Food industry says prices headed up again in 08 »

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  STONERS

  Feb. 21, 2008, 2:01 p.m.

  "Prices of grain futures have surged lately. For example, wheat futures have more than doubled on the Chicago Board of Trade over the last 12 months. Pope said meat shoppers eventually will pay for the rally because farmers who raise livestock cannot absorb the sharp escalation in feed costs."
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  TheRealizer

  Feb. 21, 2008, 2:51 p.m.

  Ah yes, we start to reap the rewards of the ethanol boondogle. Thank your politicians in congress for subsidizing the corporate farms to make fuel out of foodstuff.

  Monsanto, and ADM thank you..among many others......
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  getreal1

  Feb. 21, 2008, 3:22 p.m.

  You can bet the price of food is going up. Katrina messed up our sugar growth and the Imperial sugar plant that exploded didn't help either. I wouldn't worry about corn too much. The reasons that corn is not always so abundant is the fact that the farmers are paid not to grow it. That's probably not the only crop. Honey bees are disappearing and if the rest of this world would stop fighting and start to join in on ways to save itself that might help. i was thinking a couple of nights ago about how I could build a gigantic, fireproof, Ark that floats and do the Noah thing if push comes to shove. With my luck I would be blasted in to space and who knows but the maker from there.
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  not2needy

  Feb. 21, 2008, 3:21 p.m.

  How much more can the average consumer stand?
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  canadianrancher57

  Feb. 21, 2008, 7:46 p.m.

  I wonder about something when it comes to the prices paid for food, up here there is a cereal that we buy and we noticed that since Sept. the size of the package has not change but the amount in it has, it has been reduced from 800 grams down to 750 grams and the price has risen by about 5 percent, when they figure out incereases in food prices do they take into acount stunts like this.

  TheRealizer- In Canada the pork and chicken industries are vertically intergrated so they are able to pass the costs on to the consumer since they own the whole industry, but us guys with cattle are still at the mercy of the market, if there have been increases in the beef prices you can blame mostly the retailers.

  Another thing I wonder about is the subsities that are paid to farmers, are they going to be reduced since right now farming seems to be paying its own way. If that money could be returned to tax payers or people in general it would help a bit.
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  white-pawn

  Feb. 22, 2008, 12:51 a.m.

  This will help get rid of the middle class. Meanwhile, KBR holds no bid contracts to build prison camps in the US. Enough to hold all those who have been foreclosed upon when they take to the streets, angry about having to line up for stale bread.
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  KYRed

  Feb. 22, 2008, 1:15 a.m.

  Greed, greed and more greed. If we buy less of everything then prices will come down as inventory increases. Sounds good. But then watch for engineered shortages. Who here thinks Clinton or Obama will change anything about this?
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  nostalgia

  Feb. 22, 2008, 3:50 a.m.

  Bloomberg has an interesting article on the corn for ethanol debate

  Ethanol Demand in US Adds to Food, Fertilizer Costs

  US plans to replace 15 percent of gasoline consumption with crop-based fuels including ethanol are already leading to some unintended consequences as food prices and fertilizer costs increase.

  About 33% of US corn will be used for fuel during the next decade, up from 11% in 2002, the Agriculture Department estimates.

  Increased demand for the grain helped boost food prices by 4.9 percent last year, the most since 1990, and will reduce global inventories of corn to the lowest in 24 years, government data show. While advocates say ethanol is cleaner than gasoline, a Princeton University study this month said it causes more environmental harm than fossil fuels.

  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109...

  Does anyone think Congress will admit the subsidies they passed in the Ag Bill for ethanol production were a mistake?
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  kboy

  Feb. 22, 2008, 8:31 a.m.

  Interesting. I notice nobody mentions the Greens that pushed (and brought suits) to force gas additives that cut gas mileage by a small percent. This polluted the water with MBTE so we had to (because of Court Rulings) use something, hence alcohol. We protect our alcohol plants with a 51 cent per gallon import duty and because that is still not enough, we also subsidize another 50 cent per gallon to make the stuff. Oh, yea. It still uses more than a gallon of fuel to make a gallon of alcohol. Nice try to blame it on Bush. But the farm industry and the Greens are happy. And the rest of us pay for it. The import duty on sugar keeps the inefficient US sugar

  business going. Stop buying the Chinese imports if you want to keep the demand for oil down and the price to drop. Wait till the Greens finish with electric plants and then see the real big price increases for everything!
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  Charlson

  Feb. 22, 2008, 9:18 a.m.

  "Agriculture impacts the environment in many ways. It uses huge amounts of water, energy, and chemicals, often with little regard to long-term adverse effects. But the environmental costs of agriculture are mounting. Irrigation systems are pumping water from reservoirs faster than they are being recharged. Herbicides and insecticides are accumulating in ground and surface waters. Chemical fertilizers are running off the fields into water systems where they encourage damaging blooms of microorganisms. Mountains of waste and noxious odor are the hallmarks of poultry and livestock operations."

  (continued)
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  Charlson

  Feb. 22, 2008, 9:20 a.m.

  "It is time to transform agriculture into a sustainable enterprise, one based on systems that can be employed for centuries -- not decades -- without undermining the resources on which agricultural productivity depends. The question is how to do it. The choices are to stick with the current system and adjust around the edges or to fundamentally rethink it. UCS is aiming for the long-range transformation of US agriculture to a system that is both productive and environmentally sound."

  http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sust...
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  jumpmaster

  Feb. 22, 2008, 9:24 a.m.

  The root of the problem is over population. We need legislation to limit the number of children that people are allowed to have.

  Every couple should be allowed one offspring. If they choose not to have children, they can sell their baby credit to someone else. Kind of like a fetal carbon credit.
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  getreal1

  Feb. 22, 2008, 10:08 a.m.

  It's time to buy straight from the local farmer. He's close by and the food would be fresher.
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  Cityslicker

  Feb. 22, 2008, 11:53 a.m.

  O-k Food goes up Gasoline goes up , Incomes remain the same .

  Retailers want you to buy more , Oil and Commodity Traders want you to spend more , more , more , more , but we the American People have less and less to spend due to rising Economic trend brought on by greed and gluttony of the rich .

  Here is a solution , stop rising Fuel prices , go back to pre-Katrina prices , remember Katrina ? , what started this all .

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