Oil futures last week reached a record $117 a barrel. That means the price of getting food from farms to grocers and to our dinner tables is going through the roof. Diesel-fuel prices have risen 40 percent in the past year to nearly $4.17 a gallon nationally.

"Guys who ship cattle from here to slaughter out of state are spending $700 to $800 for freight, where they used to pay $200 to $300," said Seth Winterton, deputy marketing director of Utah's Own, part of the Department of Agriculture and Food.

While a handful of grocers contacted for this story declined to discuss the affect of commodity prices, big-box stores are seeking more locally grown produce, Winterton said. "They realize that freight is killing them."

The rising transportation costs also are giving Utah farmers some incentive to ship out of state. It's cheaper for Monticello's organic wheat farmers in southern Utah to haul crops to Colorado mills than to Utah mills up north, for instance, Winterton said.

These transportation patterns have consequences.

"We can't even produce enough food in our state to feed our state population. We're kind of food-dependent," Winterton said. "Our peach growers ship to Arizona, and we import from California. It seems ridiculous to me."

At the same time, oil costs have driven an increasing focus on alternative fuels such as ethanol, and the demand for ethanol has led many U.S. farmers to grow crops for fuel rather than food. Congress, pressured to ease America's dependence on foreign oil, late last year passed automobile fuel-efficiency requirements and called for a six-fold increase in the nation's ethanol production — to 36 billion gallons — by 2022.

Last year, the United States produced a record corn harvest, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. A third of it went to ethanol production.

Some Utah farmers also are cashing in on ethanol, shipping oilseeds such as safflower and sunflower to Colorado for production.

Corn, used to make ethanol, is in just about everything, from feed for beef and dairy cattle, to breakfast cereal to the high-fructose corn syrup in a Coke.

That's why some in Congress feared the new requirements would affect corn prices and ultimately, food supplies.

They were right.

"Land that would have gone into the production of food to keep food prices low has been shifted to the production of energy," said Bruce Godfrey, professor of economics at Utah State University. "What we're trading is reducing the price we pay for our energy at the expense of increased food prices. We're going to pay for it one way or another."

Millar has long prepared meals from scratch. She doesn't buy soda, fruit snacks, macaroni and cheese or other boxed foods. Now, she's cutting back more.

Your wallet

Millar never thought she'd be so excited to see a coupon.