23 Comments on Understanding The Rising Cost of Food
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The Rising Cost of Food…
But who fixes the price?
Farmer ? Intermediary ? Store ?
Who rises prices?
This was an excellent FYI story alerting viewers to wake up and smell the increasingly expensive coffee. I used to work for an NGO food aid supplier and it’s irresponsible how we’re letting millions of people go hungry within sight of so much abundance. One cause is we’re subjected to a continually promoted illusion that our lives are distinct and separate, but we all truly know we live in an inter-reliant global community. As I once heard an archbishop from Africa say, “when the U.S. sneezes, the world catches a cold.” Don’t bother arguing the validity of the issue by debating facts or pointing fingers. We just need to take better care of one another. Thanks Joanne.
Le temps use l’erreur et polit la verité. ~F.G. Duc de Lévis
“corn, maize, and wheat” …not to be a grammar troll, but aren’t corn and maize the same thing? or does it have something to do with the way it’s used… just wondering…
anyway, good story, though. this is an important world issue deserving more focus. at my house, there’s never a shortage of food. so it’s distressing to think that other parts of the world are so different. this brings to mind the cliche of “finish your vegetables, jr. don’t you know there are people starving in Africa?”. if only there was some way to help the starving people by doing something as simple as cleaning your plate.
Jesus, Rocketboom has gotten boring.
Speaking of wasting food, I just heard yesterday that the amount of food thrown out by NYC restaurants each day could feed 30,000 people!!! So image if you add up all the wasted food of big cities around the world. Local people/farmers in the poorest areas of the world used to grow their own crops until corporate giants like Monsanto came up with genetically modified seeds. The problem is complex. Biofuels are a true waste. Smarter technologies can and have been invented.
Population growth, deforestation, the obliteration of small farms in favor of mega McFarms …etc etc.
Bottom line:::the world today has enough food to feed every living man woman & child, however changing human nature is another matter. We still live in a world of kings and serfs.
I’ve said it before: When JC gets all serious, she takes it to a whole other level.
Nice little taste of perhaps the most complicated and important issue facing our planet, because it’s tied into everything else, from the (fairly terrifying) growth of those middle classes in China and India to those messy crop subsidies, for which a great number of U.S. lawmakers will fight to their last breath.
I just hope we end up with smarter leaders in the years to come. The bunch we have now, who perceive global warming as a myth and agribusiness profit as the main driver of food policy, have dug us a mighty deep hole.
So, who’s up for sushi? My treat.
Hey bman, are you living like a king or a serf? Got any extra belly jiggle going there? I don’t fault you for that. Food waste is not the problem - food is a renewable resource, unlike oil. Food should be plentiful and enjoyed in abundance. No one should feel guilty for having leftovers on their plate or for having a little belly jiggle like bman. Greed is the thread running through the whole systemic problem. Greed for money.
Hey JJ, you got a web cam in my house? You said: Greed is the thread running through the whole systemic problem. Greed for money.
Well, that’s what I was implying by the king/serf analogy. Big agribusiness, fat cat CEOs, corrupt politicians who build palaces rather than feed their own people or build mile-high skyscrapers on artificial islands instead of helping out their poor brethren… they are the “kings” We the people are the “serfs”. Why? Try implementing change. Good luck. Try fighting big business, oil cartels, government, etc.
Also, the biggest challenge facing mankind isn’t global warming, it’s population growth.
And food waste is a problem, when 20 million + people are starving in the richest nation in the world. What’s up with that?
In my first job at a NYC restaurant, on my first day even, I saw a rich business guy in a suit that would probably cost $1500 today cut the line and steal a slice of pie. He looked like one of those dimwits who gets a corner office because his dad is the CEO, all big horsey teeth and wavy hair and arrogant sneer. I flagged down my manager who told me promptly to forget it. “That’s just Pie Man,” he said. “He’s harmless.” Apparently he did it every day.
