Bread and butter issue: Rising prices may herald the first global food shortage since the 1970s

FT ^ | 10/23/07 | Jenny Wiggins and Javier Blas in London

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[gogogodzilla]

Perhaps the price of corn and other cereals would not be as high if... we weren’t mandating that we burn ethanol in our gas tanks.

Which drives the price of corn up... which leads farmers (who want to make money) to plant the crops (corn) that are selling at the highest price.

Which then drives up the price of other crops, as there isn’t enough farmland currently to pick up the slack.

[yorkie]

One thing is certain - prices aren’t going to be getting any lower in the near future.

So, when we see those ‘two-fers’ on products that we use or consume regularly, we may want to take advantage of the price, and do a little stock up.

[DB]

Government shouldn’t be creating artificial demand.

At the same time, if prices of wheat and other common staples go up, more farmers will grow it and supply will increase. That’s what free markets do.

[squidly]

You’re onto something there. The sad part is that ethanol isn’t necessary. But I guess that’s the way it goes.

[seeker_two]

Just another reason ethanol is a bad idea.....for our cars AND our economy.....

[Sgt_Schultze]

Any country stupid enough to burn food as fuel has idiots making policy. The worst part is we have actual fuel that could be available if those same idiotic policy makers wouldn't have placed potential oil fields off limits. We could earnestly try to develop extraction methods for the Green River Formation where the US has some 1 trillion barrels of oil (3 times the reserves of the Saudis) locked into shale.

We could have lessened our dependence on oil and natural gas if the idiots making policy hadn't cowed to the watermelons regarding nuclear generation. We have listened for too long the those who "care" for the planet and every living thing (except for humans). It's time to remind those forced to pay ever higher prices for energy and food why those prices are higher than they should be and who's policies of environmentalism have brought us to such a reliance on foreign oil.

[theBuckwheat]

The basis for this article is false. There is no more a “shortage” of food then there is a “shortage” of water. If anyone lacks sufficient food (or water for that matter), it is due to their inability, or unwillingness to afford it. We can have, for example, all the corn we want if we are willing to pay more for it than the local ethanol refinery.

The real story is how many millions of people have been denied, by their governments and societies, the opportunity or even the ability to earn enough to take care of their basic needs.

[RSmithOpt]

Well, duh....the price of energy is following the same trend as food, especially oil, gasoline, diesel, and natural gas, and as those specific engine fuels shoot up in prices, so does the cost of planting, cultivating, harvesting, transport of raw foods and processed foods.

Food, water, and energy, China will throw the first stone 9Russian territories in the far east) and they continue to destroy their environment with pollution.

[HenpeckedCon]

It’s good that we are trying to save the world from “global warming” by putting food in our gas tanks.

[gogogodzilla]

As long as the government mandates the use of ethanol, the refineries WILL pay whatever price necessary to get the corn.

And multi-billion dollar industries have deeper pockets that you or I.

So who do you think will end up with the corn? You... or the refinery?

[clodkicker]

Never underestimate the American farmer’s ability to overproduce!
The local corn price here is $2.57/bushel. Not much higher than usual. The markets did their job. The best cure for high prices is high prices. There are ethanol plants suspending operations because the price of corn is too high relative to the ethanol price. It doen’t appear they can pay any price. All of you need to get a clue.

[Gilbo_3]

and from the biofuel industry, which is on course to consume about 30 per cent of the US corn crop in 2010 –

We need to keep saying it until it sinks in to the average folks...

The earth is awash in fuel resourses, stop BURNING our friggin food !!!

[Balding_Eagle]

as there isn’t enough farmland currently to pick up the slack.

We have WAY more farmland than we need to produce our food.

We have so much farmland, and production capacity that we can be so foolish as to raise 'organic' foods, which requires twice as much land to produce the same quantity of lower quality foods.

We have so much farmland that we can even BURN a lot of our feedstuffs, and still have excess.

The rest of the world is too stupid to install a capitalistic economic system, and as a result they are always on the verge of starvation.

Let the stupid people starve to death.

As they do so, lets flaunt our capacity to produce a tsunami of grains and our foodstuffs. Lets raise organic, lets burn our food, and lets all gorge ourselves on the most abundant and best foods ever raised in the entire history of the world.

HATS OFF TO THE AMERICAN FARMER!

[Balding_Eagle]

the refineries WILL pay whatever price necessary to get the corn.

Ah, it's not really a good idea for posters to flaunt their own ignorance.

[RSmithOpt]

However, as with the housing bust / mortgage fraud, never underestimate the middle-man's ability to skim (inflate) the true cost of a gallon of hooch for your 'Mustang' and flip off the farmer at the same time.

Then, common folk will flip-off the middle-man and then feed the corn bought from the co-op to their horses and make their own 'shine to fuel their vehicles with hand pumps and in the meantime, thin their blood while waitin' on the mash to sour up. Ain't hard to do. Gonna be a lot off copper layin' around in houses that people can't buy.

Just make the juice in the winter and heat the house at the same time.....maybe a basement with a large fireplace and use it as a tax deduction for an at home office / business.

Hell' I figure if the gov ain't gonna enforce immigration laws, then why bother with the manufacture of spirits? Gonna be some rich farmers an a huge demand for cast iron bathtubs for the DIY'rs.

[RSmithOpt]

"HATS OFF TO THE AMERICAN FARMER!"

BUMP!!!

BUMP!!>

BUMP!!

[Balding_Eagle]

Yes.

See my post #15

[tiki]

Don’t go using common sense and truth to take away anyone’s misplaced outrage. :-}