Food costs/prices rising, what are the causes?

CalamityJane wrote:

It actually has been a gradual process, rosborne. I go shopping every week and have noticed a steady increase in my bill while buying the same items.

Global food prices have been on a steady but slow decline for the last 30 years until 2005. Since 2005 they have more than doubled with the highest peak in the last few months.

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CalamityJane wrote:

There you go, George. I'm sure your wife isn't complaining either of your new found mellow ways.

Well she left for Istanbul yeaterday, saying that with a daughter across the way, and her saintly ministrations to date, I can handle the rest. It's a buying trip & adventure that will take her from Istanbul to Bucharest. The woman is crazy for that stuff, and thinks that all trips are good. I'll retaliate & make her feel guilty when she calls tonight. But you are right - the mellowing makes them melt.

I think the cheap dollar helps the country right now (though it adds to Elise's travelling costs.). Our trade balance is fast improving, and if we are wise enough to pursue an energy policy that provides for both environmental improvements and quick economic returns, we will have a good opportunity to reverse some adverse trade patters that have hurt us over the past two decades.

It is also time for us to eliminate the foolish agricultural subsidies that so harm the productivity of our food production. We have significant untapped agricultural capacity, but it is the government subsidies, expressly designed to limit production while maintaining high incomes for producers, that have caused corn prices to rise merely because of a relatively small displacement of the crop to ethanol production. World-wide demand for grains and other basic agricultural commodities is increasing fast, and these idiotic subsidies, which keep prices high and discourage investment & increased acreage in production, will limit our capture of a growing share of this market.

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You think you have it lame-ass?

Check out all the marketing boards that set strict limits on production, regulation on pricing and removal of competition here in British Columbia.

In addition to the subsidies and tax breaks for said producers, in addition to the protectionism it provided by the umbrella of the marketing boards.

BC Egg Marketing Board
http://www.bcegg.com/

BC Milk Marketing Board
http://www.milk-bc.com/

BC Poultry Marketing Board
http://www.bcchicken.ca/

Quote:

The Natural Products Marketing (BC) Act provides for the creation of marketing boards and commissions to administer schemes for the promotion, control and regulation in the province of the production, transportation, packing, storage and marketing of natural products, or the prohibition of the same. At present, eight marketing boards administer schemes. They are:

Supply managed:

BC Broiler Hatching Egg Commission
BC Chicken Marketing Board
BC Egg Marketing Board
BC Milk Marketing Board
BC Turkey Marketing Board

Regulated industries:

BC Cranberry Marketing Commission
BC Hog Marketing Commission
BC Vegetable Marketing Commission

The operations of the boards and commissions are funded entirely by producers through license fees or levies. The boards are composed primarily of elected producers and Chairs appointed by the Lieutenant Governor-In-Council.

Powers of Marketing Boards and Commissions

The powers vested in the marketing boards and commissions vary with the purpose of the marketing scheme. All marketing boards and commissions are granted authority to make orders, rules and regulations deemed necessary to carry out the purposes of the schemes and generally they have the authority to seize any product produced and/or marketed in violation of the orders. As well, the majority of the marketing boards and commissions may collect full information from producers regarding production and marketing and, with the approval of the British Columbia Farm Industry Review Board, may designate marketing agencies.

Supply managed marketing boards and commissions have the authority to permit or prohibit the production of their commodities within British Columbia. Supply management was established to assure consumers of a stable supply of quality food products while ensuring that producers received their costs of production plus a reasonable return on investment. Under Federal-Provincial Agreements, a national agency estimates the annual demand for a product and allocates the demand among participating provinces based on historical provincial allocations. National agencies control inter-provincial and export trade and in some commodities may operate surplus removal programs.

The provincial supply managed marketing boards and commissions have been vested with the authority to regulate production through establishment of a quota system. In addition, the marketing boards and commissions have been vested with the authority to set prices for intraprovincial sales, to license producers and processors and to fix levies.

In the other regulated industries, marketing boards and commissions may be granted authority to establish marketing quotas, establish prices, collect levies and license producers. Only the Vegetable Marketing Commission has been granted all of these powers.

http://www.firb.gov.bc.ca/boards_comm.htm

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If you Google "Set Aside" and read the Wikipedia entry you will see that markets are not in play.

There's an oversupply as there would be if all the ladies became prostitutes. Bearing in mind the scientifically measured spike in the ratings for programmes about prostitution that might be a neat comparison. The subject does seem to fascinate respectable ladies from what I have witnessed which is odd considering what a simple and sordid subject it is.

Perhaps George is mellowing as he reaches that age of wisdom where one finds that one hasn't known what one was talking about for the last so many years. The drugs and therapy might have nothing to do with it. It might be relaxation. They might be taking advantage of a natural event and claiming the credit for it. Generally, I think, that the more training, skill and dedication involved in one's occupation the longer it takes to get there. That would prove that meditation really is the road to wisdom despite it being the road to nowhere else and why the poet is a dreamer. And his dreams cannot be subjected to the sort of vulgarities Darwin subjected the life force to despite all the applause of the crass materialists.

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Apparently the devaluation of the dollar results in a rise in oil costs because oil is priced in dollars. Yesterday the president blamed oil prices on supply and demand (and refining) issues, but various energy departments in his own administration don't agree with that.

So a substantial portion of the rise in oil prices can be attributed to the Fed's rate reductions recently. Those rate reductions are a direct result of the sub-prime mortgage problem.

And since there's a direct link between fuel costs and food costs there is a strong link between the sub-prime bailout and food costs.

I'm still not clear on the relative contribution of the various factors in all this yet. I've been looking online for recent articles which might discuss it in those terms, but haven't found anything yet.

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It's hubris ros. The fixed belief, indoctrinated by media, that life has more to give than it can possibly offer. The Faustian proposition.

The rest is just manipulation.

You have been indoctrinated and manipulated so cleverly that you are not even aware of it. Which is the precise objective.

Hence the power of the "call of the wild".

Food costs/prices rising, what are the causes?

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