The End of Cheap Food

Charlie · 2007-08-04T22:22:35+00:00

Suck it up. Here goes more of your already reduced income.Thank goodness there is no such thing as hunger and starvation in theu$ of a.Only "food insufficiency".We ain't seen nothin' yet, folks.Charlie_______________________________ End Of Cheap FoodBy John James04 August,2007It looks like the era of cheap food is over. The price of maize hasdoubled in a year, and wheat futures are at their highest in a decade.The food price index in India has risen 11%, and in Mexico in Januarythere were riots after the price of corn flour went up fourfold. Thefloods in England and India have devastated crops. In nearly everycountry food prices are going up, and they are probably not going tocome down again.Before World War II, most families spent a third or more of theirincome on food, as the poor majority in developing countries still do.But after the war a series of radical changes, from mechanisation tothe green revolution, raised agricultural productivity hugely andcaused a long, steep fall in the price of food, to a tenth of manypeople?s income.It will probably return to a quarter of a family's income within adecade, or higher, from four factors:1) Demand as global population continues to grow and more people wantto eat more meat. Early this month, in its annual assessment of farmingtrends, the UN predicted that in less than 10 years people in thedeveloping countries will be eating 30% more beef, 50% more pig meatand 25% more poultry. With lot-feeding huge amounts of grain-growingland will move from human to animal consumption.2) Global warming lowers crop yields: see the chart on the right.Christopher Field and David Lobell in Environmental Research Letters inMarch stated that for every 0.5°C temperature rise, crop yields fallbetween 3 and 5%. So 2°C hotter means a 12 to 20% fall in global foodproduction just as the population is about to surge over the 7 billionmark.3) Rising demand for biofuels replaces food production (see "Loomingdisaster", right), causing food price...

Aug 04, 2007 44 Replies

Rate this thread:

Cheryl Isaak 18 years ago

If I could feel well with out meat, I'd still eat it anyway. I like the taste.

The Prius isn't the panacea it claims to be..C

Vote

eric 18 years ago

So what does this mean? It means don't use anything but the oil you have been using for generations. And who paid for creation of those statistics? The fossil fuel oil industry of course.

The important fact that is overlooked with those statistics is that it took a few million years to make one of the fuels and the energy to "produce" it is restricted to the cost of pumping it out of the ground and refinery. By the same logic we should all deduce that its much cheaper to siphon gasoline from our neighbors car than to get it at a gas station.

[Trimmed headers]

Vote

Billy 18 years ago

What it means is that you can shear a sheep many times but you can only skin it once. Petroleum and agriculture have been taken over by a few companies and we are about to get skinned. Baaaaaaaaa

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required