Posted on 09/05/2010 3:55:51 AM PDT by Bulwinkle
Two years after the last food crisis, when prices surged by nearly 15% in the UK, food inflation is back. Soaring global food prices have prompted City and food industry experts to warn that the cost of the weekly shop is set to rise by up to 10% in the coming months.
As in 2008, rocketing prices are the result of rising demand and supply shortages caused by freak weather and poor harvests. Moreover, these conditions are exacerbated by speculation on commodity markets and changing diets in fast-growing Asian countries.
Last week, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) called an emergency meeting for 24 September to discuss the food crisis. In Mozambique, riots broke out following the government's decision to raise bread prices by 30%, leaving seven people dead and hundreds injured. At the same time the Russian government extended its export ban on wheat by another 12 months as it battles drought, shortages and inflation at home, which threatens to push up prices further. European wheat prices hit more than €231 (£192) a tonne last week, just below last month's two-year high of €236 but still 60% higher than a year ago in sterling terms. Corn prices are at their highest level since June 2009 while sugar has been on a rollercoaster ride after hitting a 29-year peak in February.....
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
"The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/22/quarter-us-grain-biofuels-food
That is just the U.S.!!! The U.S. productes about 1/3 of the worlds ethanol....so, doing the math the grain being dirverted to produce ethanol world wide would be enough to feed a BILLION people.
Turning food into fuel when there is plenty of fuel to be had, is stupid.
The US is thinking of allowing 15% ethanol instead of 10%. Another stupid move. The damage done by ethanol to boats and motorcycles is well klnown and yet they want even more ethanol. Crazy
I see the words Flex fuel written on the back of some vehicles, Flex fuel should mean it will burn gas , kerosene or diesel, but no, it merely means that the vehicle will burn ethanol with a minimum of damage to that vehicle.
The only place I can get pure gas for my outboard is at a few marina docks that are allowed to sell it. The ethanol messes up my little outboard carb.
exporting grain —> exporting jobs
One thing the UN is good at is meeting a crisis and making it worse.
It is NOT inflation. There is less food to sell. Less food in the market commands a higher price per unit of food. That fact does not state or imply an increase in the money $upply.
U.s should use our food resources as a weapon against the moosies.
Hey gutter religions folks, we’ll trade ya some food for lots of oil.
Or maybe NOT,
It normally goes into feed production for meat animals, but I'm sure if the market raises prices, it will be diverted to human consumption.
Well, here’s an article how ethanol was driving up the cost of beer:
That food shortage article mentioned the 2008 food shortage...which also drove up beer prices:
PHOENIX – A global shortage of hops, combined with a run-up in barley prices, is sending a chill through Arizona’s craft-beer industry.
The hops shortage threatens to boost prices, cut into profits and close down brewpubs. It could change the taste and consistency of treasured local ales....
Brewers are dealing with a 10 percent to 15 percent shortfall in the worldwide supply of hops, largely caused by farmers cutting back on the crop and recent yields diminished by rain and drought. Prices have jumped as much as 10-fold..
Papazian attributed the barley prices to ethanol subsidies that have raised the price of corn, the main ingredient in the alternative fuel. As a result, farmers have switched to barley for livestock feed, which has pushed up prices.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/01/21/74610-hops-shortage-threatens-brewpubs/
To my knowledge the last Famine in North America due to crop failure was in 1816, in Europe it was 1845-46. The development of the Railroad enabled the movement of food from where it was in abundance to where it was scarce. Reading between the lines of the OP, the major problems appear to be the rising cost of Food due to it having to be imported, not that it is unavailable.
Farmers in North America and Europe have had to contend with chronic overproduction since the early 1900’s related to the mechanization of farms. To a large extent the use of oil crops and ethanol only return to the use of a significant portion of the crop for motive power. I remember reading in a book once that in the Roman Empire 90% of all farm production was used on the farm, farms may have gotten more productive since then but the real increase in productivity was not until farmers started replacing draft animals with tractors.
He can "attribute" all he likes. It's not true. Back when there was more hoopla in the media about ethanol and it's effects on food, I took the time to dig into the Department of Agriculture's annual statistics for food crops. Surpluses every year in every major food crop. The sharp rise in food prices when ethanol was "in the news" was due to speculators, and nothing else.
You've got it. And I'll argue with your conclusion that ethanol production reduces the food supply. There is ZERO evidence of that for the US. I took the time to delve into the Department of Agriculture's annual crop statistics for several years a couple-three years back and found NO evidence to support such a claim. And I'd add the word "socialist" in front of "politics" in your statement.
Socialists get into power, and food supplies shrink. It has happened EVERYWHERE that such a change has happened, even in oil-rich Venezuela.
I wish the some of the posters would think before they type. Government mandates ethanol. How Congress decided to do that is influenced by lobbying of if an agenda is in place Congress looks the other way as EPA and other Government Agencies act on whims.
In a free market, who the hell would want ethanol for anything. Nothing wrong with fallow land but government manipulates farmers via payments not to farm and/or messes with water rights and restrictions at the minimum.
Diesel engines have comes a long way, just ask Europeans. Diesel is cheaper to produce than gasoline but you would never know that by looking at the pump price. Good luck trying to afford a production line diesel car here in the US. Nothing affordable due to tariffs on the import market.
Some of the posts are like government paid shrills.
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