An era of cheap food may be drawing to a close

[brentspeak]

Source: Reuters

U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end.

U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices -- which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and hit their highest levels since mid-2008 -- will dip by at most 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to the poll of 16 analysts.

The forecasts suggest no quick relief for nations bedeviled by record high food costs that have stoked civil unrest. It means any extreme weather event in a grains-producing part of the world could send prices soaring further.

The expectations may also strengthen importers' resolve to build bigger inventories after a year in which stocks of corn and soybeans in the United States -- the world's top exporter -- dwindled to their lowest level in decades.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41311106/ns/business-retail/

---

The article skirts around the role speculators have played in the run-up of food prices.

[Lint Head]

1. If people could only grow there own.

[femmocrat]

2. Good idea. Please read:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x13866

It's not that hard to get started. Even an apartment dweller can grow some veggies in containers.

[justiceischeap]

8. I live in a 'condo community' but they're all townhouses with yards

and we're not allowed to grow our own food because of wild critters (that food would attract them). I considered using pots to grow some food stuffs but our deck in the back gets about a half hour of sun and putting a pot of something out front would get noticed. Being a vegetarian, it would help cut my food costs significantly.

[southernyankeebelle]

24. You know you can grow your own tomatoes in a pot and hang them upside down. You

can google on how to freeze food and grow veggies. I am 63 yrs and not in the best of health. I have 12 acreas of land and I wish I could get people to come out here and help me garden. I can't do to much because of my heart. My husband also has medical problems. When we first moved here I can't tell you the food that was wasted because no one wanted it. Hugh pototoes, tomatoes and even peanuts.

[justiceischeap]

30. You may want to put an ad in your local paper and rent out some space

I'd rent out a plot in a community garden but there's a waiting list 10 miles long.

[shanti]

70. i tried those tomato thingies, twice

didn't work :(

[molly77]

37. Have you got a friend or neighbor with a little land?

My mother did that for several years.

[trud]

47. "confo community"

Agh, squirrels! Birds! Raccoons! What kind of "wild critters" are they expecting to show up?

Maybe run for the condo board.

[melm00se]

92. you forgot rats

[No Elephants]

22. Unrealistic in many city apartments, but a very good idea where possible

[Courtesy Flush]

110. 30X50' is not realistic.

Unless you can devote a lot of time to it, that's much too big. A tiny garden can produce an amazing amount of food. Start small and only enlarge the garden if it no longer meets your needs.

Protip: You get a lot of bang for the buck by growing greens. If you get a plant, you have food. Tomato plants can be lush and healthy and not produce a single tomato, but greens are food! Root crops, like turnips are even better, because you get two foods from one plant, and you eat the entire plant.

But be warned: You'll get weary of eating greens after a while, so you still need variety.

Some foods are glorified weeds. These are low maintenance plants that seem to thrive on neglect. Okra fits this description, as do blackberries. Yum.

When we went to Italy a few years ago I was amazed that people grew food on any scrap of dirt they could find. Highway medians, and city green spaces were brimming with crops. If you have a little space, you can grow something.

I am less enthusiastic about it lately, but I'll still put a little something in the garden when it warms up a bit.

[ehrnst]

112. The book "Square Foot Gardening" is a great resource. (nt)

[Courtesy Flush]

113. The TV show got me into gardening

I got away from it for over 20 years, but now I have a little garden in the back yard. We were preoccupied with other things last year, but this spring we'll be planting again.

[Courtesy Flush]

111. I saw this on Anthony Bourdain's program

He was in Egypt, and ate a stuffed pigeon. He explained that pigeons are considered food in much of the world. I know they are a nuisance in some cities, but no one is taking advantage of the opportunity.

(Apologies to any vegans here. Some people eat animals. It's a reality of life. Can't get more "free range" than pigeons.)

[Horse with no Name]

3. Would love to know how much our government is paying farmers not to grow these grains

so that the speculators can make money.

[DissedByBush]

15. Or how much farmland they're diverting to ethanol n/t

[melm00se]

93. while the article skips over

subsidies, the purpose of the subsidies is in there.

"Everything is set to the point where supply equals demand right now..."

when you produce more, yes the price goes down but it also can go down to the point where it cost more to grow than it can be sold for.

that happened during the depression and farmers were destroying their crops because of it.

and don't forget: just because this year there is higher demand due to lower supplies doesn't mean that it will be there next year.

[No Elephants]

4. Ask people on Social Security or welfare if they think food is cheap now.

Soon, the cat food era will be known to them as 'the good old days."

[sam sarrha]

6. SOME THINGS ARE GOING UP 30% PR WEEK..

[glinda]

49. True! I noticed as of last six months things really climbing. Every

two weeks when I went to the store the prices climbed on certain things.

