Ice Cream

The dirt: If you noticed the cost of your favorite dessert going up this summer, you can thank America's natural gas boom. Guar gum, a popular thickener used in ice cream, is also popular in the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves injecting mixtures of sand, water, and chemicals underground to fracture the rock formations in which natural gas is trapped. Guar gum boosts the viscosity of these solutions and cuts down on friction. Farmers in India who grow the world's supply of the guar beans from which the gum is produced got socked with unusually high demand this year, and ice cream companies had to either raise prices or switch to alternative thickeners.

Fix it: If you don't want to spend more for ice cream than you do for gasoline, invest in an ice cream maker and try making your own. Or at least substitute your old standby brand with one of these Recipes for Tasty Frozen Desserts.