The END of the era of Cheap Food in the USA?

[$5 submissions]

Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,1746312.story

American consumers have long enjoyed a luxury that few others could boast: an abundance of affordable food.

But with prices of wheat, corn and other staples soaring, some economists and scientists are wondering how long that can last.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that wholesale food prices jumped 3.9% in February over January, the highest monthly increase in 37 years. Economists expect to see a similar uptick in what consumers are paying for food at retail when the Labor Department releases its consumer price index Thursday.

My thoughts on this: I have a feeling BIOTECH would be the way out of this. And I'm not talking Soylent Green either

[EonBlue]

Maybe if they stopped using land to grow crops for fuel it wouldn't be such a problem.

[PurrrsianPussyKat]

Maybe if they stopped letting people trade in commodities who will never take delivery, prices could really be based on supply and demand instead of speculation.

[fatfoo]

3.9% growth in price for February is quite high for USA. If the extrapolated growth continues at 3.9% for every month, this would mean the growth is 46.8% a year. I think this is just a rare freak month, because it is highest monthly increase in 37 years. The estimation of the future cannot be too high.

The inflation rate for USA is about 2%.

[$5 submissions]

Never underestimate the power of TECHNOLOGY to help humanity. Case in point, in the 1700s Thomas Malthus predicted that food production would be outpaced by humans' rabbit-like ability to breed. He was WRONG. The green revolution in the 20th century exploded the Earth's carrying capacity. Also, new work with ALGAE and fast growing food sources might result in another huge boost to food production. See Red Algae for example http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-red-algae.htm

[DWB]

The next 10 years will be interesting. Food prices are raising in most countries around the world. My fear is that even with technology being used to speed up production or lower prices, that it's going to be some time before it is put into practical use.

Learn how to grow your own and do so.

[k0nr4d]

sugar apparently more then doubled in price in poland this month. Albiet i have no idea how much sugar cost before or how much it costs now so I'm largely uneffected. I never really look at the price of food...

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by DirtyWhiteBoy

The next 10 years will be interesting. Food prices are raising in most countries around the world. My fear is that even with technology being used to speed up production or lower prices, that it's going to be some time before it is put into practical use.

Learn how to grow your own and do so.

Not everyone has the space to grow their own

[Barry-xlovecam]

Petrochemical costs related to food; fertilizer, farm fuel, cold storage, transportation and other oil related costs are one factor in the food cost rise.

Speculation run amok in the commodities markets is a greater factor.

Inflation and rising costs for life's necessities is just a hidden "tax" and it hits the poor and the working classes the worst. These people may not be the majority of your customers but they are a significant minority.

Faced with the dilemma of buying food or porn ? what choice do you think they will make?

[DamianJ]

Why not stop subsidising farmers to grow corn that you force feed cows and turn into syrup that is put in EVERYTHING YOU MAKE and get them to grow some fucking food?

[CaptainHowdy]

Learn to fast ...

[iSpyCams]

Soylent Green is people!

[wehateporn]

A food crisis has been planned since many years ago, it's coming soon!

There are documents online from think tanks saying how useful a food crisis will be to bring about the political changes that they are looking for

[NikKay]

Maybe people will stop eating so much then?

[BlackCrayon]

people need to start their own home gardens. i can't wait until get a a place with a decent enough yard to grow a shitload of veggies.

[sperbonzo]

Originally Posted by EonBlue

Maybe if they stopped using land to grow crops for fuel it wouldn't be such a problem.

Exactly.

People don't realize that subsidized ethanol production is making a HUGE impact on food prices and it will only get worse.

.

[Si]

I started growing some vegetables last year. was extremely easy! more people should do it.

You know where it came from and it's always fresh. Love it! started a load of spring onions and lettuce yesterday for this year. the rest of the stuff i'm going to grow isn't ready to go out until last spring frost though.

If you go to home depot or wherever and they have the tomato plants out, i suggest buying them aswell. I gave one a try and saved a shit load on buying tomatos, definately made the money back on the plant and then some.

[adamz]

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Never underestimate the power of TECHNOLOGY to help humanity. Case in point, in the 1700s Thomas Malthus predicted that food production would be outpaced by humans' rabbit-like ability to breed. He was WRONG. The green revolution in the 20th century exploded the Earth's carrying capacity. Also, new work with ALGAE and fast growing food sources might result in another huge boost to food production. See Red Algae for example http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-red-algae.htm

mmmmmm Algae sandwich is just what I was hoping to live on

[EonBlue]

Actually most of the recent price spike can be blamed on cold weather in the southern US and especially Mexico:

http://www.google.com/search?q=cold+...ient=firefox-a

Growing your own food is a great idea and should be done whenever and wherever possible. My mother-in-law lives nearby and she has huge gardens and grows all kinds of stuff. The problem is the past few summers have either been too short, too cool and/or too wet so stuff grew slowly and the yield was low. On top of that animals kept eating everything that did grow.