[jkappy]

14. And no COLA now for two years for SS recipients???

I know gas is not included (go figure that) but is food not covered too? Stupendously wrong.

[amandabeech]

66. No, food is not covered. It is considered to be too volatile.

See Krugman's column today in the Times.

[Odin2005]

115. I'm on SSI, I'm really hurting!

:(

[RKP5637]

16. Yeah, all we see here is the cost of food going up and up. n/t

[Carni]

79. Food right now is NOT CHEAP

And I am not on SS...if there is cheap food to be had I would like to know who's selling it!

[sam sarrha]

5. the Rich are speculating on food with hedge funds.. WE ARE DOOMED.!!!

[No Elephants]

13. Yep. They've been buying up land here and abroad as well. Esp Africa.

Now, they're probaby the ones putting out stories about how the era of (relatively affordable food is almost over.

[SpiralHawk]

7. It's over.

Totally over.

Republicon-minded speculators have driven the market thru the roof to fatten the already fat republicon 'elites' while screwing everyone else...

[Andy823]

9. Yes,

And while price soar, and people starve, we give "welfare" to big corporation in the way of subsidies for them to NOT grow wheat in order to keep prices high! It makes no sense. I know wheat farmers who make more now NOT growing wheat than they did when they used to grow it! These same farmers used to sit around drinking coffee at local cafes and complain about the lazy "welfare" people in the county who got food stamps and money from the government! Not sure what the average family on welfare gets each year as far as money and food stamps but but I do know some farmers that were raking in close to a quarter of a million each year!

We need to get rid of subsidies for NOT growing food, and make the farmers, and corporations, actually grow the food. The government would be doing more good to buy up any excess to feed those around the world who are starving then to give it to rich corporations!

[molly77]

38. Subsidies need to go. You are so right!

[glinda]

50. And Monsanto.

[pipoman]

56. Subsidies translates into

payment for government control of private enterprise. Subsidies pay farmers to grow specific products in specific amounts. Without subsidies, farmers, as other business owners can and will grow what they want in what ever quantities they want, just as you would do in their position. The government tells farmers to grow x number of acres of x product...in return we will insure that the price for your product will be $x. This system makes overall farm production predictable. Without such a system, farm product consumers are at the mercy of quasi farm cartels. If, for instance, corn prices dropped due to a glut this year, next year the corn growers association would strongly urge corn growers to reduce production next year, driving the price up, resulting in the same or greater profits for producers with less work and less up front expense in seed, fertilizer, fuel, and equipment costs...it would be a no brainer from a producer standpoint. People not near the farm industry often are clueless about the costs and risks associated with farming. It is a very expensive business wrought with potential pitfalls.

[cigsandcoffee]

10. Cheap food WILL end? Have these people gone shopping lately? n/t

[Quantess]

25. No kidding!

Food is pretty darn expensive here in the US. A lot of places in Europe pay proportionately less for their groceries than we do, I know that. Of course, we do have cheaper meat than most places, but that is because of factory farming.

Fast food in the US is pretty cheap, though. But that's not exactly much to be proud of.

[AsahinaKimi]

41. I can still get food cheap at the

Farmers market and Chinatown, but you are right, Supermarkets are beyond Ridiculous!!

[Alameda]

62. Cheap food at farmers markets???? Not here, it's very $$$ here.

I've watched the price of things like quinoa and sunflower seeds more than double lately.

[Quantess]

72. He is absolutely correct about produce markets in San Francisco, though.

I really miss the dirt-cheap fruit and vegetable markets in the Mission and Chinatown. I always ate very healthy when I lived in SF.

[pitohui]

87. yah anyone who claims cheap food at farmer's market doesn't shop or is astroturf

we really do need to call bullshit on the bullshitters

farmer's market is for rich suburbanites, it is priced several times above the price for the same number of calories at any grocery store, sheesh

you would have to be someone who never did any shopping not to notice this

[glinda]

51. Perkins raised their prices $2 per meal. And also cut back on portions.

[apnu]

53. That's probably a good thing.

Portion sizes in the US is way out of wack.

[shanti]

71. right

good, healthy food is expensive. fast food, unhealthy food, is cheap. pay now or pay later :(

[No Elephants]

91. They mean, "Food is not inexpensive now, BUT you ain't seen nuthin' yet."

[notesdev]

11. Thank you Ben Bernanke

Global food inflation, no problem. Keep on printin'!

