Axios PM

October 10, 2022
Happy holiday Monday: Today's PM β edited by Justin Green β is 442 words, a 2-minute read.
π 1 big thing: Tomato shortage
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
America's salad bowl is in trouble: Price hikes coming for tomatoes, onions and garlic next year.
- "There's just not enough water to grow everything that we normally grow," California Board of Food and Agriculture president Don Cameron told Reuters.
Zoom in: California accounts for 95% of the nation's processed tomato production and 35% of global production, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.
- Kraft told Reuters it couldn't rule out price increases β but can guarantee ketchup and other products on the shelves.
Zoom out: The Southwest is gripped by its worst megadrought since the Dark Ages, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports.
- The past 22 years rank as the driest period for the region since at least 800 A.D.
2. Marking Indigenous Peoples' Day

Chenae Bullock, of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, holds a traditional container of water during an Indigenous Peoples' Day sunrise ceremony on Randall's Island in New York City.
3. Catch up quick

- Above: Residents of Dnipro, Ukraine, examine a crater from a Russian missile strike today. President Biden condemned the strikes, which Vladimir Putin said were retaliation for attacks on a bridge between Russia and Crimea. Go deeper.
- The Uvalde schools superintendent is retiring after 30 years in education. Go deeper.
- L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez resigned after the L.A. Times posted a recording of her and other council members making racist remarks. Go deeper.
- Russian-speaking hackers disrupted websites of multiple U.S. airports through denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Flights continued. Go deeper.
4. π 1 fall thing: White House garden

The White House Fall Garden Tour on Saturday included Lauren Serpe (back left) and Rashida Holman-Jones + their kids (from left): Zynn Jones, Sydney Serpe and Zuri Jones.
About 30,000 regular, everyday people strolled through the White House's black metal gates and onto the South Lawn on Saturday and Sunday as the red-uniformed United States Marine Band played.
- It was the annual White House Fall Garden Tour, open to all comers with a free, timed ticket, distributed by the National Park Service outside the White House Visitor Center, AP's Ellen Knickmeyer writes.
Why it matters: The tours were a throwback to the White House's early days, when there were fewer restrictions on access to the People's House.
- Just for a weekend, the tour sheared off some of the distance between the nation's executive and a curious, divided public.
Being there: There were young women in fresh fall coats ... a guy in a suit ... hoodied parents with kids ... all maneuvering for selfies with the White House faΓ§ade.
The Bidens were in Delaware β but the bees were left behind.
- Hospitality had a limit. A Secret Service member shouted: "Off the grass!"
Thank you to Bryan McBournie for copy editing today's newsletter.
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