because you better stuck your wallet. It sounds like sorry. You better stuff your wallet.
[Roberts:] See? There's a problem with your microphone. So you can't leave us. You you're tied you're tied to us.
[Romans:] I was going to walk to the Wall, but
[Chetry:] Where is your microphone?
[Romans:] I don't know.
[Roberts:] Oh, are you sitting on it?
[Chetry:] The problem is, she doesn't have one on.
[Romans:] Well
[Chetry:] All right. Go fishing. Go for it.
[Romans:] No. Look, we're looking for turkey prices, up about 32 percent so far this year. We're expecting them to continue to rise. Aha! We found it.
[Chetry:] Voila!
[Roberts:] What was it doing in your ear?
[Romans:] No, it wasn't in my ear. It just fell down the anyway alas.
[Roberts:] OK. Now you can go.
[Romans:] Let's talk about turkey prices. They're up about 32 percent so far this year, about $17 a pound. That means you're looking at about a $17 $70 price for a a 16-pound turkey. And why? It's because the feed prices have gone up. I told you about these commodity rallies. We've been talking about it a lot. The feed prices for turkeys is up. That means the price for you to feed your family turkey is likely to go up. Fewer turkeys produced also. That's that's part of the problem here. Corn and wheat prices are up. They have been rallying sharply all year. This means bread, meat, the things that you use corn and wheat to make or to feed, are also going up. That's going to result in higher prices for meat, pasta, and bread. One thing here, there's some other staples that are costing less, though. Celery, green beans the consumer price index that the government puts out shows that some of these vegetables actually are are not going to cost you more. But the price for your Thanksgiving turkey is going to be bigger this year. Your turkey dinner is going to be bigger this year. And comes, you guys, at a time when everything is going up. Oil and gas I told you about that. We've got coffee prices going up. Coffee is at a 13-year high. McDonalds has said it's going to raise prices. Gas prices expected to rise 10 or 15 cents a gallon. Home heating bills should be another $124 extra this year. So all of this is is it's your pocketbook, but it's an international issue. It's because all of the money rushing into the system is going into hard commodities, in many cases, and because it's safe. The dollar is weak, commodities have been rising. My mike still sounds a little funny, doesn't it?
[Roberts:] No, no, no. It's fine. It looks a little weird, but it sounds just fine.
[Romans:] All right. So, there you go.
[Roberts:] Does anybody know that the economy is still bad out there? I mean, people can't afford to pay more for things.
[Romans:] I know, but you're just going to have figure out you have to dig deep and figure out how and the irony here is that the senior citizens are not going to get a social security increase
[Roberts:] If you dig any deeper, we're not going to have to worry about trade with China, because you can just drop your stuff down the hole and it will come out the other side in China.
[Romans:] Right. There you go.
[Roberts:] All right. Thanks.
[Chetry:] But people on fixed incomes, it is going to be tough.
[Romans:] It is going to be tough. That's right.
[Chetry:] Christine, thank you.
[Roberts:] Well, we're crossing the half hour now. It's time for this morning's top stories on this Monday morning. President Obama about to deliver a message to more than a billion people. In about 30 minutes, he'll be speaking with India's parliament. He's expected to focus on America's partnership with the Asian nation. Stay with us because we're going to bring you the president's remarks live when they happen.
[Chetry:] And a fleet of Qantas Airbus 380 jets will stay grounded for at least another 72 hours. Oil leaks discovered in the engines of three planes. This was during an investigation into what caused last week's mishap that forced a Qantas flight to make an emergency landing in Singapore when one of the engines blew. Meanwhile, Emirates Airlines is announcing its superjumbo A380s will make their much anticipated return to New York today just days after the airline launched those daily flights to Houston and Los Angeles.
[Roberts:] And Vice President Joe Biden reaffirming America's support for Israel. In a speech on Sunday to the Jewish Federations of North America, Biden said ties between the two countries are, quote, "literally unbreakable." Biden addressed the group in New Orleans, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, looking for ways to get Mideast peace talks going again.