[eleny]

12. I shopped today. A loaf of bread that used to be $1.99 was over $3.

It's a major brand's 100% whole wheat bread. :(

[No Elephants]

20. In Boston, major brands, like Pepperide Farm, have been selling for about $3.79 for a good while.

[eleny]

31. Same here but this particular whole wheat was a good deal. Not anymore.

[avaistheone1]

108. Sweet. Timed for the age of American declining wages.

Hell 1 in 6 of us is already on food stamps.


:wtf:

[CoffeeCat]

54. dup

delete

[CoffeeCat]

55. I noticed this about bread prices...

I couldn't believe how much bread has gone up. As you said, the 100 percent whole wheat bread has
been skyrocketing in price. Most of those breads were more than $3.00. If you wanted to buy white--it
was around $1.99, but I avoid that. Some of these 100 percent whole wheat breads were around $4-$5.

CRAZY!

[eleny]

57. The one I got yesterday was the Orowheat Dutch Country smooth whole wheat

Oro's are usually pricey but this one has been $1.99 for some time.

We have an Orowheat day old store not far from here. So it might be time to get back up there and buy it there. For every $5 you get a freebie. I hate to keep so much bread around but I could make room to freeze it.

We make some of our own breads, too. But making a bread that doesn't fall apart for a sandwich isn't my forte. :-/

[Viva_La_Revolution]

59. Do you add gluten to your whole wheat?

It helps it 'stick together'. Of course, this is a problem if you are trying to avoid gluten,

This is the recipe my boys insist I make most often, they say it makes killer sandwiches. The original recipe was in a bread machine cookbook, but I've tweaked it to add more protein, omegas and fiber, and no refined sugar.

1 1/2 c. warm water
1 1/4 t. salt
4 fat T. honey
4 t. flax oil (or olive oil)
4 c. whole wheat flour (Bob's Red Mill is my favorite)
2 T. gluten powder
3 heaping T. bran flakes
2 t. fast yeast

This makes a 2lb loaf.

[Gormy Cuss]

61. Absolutely right on adding gluten flour.

It's the easiest way to make a whole grain bread have a lighter texture. Adding a small amount of powdered milk (1-2 TBS for a standard loaf) helps with the texture and keeping qualities.

[eleny]

64. Thanks! I like Red Mill flour, too. That and King Arthur brand

I can have the gluten but never added it. I picked some up recently and was going to use it in my next whole wheat bread. I think that'll be sooner than later.

[LawnKorn]

17. Standby, global warming will result in a reduction in arable land

Compounding the problem will be peak oil. The least expensive agricultural fertilizer is made from petroleum. Most mechanized agricultural equipment is powered by diesel fuel.

Put it all together, less land, greater expense to grow, and greater expense to harvest and we are in for remarkable decrease in our standard of living.

[NickB79]

68. +100

Global climate change has already played a huge role in the current run-up on food prices, despite how much people try to claim it is entirely speculators.

Russia: Record-breaking heat destroyed much of their wheat crop in 2010.
US: Above-normal heat reduced corn yields in 2010.
Argentina: Drought destroyed a large amount of their corn and soybean crop in 2010.
Australia: Record flooding damaged crop harvests in late 2010/early 2011.
Pakistan: Record flooding damaged crop harvests in 2010.

And we haven't come anywhere near seeing the worst of what global warming has to offer. It's gonna get quite rough in the next few years.

[onehandle]

18. Crime is going to skyrocket. Good thing guns are cheap and easy to get...

Good thing for criminals.

[FailureToCommunicate]

29. No thanks...couldn't develop a taste for the 'Donner diet'...

Besides, if you happened to bite a bullet, you could break a tooth!
OMG

[xchrom]

19. So we eat more subsidized food like mcdonalds? Nt

[Robb]

21. Not going to help.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/24/business/la-fi-0125-mcdonalds-20110124">McDonalds likely to raise prices (LA Times, 1/24)

[xchrom]

46. So you think subsidized food in all it's forms won't be cheaper?

It has been for years / and isn't going to change.
McDonald's can raise their proves - still won't be in line
With what it really costs -- so is much cheaper than everything else.

[tpsbmam]

23. Part of the perfect storm brewing leading to worldwide revolutions. K&R nt

[Dickster]

26. I'm a farmer

I've been farming since 1974, and I have lived through many years of horribly low prices, consuming my capital and acquiring debt to stay afloat. I agree that the years of cheap food may be over, who knows, we have propensity in this country to overproduce, so I'm not holding my breath that prices won't go down at sometime in the future. I don't feel sorry for any of you, you have been living with "cheap food" for far to long, so much to the point that most of the farmers in this country have gone broke. Now huge agribusiness controls this whole thing, and can manipulate it to their advantage. You should have been listening back in the 80's when farmers were going broke by the thousands, too late to do anything now. Thankfully, prices are good now, and I can retire some of that debt that I acquired over the years providing you all with cheap food. The fact that food prices are high for those who can least afford them has more to do with the exodus of farmers worldwide to the cities than anything, If those millions of farmers worldwide were still on their farms, they would benefit from the high prices. Instead, they now must buy the high priced food with meager wages paid by the corporations. Sorry bout the rant, it just struck me the wrong way, the pissing and moaning going on about this...