It was explained to me, in roughly eight seconds, that actually calling the cops on him would take up more staff time, and thus cost more money, than just letting him get his little thrill every day. “And anyways,” my manager said, “we throw out more food every day than that asshole could steal in a lifetime.”
The waste was indeed awesome, infuriating, scary when I thought about the people all over the world starving for want of flour and cooking oil. I could tell you stories. Any sous chef or diswasher could.
I think it’s pretty much so in any commercial food-service operation. What do you think your grocery store does with the hundreds of pounds of chicken parts no one buys each week before they expire? (If you’re lucky.)
I later moved on to writing for people who distributed the information on dead trees. I guess it’s a mixed blessing that the practice is almost at an end.
We waste so much without a thought while others starve.
Hello, that´s the first time i came to this page. I really loved it. i´ll come back every day. Congratulations!
http://www.guerrillagardening.org
try growing your own food in the empty lots around town…it’s deliciously subversive…
I wonder if Canola for running VegOil in Diesel engines would be a better use of land than corn.
Would it fixate more C02 in biomass, and have a higher energy yield?
-Because, if Ethanol booms, odd forms of smoking are going to make a huge comeback, what with all the corncobs lying around.
Change in ~liquid instruments would probably be an easy way to mitigate some of these price-hikes.
Because, if there is any shred of truth to this article (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878 ) some sizable % in the oil hike is due to speculation. -And honestly, 11th-hour manipulation by Enron and unregulated trading doesn’t sound that far-fetched.
As early as 600 BC, algae were considered a delicacy in China! Now algae finds its way into all sorts of foods ~ http://tinyurl.com/5uma78
Future Algae farms are a serious contender for producing Biodiesel.
I like a little jiggle. I think it’s HOT!
I am truly blessed. I have an avocado orchard with 12 different varieties. What I pick up off the ground everyday before the pigs eat them, buys my gas for the week. I’m saddened by the fact that people are starving & pissed that these pigs eat better than most. I don’t hunt/trap or eat pigs, so if you want free bacon, just come on over to my house!
i have worked in health food - natural stores, who would not recycle or give the on date food to the missions.here in az we can grow year round and compared to alaska it has been a breeze. i do admit i could live on much less food and packaging.
I never know what you’ll be talking about, Joanne. That’s why I keep coming back. Important topic, thoughtful analysis, interesting points. Thanks for giving this life or death issue the attention it deserves.
testing 1, 2, 3
I think the best solution to global warming issues and world hunger issues is vegetarianism. In America we “waste” enough resources growing animal feed to feed the entire world a healthy vegetarian diet. The math is undeniable, imho.
Great Ep! Very well-written! Exactly what I turn to rocketboom for!
Inflation with all products usually comes from regulations that try to prevent or were the end results of lawsuits. I.E., lawyers.
Packaging has to change when regulations change, usually. Shifts in how a system works costs a company a lot of man hours, and thus more money.
And transport, which is a pretty obvious factor.
I think those factors are playing plenty of roles just like all the points this episode bought up.
I want to make an example. There is a coffee shop here in Raleigh NC by the name of “Port City Java”. They claim to be “fair trade” and “organic” and like the annoying catch-phrase “fairganic”. It seems like every time I order there, they insist on giving me my paper cup within another paper cup, and then leave most people to add another cardboard heat shield. Ordering food comes not just wrapped in paper, but along with plastic-wrapped utensils encased in a flimsy plastic blister pack, then inside a cake-box-bag made of what feels like virgin PET because it’s thicker and smoother. They don’t have a recycling policy for the bags, the containers, or anything really.
It’s not uncommon. It’s exactly what starbucks does.
Thanks for this episode. I think I’m finally going to tell those baristas that I don’t like how the shop is running its business.
Well well, Peak Oil anyone ? - good to see RocketBoom taking on the effects .. how about doing more on the
cause .. ?
… and by the way .. open comments section again ?