The Department of Agriculture estimates farmers will only have 800 million bushels of corn on hand at the end of next summer.
The small surplus means higher corn prices and overall food inflation.
Corn is an ingredient in everything from animal feed to cereal to soft drinks.
The USDA estimates food prices will go up as much as 3.5 percent next year.
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A week of temperatures at or below freezing have proved too much for some crops in Southern California.
Coachella Valley farmers say they saw moderate to severe losses of bell peppers because of the dip in temperatures last week.
Farmers are still trying to figure out how much could be saved after the freezing nights.
Ag experts estimate Coachella farmers lost most of the peppers that would have been harvested from fields over the next 10 days.