[Sienna86]

27. Thanks for your insight Dickster

I would love to see a resurgence in family farming - and ranching.

[pitohui]

33. "family" farming...a few deci millionaires...and billionaires

excuse me if i don't feel sorry for the poor farmer who only has net assets of tens of millions of dollars when i have zero net assets!

farms should be nationalized, there are no FAMILY farms unless by family you mean corporations worth hundreds of millions of dollars

i play poker w. farmers, they all have a min. of 5 million dollars

fuck em, they fuck us, and i'm tired of giving all my money to rich people/corporations

[trud]

48. pitohui

Quite wrong. There are only family farms in my state, no agribusiness, and they certainly aren't rolling in hundreds of millions of dollars apiece.

[pitohui]

85. yah my family came from farm as well which is why i can detect the distinct scent of astroturf

i am not young and my grandparents could not make money growing food, they made money growing tobacco

there are no "real" people who make money growing food, check the price per acre over the last 60 years (six decades) and ask yourself how a real family could survive not eating for three generations

they couldn't

farmland is owned by the rich and all farmers i know today, in 2011, are RICH, i don't know any poor farmers because every poor farmer either died or got stolen by a bank or had to sell out

so don't cry me a river, 'kay, thanks? tell the lie to somebody who is about 13 yrs old and who doesn't know that food comes from living things...they might believe it...anyone who has been there knows that "small" farms haven't been there for years

you sell drugs and if you;re not willing to sell drugs/tobacco you have been taken over a long time ago

lie to somebody who hasn't been there, and hasn't had farm in the family, lie to the city people, they believe this crap apparently

[NickB79]

67. As the son of a small family farmer

Who grew up with other kids from small family farms, that has got to be one of the most ignorant things I've read on DU in a long time.

Congrats!

[pitohui]

86. if your post is true you're abt 90 years old

but thanks for playing

[NickB79]

106. Hahaha, again you show your ignorance. I'm 31

My dad is 53. He owns a 120-acre farm in central Minnesota, and is far from a millionaire. His net worth, including savings, is around $500,000, but $450,000 of that is locked up in the actual farm, the machinery, the livestock, etc.

But thanks for playing.

[ieoeja]

101. No shit.

I grew up on a working farm in the 60s and 70s. My dad continued raising cattle and growing crops himself until he "retired" in the 90s and started leasing the cropland to anonther local farmer. The farm has since been split among the three heirs. We still lease cropland to that local farmer.

The family never did stop raising cattle. After my dad stopped, my brother took over. I pickup a quarter beef in a couple weeks as payment for the use of my land (grazing and hay).

The farm to our immediate south is still run, hands-on by the same family that had it decades before I was born. And there are still quite a few such farms scattered around.

Of course, neither my brother, nor most of our neighbors, work exclusively on the farm. All but one of them has a job off the farm. But there is no reason you can not work a full time job and still put out a couple hundred acres in crop and run a hundred head of cattle. My dad (with our help) did that when I was a kid. And the technology has gotten a LOT better since then.

While I am old enough to remember the retired plow horses on our farm, I did notice that technology had changed just a bit in the past 50 years. What it tooks us weeks to plant or harvest when I was a kid, takes two days to do today. Somebody on this thread seems to think running a 500 acre farm is still a sunrise-to-sunset job. It is not.

[Silent3]

73. "farms should be nationalized"

I think they call that "collectivization". It doesn't have a happy history.

[pitohui]

89. yeah well starvation don't have a happy history either

we have already been collectivized, if you mean by that there is no more middle class farming...farmers are millionaires and i'm tired of kissing the rosy pink rear of millionaires, i realize that's too radical of an idea for the average person

folks who think it's cool to yell at obama for being too centrist want to give all their money to billionaires and millionaires, sorry, i just don't see the logic here

self hate is self hate, if you want to throw your money away anyway, why can't we ALL eat and why can't we ALL get national health care?

[Silent3]

94. Your rhetorical answers don't necessarily solve your rhetorical questions

Sounds more like a lot of angry ranting than a coherent plan, basically "I'm sick and tired of kissing rich people's asses, so let's do something that fucks over the rich bastards and hope that maybe it feeds more people too".

[humus]

99. Nature is party to all our deals

China is a very successful example of collective farming,the basic design of 8 individually owned farms surrounding 1 collective farm worked by all 8 farms equally is thousands of years old, it is the solid core of the dragon.

