AP - Food Prices Soaring Worldwide

[lligrd]

By KATHERINE CORCORAN, Associated Press Staff Writer
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY - If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.

The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.

But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.

"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/fighting_for_food;_ylt=Ak5Z3QqiwtND0easdsDSBMis0NUE

[lapfog_1]

1. God's message to the world...

"STOP HAVING CHILDREN!!!"

[Warpy]

2. The world's message to women

PRODUCE SONS OR BE ABANDONED!!!!

That's the way it is in the third world. If you want to cut population growth, give women something of their own that doesn't rely on being a baby factory

That's been proven over and over and over again. Men are just going to have to move over and share.

[TalkingDog]

4. Or die trying

At lunch I was telling a "centrist" *coff*conservative*coff* friend that we got where we are because the western ethic is 'greed is good'. If you were properly greedy then you could get ahead. That in some other cultures wealth is amassed then redistributed in a much more positive way; the potlatches of the Coastal NW Indians for instance. And honor and status is given to the person who gives the most and is the most generous..

If the powers that be preach every day that liberalism is bad, communism is bad, welfare is bad, taking care of people who can't take care of themselves is bad, that giving welfare and WIC to women so they can feed their children is bad. That you should always be able to keep every single thing you earn and never pay taxes to help others or your society... When you hear it preached every damned day for your entire life, then don't be so fucking surprised when it comes back to bite you square on the ass.

It is going to change as surely as the earth spins. You have a choice: you can ride with it and see it as a positive force or you can resist and be torn to shreds.

/steps off soapbox to go get a shot of liquor....

[girl gone mad]

9. A conversation I've had with misogynistic men..

many a time.

A man will complain that "feminazis" have ruined America by making the workforce too competitive. They complain they can't find a woman who wants to wait on them hand and foot at home.

However, the countries where women have no opportunity and exist solely to serve men are generally the most desperately impoverished places.

[raccoon]

11. God's message to the US and other industrialized countries...

"STOP CONSUMING SO MUCH!"

[no_hypocrisy]

3. It started with you could no longer afford to buy a house.

Now it's morphed into you can no longer afford to eat regular, healthy meals.

[Festivito]

5. Hmmm. Wonder if it went up when paying with GOLD, not paper.

We are losing world food production capability, however, this article tries to hide the dropping dollar story. (It must be the food. Move along. Nothing more to see here. /sarcasm)

[sbyte]

6. Food price exacerbated by ethanol use.

Driving a car with ethanol takes food away from someone else on the earth. Once there was excess production of beans and corn, which was hard on farmers. But now a lot of farmers have switched to corn, cuttin down on beans. Corn is not the best source for ethanol as sugar cane is ten times more efficient. It is becoming more evident that it is takes about the same amount of energy to produce, that get returned, from corn. Thay are say'n switch grass may work better.

-----
Starving people ....don't look now...
I'm feeling lucky I think I'll eat cow.

[DCKit]

7. Even more so by commodities traders.

Yet another "get-rich-quick" scheme that's harming the general public.

Anyone who got into commodities trading five years (or so) ago likely did very well for themselves: the infomercials alone provided all the buzz needed to keep the market humming. However, it is my opinion that it's unsustainable and we will soon see prices normalize.

It is certain prices will never drop back to what they were due to *'s devaluation of the dollar and inflation, but the speculators are driving too many consumers out of the market and people won't continue to buy what they can't afford - even if it is food.

When I shop for food, I buy only what I need, then the rest ONLY when it's on sale, and I don't even have a car, prescription costs or fluctuation utility bills. I have seen enough posts on (food) shopping here over the past few months to know I'm not alone.

[cliss]

8. Just curious: how do you mean that it's

"unsustainable"?

If you have a hungry world of....what? 6.5 billion people? Or is it 7 billion now?
China and India have combined the world's largest population. And they've got purchasing power.
They need to feed their people.
Demand = up, astronomically.
Supply = who knows?
With weather changes, I expect to see a lot more Ag losses.
There can only be outcome: astronomic price increases.

[tama]

10. I'm afraid you are correct

The single most important factor behind food price increasis is that oil-addicted consumerist society - that still clings to myth of eternal growth believing that "greed is good" instead of even attempting to amend its ways - is now getting ready for cold turkey treatment as peak oil has been reached and the supply does not meet anymore demand. Climate change is related to oil consumption and of course processing food produced by heavily oil dependent agriculture into biofuels etc.

Peak oil -> peak food -> peak population. And sooner than most of us expect.