[wehateporn]

Originally Posted by BlackCrayon

people need to start their own home gardens. i can't wait until get a a place with a decent enough yard to grow a shitload of veggies.

The Food Modernisation Bill will make that illegal

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by wehateporn

The Food Modernisation Bill will make that illegal

weed being illegal doesn't stop people. i don't see why that would but its moronic. either way, i don't live in the states.

[Probono]

The sky is falling, on my tomatoes.

[dyna mo]

easiest answer- eat less food.

u.s. produces ~4000 calories of food per person every day. then we're bombarded with commercials to eat it all. that's 2x more needed for an ave size male.

not to mention waay too much for women and children.

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by dyna mo

easiest answer- eat less food.

u.s. produces ~4000 calories of food per person every day. then we're bombarded with commercials to eat it all. that's 2x more needed for an ave size male.

not to mention waay too much for women and children.

its not just that but they sell food in such large portions that it feels like a waste if you don't eat it all. they need to scale down portion sizes.

[dyna mo]

Originally Posted by BlackCrayon

its not just that but they sell food in such large portions that it feels like a waste if you don't eat it all. they need to scale down portion sizes.

yup. make smaller portions and eat less, much simpler than figuring out how do we make MORE food to keep everyone fat & bloated.

[atom]

Starting to get nice up here. I already have my garden planned out for what im gonna grow. Tomatos and Peppers were started inside in Feb...

[czarina]

there's been talk lately of a food shortage, may be this is just another way for them to get people into that mindframe

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by fatfoo

3.9% growth in price for February is quite high for USA. If the extrapolated growth continues at 3.9% for every month, this would mean the growth is 46.8% a year. I think this is just a rare freak month, because it is highest monthly increase in 37 years. The estimation of the future cannot be too high.

The inflation rate for USA is about 2%.

The earthquake in Japan created a shipping nightmare...

The unstable Middle East create a markets nightmare...

Expect things to cool off.

[pornguy]

Thats cheap food??? Hahahahhaha..


I can still get a loaf of wonder bread for under 2$ I can get freash bread from our local walmart Superama for under 2 dollars..

How much is it in the US???

has nothing to do with production of wheat etc. has to do with greed.

[wig]

Originally Posted by PurrrsianPussyKat

Maybe if they stopped letting people trade in commodities who will never take delivery, prices could really be based on supply and demand instead of speculation.

I think you need to think more about this...

First, for every buyer there is a seller.

Second, locals, speculators, etc. provide important liquidity to often illiquid markets. They provide a very valuable service to these markets.

Third, even if you took speculators out of the market, there is no reason to believe you would remove volatility that extends beyond what reasonable people will always debate is outside of true value.

[Tom_PM]

You can grow a lot in small spaces even indoor. Try some indeterminate tomatoes. If it never gets frosty cold, they never even die.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Never underestimate the power of TECHNOLOGY to help humanity. Case in point, in the 1700s Thomas Malthus predicted that food production would be outpaced by humans' rabbit-like ability to breed. He was WRONG. The green revolution in the 20th century exploded the Earth's carrying capacity. Also, new work with ALGAE and fast growing food sources might result in another huge boost to food production. See Red Algae for example http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-red-algae.htm

Very true.

The reason why our food is so cheap is because of recent advances in bio-tech in the past forty years. We grow more food, lots more.

Food isn't going to be the problem in the future. It's going to be water.

[HomerSimpson]

good news...
this way they will buy smarter and will throw away less food than they did before...

[EonBlue]

Then there's this - increased beer prices because of barley shortages:

http://www.canada.com/Barley+shortag...681/story.html

Keep an eye on the weather in Canada this summer. If we have another crappy growing season watch for prices to really go up.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...sive-rain.html

[wehateporn]

The engineered food crisis isn't far off, hence why these watch towers are going up in Walmart car parks
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tVQRMrlQ95U

[wig]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Very true.

The reason why our food is so cheap is because of recent advances in bio-tech in the past forty years. We grow more food, lots more.

Food isn't going to be the problem in the future. It's going to be water.

We can make water, it will just be more expensive -- probably at an expense comparable in relation to per capita GDP to the expense our immediate ancestors spent on water projects.

Technology is the key to water as it was for food, and a Malthusian view of water is likely to also be wrong.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by DamianJ

Why not stop subsidising farmers to grow corn that you force feed cows and turn into syrup that is put in EVERYTHING YOU MAKE and get them to grow some fucking food?

Actually, SOME farm subsidies push food prices down. However, it isn't a 'natural' price level...

[Overload]

Originally Posted by DamianJ

Why not stop subsidising farmers to grow corn that you force feed cows and turn into syrup that is put in EVERYTHING YOU MAKE and get them to grow some fucking food?

cheap food is a lie anyways ... veggies are expensive compared to the fast food chum ... suggestion: watch "Food Inc." ;) - and you'll never have a burger again