"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our
deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner
sense of justice than we do." - Wendell Berry

"...our country is not being destroyed by
bad politics, it is being destroyed by a bad way
of life. Bad politics is merely another result."
-- Wendell Berry (http://www.brtom.org/wb/berry.html)

[Silent3]

100. The "thousands of years old" practice you're talking about...

...may be communal, but it's not what could be called either "collectivization" or "nationalization".

Given the long-standing poverty in rural China, it's also hard to argue that their system has provided more than bare subsistence over most of that history.

[humus]

102. great wealth in rural china.. read about rhe silk regionx

http://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Forty-Centuries-Organic-Farming/dp/0486436098/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

[Silent3]

104. I'm not sure what you're trying to prove

"Wealth" is a relative term, and by modern standards few Chinese peasant farmers over the past several centuries did not live materially wealthy lives, even if perhaps they did well by world standards that are also centuries old. In modern day terms, rural Chinese farmers are among China's poorest people.

I think this graph someone else posted is very instructive:



With food inflation over the past couple of years since 2008, let's say that we Americans are now back up to around 12% of disposable income going toward food. If people pay 25% of their income in taxes, that would make food costs about 9% of gross income.

Even if you have to work 10 hour days to make an average living, that means in less than one hour of labor per day you will have done all the work needed to provide the food you eat, not just for yourself, but with something left over for other family members.

Chinese rural farmers would have starved to death if they only worked one hour per day to produce the food they eat. We may have issues of sustainability with our current methods of agriculture, but that's an entirely different matter than the relative cost of food (historically very low right now, even if it's not at the lowest point ever), and it's an entirely different issue from the wisdom of nationalizing farms, which isn't the same as the communal farming you're point out anyway.

[Odin2005]

116. Bullshit, plenty of family farms here in Minnesota!

I grew up all around them, I'm 24.

[bhikkhu]

34. Here is an interesting graphic:

...and keep in mind that, steadily and relentlessly as that slope proceeded downward, small and medium-sized farms were swallowed up by debt and the huge industrial farms.

We have about the same number of farmers now as we had shortly after the revolutionary war, and if big business now decides its time for some profit, there's no real arguing. It will, in any case, help the few independents who are left, and inspire people to grow their own, both very good things.

[molly77]

39. A lot of people would love to farm, but our laws are against US grown food.

Remember all the losing the family farm movies? Well, that era was a democrat by the name of Jimmy Carter. His administration urged farmers to buy new equipment at low interest rates. (very similar to the housing bubble) Then there was a shortage of gas. City dwellers had to wait in long lines. Farmers were not allowed to buy gas to harvest their crops. And interest rates went up. Kind of looked like a planned event , since Big Agriculture got to buy a lot of family farms and equipment for pennies on the dollar.

That is the real reason the south went republican. Screwed by democrats.Jimmy Carter's friends were big agriculture. He wasn't a small time peanut grower.

[Aristus]

40. I suppose I'm disposed to forgive the rant, but it sounded like you were blaming US

for cheap food, and the reasons it got that way.

Mid-West farmers could have supported candidates for public office who advocated for family farms and opposed corporate agribusiness. But instead, the farmers (most of them) supported the "family values" candidates, who ended up selling the family farmers out to the corporations.

Farmers in Kansas, Nebraska, and elsewhere allowed their opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and teaching science in public schools to blind them to what right-wing pro-business politicians were really up to, and now, sadly, they're paying the price. And now, so too is the consumer.

Those of us on the left don't deserve the blame for that.

BTW, a sincere and warm welcome to DU. I'm glad you're getting good prices at last. Farmers have had it tough since, well, since forever...

[pipoman]

58. Problem is, as the previous post points out,

even Dem politicians were bought and paid for by corporate america. If the Dem pols would have actually been on the side of family farmers, farmers would have supported them. Instead Dem politicians were obviously as deep in the pocket of corps as the thugs, therefore the battlefields for political support reverted away from economics to ideology. A prime example, in blue collar conversion to rethug camps came with the overwhelming support of "the labor party", Dems, of international "free trade agreements" which anyone with half a brain knew would sell our jobs to 3rd world countries with no regulation on the promise that "the American worker can compete with any workers in the world" nonsense. Dems are hugely supported by ADM, Cargil, Tyson, and every other huge muli-national food baron corps.

