The End of Cheap Food Prices?

[bluevoter4life]

A sharp spike in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other staples has sparked riots in Mexico and Egypt, marches by hungry children in Yemen and the spectre of starving people in Haiti turning to mud pies for sustenance. This growing unrest is forcing the global community to focus on the causes of higher food costs and what can be done. But it's also raising the troubling possibility that cheap prices for food may be gone for good, an economic relic of the the past.

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The gloom-and-doom outlooks are prompted by rising prices for commodities, which started increasing steadily in 2001 before suddenly soaring recently. Wheat prices have gone up by 181 percent over the past three years, according to the World Bank; food prices around the globe have risen by 83 percent during the same period. In March, rice prices hit a 19-year high. Corn prices recently rose from $2.50 a bushel three years ago to $6, for the first time. Zoellick has predicted a sustained period of higher food costs, saying he expects prices to remain elevated through next year and stay above 2004 levels for at least the next seven years.

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You can read the rest on the Washington Independent. The outlook for the next decade is not exactly what we want to hear. BUt since when does * care about ours, or the world's economy.

[Hannah Bell]

1. = higher profit margins for cargill, archer daniels midland, bunge, et al -

SUPERMARK-UP TO THE WORLD!

[Fovea]

2. Probably

but give us a couple years of being a bit hungry all the time, and we will see a whole different policy on agriculture.

OTOH, full employment will follow a move back to intensive agriculture. The bad news is that it is hard work without oil.

[mrcheerful]

9. Not to mention the time and energy one has to use in not only

harnessing a horse or mule but also the work required to train said animals to accept a harness. The Amish could be the big winners here, who better to train the modern farmer then the farmer that never used modern equipment. Trust me, just teaching a horse to accept a saddle on its back is a chore and can be very painful at times.

[MadMaddie]

3. Don't forget that we import much of our food now..

Apparantly our food chain is not an important part of the US infrastructure.

We import massive amounts of rice from Australia and guess what they have a drought so......Rice prices are going up. SAMS is rationing how much rice customers (businesses) can buy....

* said it's just a slow down......

No this is turning into the perfect storm my friends.

[Mojorabbit]

12. And this article in the wall street journal

the other day.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html
that starts off

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008 6:47 p.m.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs."

[Rex_Goodheart]

4. Paul Ehrlich, where are you?

it doesn't take a genius to see that the world has too many people competing for finite commodities.

[madeline_con]

6. It's about distribution...

whether due to politics or what have you. There's still plenty to eat. The people who are starving just aren't getting any of it.

[Frustratedlady]

5. I stocked up on rice, wild rice, oil and cake mixes today.

I reached for the Folgers coffee, but then saw it had gone up over $2/3# container (or whatever they put in the plastic cans now). I'll check another grocery tomorrow, but I was surprised to see it had jumped so much.

Cereal and dried beans/peas will probably be next.

[aquart]

13. Use the cake mixes. They really don't last.

[Bok_Tukalo]

7. Perhaps if we bought food with Pounds instead of Dollars it would help

<OPE>

[leftofthedial]

8. capitalism metastasized

and the is now devouring the planet and everything on it.

[AlphaCentauri]

10. Where are the Chavez critics, on the so called food shortages?

[Beregond2]

11. Cheap food prices?

I thought those ended when I was in high school.