[Chetry:] Well, the U.S. effort to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan is much more than just a military strategy.
[Roberts:] This morning, in the first part of her special series "The Other Afghan Offensive," CNN foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty takes a look at what the United States is doing to help Afghan farmers rebuild a critical part of the country's infrastructure, and she joins us now You wouldn't think that farmers would have a big role in bringing stability to that country, but they do.
[Jill Dougherty, Cnn Foreign Affairs Correspondent:] But they do. And it's an interesting story. We saw in these imbeds that we went on in Afghanistan. And, you know, over and over, John and Kiran, you hear it in Afghanistan that the war can't be won by bullets alone. We've all heard of the military surge, but there's also a civilian surge happening as well experts of law, government, economic development, agriculture, working with Afghans through the State Department, USAID, and other agencies. And as we saw during our imbed there, it's a very different kind of battle.
[Unidentified Soldier:] All right. Integration team, I'll be with you guys.
[Dougherty:] We're in Wardak province, eastern Afghanistan, with advisers working for the U.S. Agriculture Department. Eighty percent of Afghans are farmers so boosting the country's agriculture industry is crucial to the U.S. strategy here.
[Gary Soiseth, Usda:] And I'm an orchard manager for my folks back home.
[Dougherty:] Twenty-four-old Gary Soiseth, he's far from his farm in Turlock, California.
[Soiseth:] That's kind of my real life job. But for right now, I'm focused right here.
[Dougherty:] He's teaching old farmers new tricks.
[Soiseth:] The elders get a little rambunctious sometimes. They kind of say, hey, kid, what can you teach me? And you know what? You know, I know this stuff. And I say, you know, I agree, I defer. One main solution just to make sure your orchard floor is clean, keep your weeds down and to also make sure all of your fruit that is infected is removed.
[Dougherty:] Did you learn something today?
[Unidentified Male:] Limit the outflow.
[Dougherty:] Some new ideas on how to keep insects at bay this man tells me.
[Soiseth:] A lot of times, you know, the father passed on to the son. Well, if this father is a mujahedeen or the father, you know, died in some war, that knowledge doesn't get passed down.
[Dougherty:] Why would you pick up from sunny California and come to sunny Afghanistan?
[Soiseth:] I just kind of had to look at myself and say, what do I really want to do? As an American, as a farmer, where can I serve?
[Dougherty:] Gary's dream is to help Afghan farmers to move from living off their crops to selling them, in Kabul, Pakistan, maybe even India or Dubai. It could take a while, he says. So he's signing up for another year in Afghanistan. Helping farmers grow enough crops also helps wean away from poppy, and that is an industry, as we all know is controlled by the Taliban who makes millions of dollars from it.
[Kiran Chetry, Cnn Anchor:] So, these civilian programs to teach them how to farm more effectively and away from opium is it making a measurable difference? I mean, is this something they're taking to?
[Dougherty:] You know, in all of these programs that we saw throughout the country, they make a difference in the local area. But the question is, can you knit these all together throughout the country? Because otherwise, you know, it's a little here, a little there. And that's the question. And it's really crucial because if the people of Afghanistan don't believe that they can get something from their government and that's the key thing then they are going to turn to the Taliban for a lot of stuff.
[Chetry:] Amazing. Well, it's very interesting. And tomorrow, we're going to get to see part two of Jill's series.
[Dougherty:] Right.
[Chetry:] She's going to be taking a look at how some Afghan women are really trying to make the most of their situation, new opportunities to work and earn a living. So, we'll see you back here tomorrow. Jill, thanks.
[Roberts:] Good to see you, Jill. Thanks. Coming up next on
[American Morning:] a series of high-profile plane mishaps as we head into the busy travel holiday season might have you asking the question: Is it really safe to fly? We'll ask aviation analyst Peter Goelz coming up next.