[glinda]

52. Farmers here almost all grow corn. Not much diversity. A lot of GM corn.

[primavera]

114. Well said

As a percentage of income, the US pays vastly less to feed itself than any other developed country. On average, we spend about 7% of our income on food. The next cheapest country for food is France, which spends on average 14% of their income on food. Low food prices drive a host of other problems, including our addiction on undocumented labor. It's tough to produce food at such low prices if you have to pay workers $20/hr and offer benefits and retirement and such, so our agrobusinesses actively recruit undocumented labor in order to keep costs down.

The problem is, as long as we persist in our reverse Robin Hood economic policies that rob from the poor to give to the rich, the middle class shrinks and the ranks of those living below the poverty level swell. Sadly, by creating this massive and steadily-growing income inequality gap, we've got an ever-growing sector of the population who can't afford even our comparatively cheap food prices, much less pay the true value of food.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

118. Dickster, I am a farmer as well.

It's so nice to have a fellow liberal farmer here on DU... :)

We raise alfalfa, cattle and wheat. My husbands family have been on this place since the late 1880's. We know hard times. During the 1980's, when Reagan was President, my husbands family went tits up, but my husband and I bought the place back from the FHA. It's been hard work keeping the family legacy alive.

Don't be hard on the folks on DU just because we have been getting poor returns for all our hard work and investment. The price of equipment, fuel, baling twine, fertilizer, power for irrigation etc, has gone through the roof. How many pennies does the wheat farmer get from the sale of a loaf of supermarket bread? Not much. (maybe tuppence) The greedy corporations are getting very rich by overcharging for what we need to grow the food in the first place. They are the ones I'm pissed off at.

People have to eat, right? We can't expect the city folk to say, "Hey, we need to pay more for food". Not much of that money ends up in the farmers pockets. :(

[greiner3]

28. Meanwhile;

Farmers are planting more and more corn which will be used to partially fuel cars with ethanol that gives less mileage, gets a government subsidy and takes away land that could grow food that we could eat.
Add in the problems with seafood depletion in the Gulf, higher fertilizer prices (comes from, you guessed it, oil) and the 'perfect storm' is coming.

'Perfect' foods are on the horizon. Rice that can be grown in arid climes is said to be a real possibility. There are certain crops from Africa and the Far East that show promise to greatly increase yields were they to be grown on existing land. But this will take time to get the right seeds from the right plants. Meanwhile, the current 'perfect food,' the banana could be extinct soon. I don't mean every banana species, but the one Western people are used to. Decades ago the fruit we call the banana was evolved to be sterile. That's right, just like the potato, all banana trees have to be started from cuttings as there are no seeds produced. This banana species has a fungus or some parasite that is attacking the plants worldwide. It kills every plant that is on the plantation, sparing none. There is no cure and there is no way to stop the spread. This is just one example of the problems modern humans have to deal with in feeding themselves. Then there's Monsanto, but don't get me started on them...

[pitohui]

32. in louisiana the era of cheap food ended w. katrina

i will never again eat 3 meals a day

[Stumbler]

35. Do a web search for 'window farm'

It's not gonna work for everyone, but for those who're innovative and willing to try, I see great potential in this project. Decentralized food production, even if you live in a small apartment.

[pitohui]

36. intelligent people already know this is useless, vegetable/herbs grown in windows have no calories

food is first and foremost about providing energy to burn and to live

herbs and lettuce and that sort of thing you grow in the window have around 25 calories a day, less nutrition than you'd get by chowing down on toilet paper

i like growing herbs/lettuce/veggies in the window but it's a hobby that has no impact on the food budget

[Lucinda]

44. Kale is very nutritious and can be grown in window gardens

there are also other foods that can be raised this way - for small households the process can be helpful

[pitohui]

88. lucinda, i have grown kale, it has no freaking calories!

i weigh less than i did in high school and i wasn't a chubby kid!

[pengillian101]

43. Indeed! A "Window farm" craze is sweeping New York City.

"Window Farmers" Growing Food in Tiny Apartments Year-Round

http://www.onearth.org/blog/window-farmers-growing-food-in-tiny-apartments-year-round

Funny, I just posted about the very same thing yesterday in the Cooking and Baking DU Group with a different link.

http://www.windowfarms.org

[russspeakeasy]

42. When you remove food from the food chain, something has to give.

[Dickster]

45. Sorry if I sounded like I was blaming all of you...

I just went off.... if there is one thing that gets me it's the ignorance about farming and economics in general.... nobodies fault, just the way it is.....thank you bhikkhu for that graffic, that says a lot about what has happened over the past several decades. I don't disagree with you bhikkhu, I am surrounded by fat cat farmers too, i am not one of them, although I may have assets in the million dollar range, I have debt close to that, so my net worth is not all that great. If you want some better insight to where we've been and where we're going, go to this website http://www.normeconomics.org/ for more info. Forgive me if i sounded callous about those who struggle to buy food.

[pipoman]

63. It is easy to

refuse to understand the issues associated with farming. Family farming in particular. My family and my wife's family all have been or are family farmers. It has taken my FIL 80 years to slowly acquire enough ground and equipment to run his farm. On an asset to expense/risk ratio, and on the investment/return ratio it fails when compared to most other businesses. It is truly a labor of love for most family farmers.

A combine, necessary to harvest crops, costs $150,000 plus and is only used 3 or 4 weeks per year. The alternative being hiring harvest done and risking weather and unreliability of custom cutters which could cost the farmer his/her entire crop. This being only the very tip of the expense ice burg, all which must be paid up front before one dime is realized. It is no wonder that the family farmer has been made an endangered species.

Then to hear the bitching about the cost of food, it is no better than bitching about the death of main street while shopping at Wal-Mart. Your food can be produced cheaper. It will be done by multi-nationals who will run harvest crews, paying them minimally, to run the same combine mentioned above for 6 months solid during the year traveling from one corp owned farm to the next. Corps can produce their own seed, buy fertilizer and fuel at huge bulk discounts, and not give a shit about the process used as long as it produces the highest yields possible with the least expense. Sure, they will cut the cost of your food until the family farmer is run out of business, then get ready for the bend over.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

119. I have to add something

Where we live you have to have thousands of acres to make a good living. It's either dry land wheat, irrigated wheat or hundreds of acres of sagebrush for a few cows. In some parts of the US you can get by with a few hundred acres. We were so surprised when we visited Indiana and saw all these little farms close together..it seemed like everyone had hogs and or corn.

We are surrounded by huge wheat farms and cattle ranches and some of those families are very wealthy. Our neighbour and sons have over 35,000 acres and raise cattle...lots of cattle.

The big farms can afford a new piece of $250,000 machinery because they have so many acres to cover. The rest of us are very good at fixing equipment, lol.

What I'm trying to say is everyone is pretty much right here. There are some family farmers that are very wealthy and there are some that are just getting by. It depends on so many things including where in the US the farms are located. Our assets, land/irrigation, are now worth about two million dollars, but we will never sell our farm/ranch because it's where our roots are.

One more thing; we know some farmers around here who are very well off and get huge Subsidies. There's a data base here; http://farm.ewg.org/

I had a quick look and saw that a farmer we know got $240,000 in 2009. Every year, at least once, they take the whole family to Europe. They have homes in the city and their children have been sent off to the best colleges. We have had some big political debates with them...they are Republicans and max out with the donations.

[Vinca]

60. I've been under the weather and haven't been to the grocery store

for 2 weeks or so. Today I ventured into town since I was feeling better and bought a few groceries. I was shocked at how much the prices had increased in that short amount of time.

[patricia92243]

65. Have space for a small garden, but worry that people will steal the vegetable when they are ready to

pick. Don't know how me and other would handle this.

[FedUpWithIt All]

75. Plant a couple of extra plants and share the surplus

It is easy to set up a small table near a driveway with the surplus. You can even put up a donation box and use any donations toward the following year's garden.

We grew enough tomatoes with our last garden that we were able to set out a basket with dozens of free tomatoes. Even one extra plant provides a fair amount of surplus and with times like they are, too much cheap food can't be a bad thing. It is not uncommon for gardeners to beg others to take all the extra zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cukes and lettuce. They can quickly add up when you tend a small garden. They are all pretty easy growers or very prolific.

If you decide to grow an extra plant or two and end up with produce you can't give away, compost it for next years garden.

:hi:

[shanti]

69. even the 99 cent store?

say it ain't so! :eyes:

[GliderGuider]

74. Connecting the Dots: Food and Fossil Fuels

Connecting the Dots: Food and Fossil Fuels

The gist of the article is:

• World food prices follow oil prices (93% correlation since 2000).
  
• Oil has been on a production plateau for the last 6 years.
  
• Net oil exports from the producing nations are now in decline.
  
• For every tonne of oil (or equivalent) of fossil fuels, we can produce one tonne of food. this 4:1 ratio has been constant since 1965.

The conclusion is that fossil fuel prices are about to spike again, taking food prices with them. As oil begins its slide down from the production peak, it will take food production with it. The two effects together spell chaos in the world food marketplace. We are close to the edge of the abyss.

[The Farmer]

80. Food Prices

It takes a lot of fuel to produce food. When fuel prices go up I seem to get beat to death, they go up more than my margin of profit and I take the hit.

[flvegan]

76. Maybe if we ate the corn, soybeans and wheat rather than feeding it to animals for meat

at moronic calorie rates of return, we might be better off.

No idea how often I'll have to point that out, but there it is again...

[sam sarrha]

78. the corn used to fill an SUV with alcohol can feed a hungery African for a YEAR.!!

:banghead:

[flvegan]

81. Also a good point.

[The Farmer]

82. I don't disagree, But in the Agriculture world, Beef is it

Don't get me wrong, I love my veggies. I could be a vegetarian. But I love my beef too. And so does most of the rest of the world. It causes heart disease. Weight problems. Digestive system problems. And, God help me, I still love it. If you are going to survive in farming, you're probably either raising, or feeding cows. Sorry I can't be the bearer of better news than that. That's just how it is.

[flvegan]

84. I don't disagree with you, either.

I don't deny that beef is quite tasty and in great demand in most of the world. I'm just offering a solution to the problem posed in the OP.

[FedUpWithIt All]

90. There are livestock options that do not need such specialized diets.

Goats and certain heritage breeds of sheep and cattle, for example, can thrive on rough forage and browse. The issue is that a massive transition toward this type of meat production, especially in the US, is highly unlikely in the very short term.

Hopefully, there will be more movement, on a personal level to begin taking more food responsibility. Real change could be made if people tried eating less meat and tending more backyard gardens. If prices keep rising as they have been this may actually happen in many households.

[The Farmer]

105. Cows aren't that specialized

They eat just about anything. It's a matter of bang for your buck. AKA protein. I only raise sheep as a production animal, and I only have about 20 head. My dad, who is 82, loves lamb and needs something to keep him active so I keep them for him to have something to do and stay out of trouble. I don't have cows, but I raise about 400 to 500 tons of feed per year, mostly for cows. My farm is basically a feed production operation. My sheep get the best hay I raise. I like to see people raise their own food. It's rewarding and good for the soul. It helps with market demand also, and cuts down on what we import. I'm leary of imported foods. It's easy for bad chemicals to get into our grocery stores. Raising your own food you don't have to put anything into it you don't want too. Agriculture is a lot more complex than most people realize.

[FedUpWithIt All]

107. Welcome to DU

:hi:

Bang for the buck is one of the ways we let our industrial ag get so out of hand. That system created many breeds of various species of livestock that need very intensive management. Animals that can no longer reproduce without intervention, animals that grow too large to support normal species specific behavior... Sometimes, slower growing and smaller is smarter. Slower growing and more naturally raised COULD be sustainable but it would require that more and more people take an active hand in producing or directly securing their food from the source.

There are older breeds that not only will eat anything but are also able to thrive on it. Many of them were nearly bred out of existence due to their incompatibility with industrial agriculture models and it's desire for bigger, faster and with the least resistance.

Personally, i am a fan of integrated and natural systems being used in small holding types of set ups. Growing just enough varied species of veg and livestock for self sufficiency with a little surplus for small local markets. Integrated systems such as multi-pasturing are sometimes actually more profitable due to the increased health benefits and increased utility of the land.

What type of sheep do you raise?

[tama]

109. A vision just hit me

in the Southeast I can see a new economy based on goats and kudzu... :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

117. It's being done.

There are people who hire out herds of goats for grazing. The herder gets paid to bring his herd to free food :)


:hi:

Scottish Highland cattle are also increasingly used to restore pastures from several types of invasive species.

http://www.environmentreport.org/story.php?story_id=1259

The cattle prefer minimal housing, even in deep winter. They birth easily and are fairly able to protect themselves and their young due to their long horns and stout stature. They produce some of the healthiest beef you can buy but they grow it slowly.

[hedgehog]

77. I know I used to get a 50 lb sack of chicken feed for about

$10; now it's more like $11.70. SO that tells you right there that anything that is fed grain or made with grain has gone up in price.

[4dsc]

83. Peak oilist have predicted this for quite some time

so it comes as no shock to many who hold views about the world's peaking oil production. Cheap oil= cheap food and population growth.

The tipping point has been reached IMHO and its going to be a train ride to hell from here.

[GliderGuider]

96. Yes indeed!

Food prices and oil prices appear to be joined at the hip. The world oil market is draining out just as we try to recover from a recession by using more energy. Driving is optional. Eating is not...

[FedUpWithIt All]

97. Off Topic

Tree of Life. I love your avatar. :)

[GliderGuider]

98. Thanks!

:hi:

[VermeerLives]

95. The price of gas is going up

And that is also contributing to higher food prices.

[gkhouston]

103. When the CDC said "eat less" a few days ago, I found myself wondering whether

their recommendation was based on concern for our health (yes, the recommendation has merit) or on a desire to accustom us to the reality that we aren't going to be able to afford to each much of anything.

[Ter]

120. What era of cheap food?

Food was always expensive, it's just getting more expensive.