Food prices still sky-high

[brentspeak]

So prices at the pump have fallen, but prices at the supermarket keep getting higher. What's behind all this?

[Cyrano]

1. The answer is that the world is made up of fuckors and fuckees.

We are the fuckees.

I didn't bitch when supermarket prices went up since I knew that virtually everything in the country, at one point or another moved by truck. And the price of gas forced up the price of everything else.

As of today, the price of gas is almost half of what it was a year ago. Yet, the prices in supermarkets seems to keep rising.

So here's my theory. We are being fucked over beyond belief.

Can anyone out there prove me wrong?

[tama]

3. Simpler. World is made up of wankers.

Dreaming to the lulluby of neverending consumerism, never waking up to real world - until it is too late and the horror comes, totally unprepared.

[Tumbulu]

2. this morning I was talking with three farmer friends

in California (1/4 of the countries food comes from here) we are in our second year of drought. We were supposed to get rain last weekend, we got a TRACE. Many of my neighbors wells have gone dry. Mine smells of sulfur- a sign that it will soon run dry. The irrigation district cut back water last year and one of the farmers standing there had lost most of her orange crop. All of us have no pasture growing for our livestock. Last year's shy high hay and grain priced forced the cattle and sheep people to sell off for slaughter most of their animals. People kept their most valuable breeding stock and hoped for this year. But there has been so little rain, that it is becoming clear that there will be nothing to feed even them with.

The Central Valley in California is looking at 80% reduction in water allotment. This means no water for alfalfa, one of the main feeds for dairy cows. Let alone all the other things they grow....potatoes, tomatoes, nuts, grapes, all the permanent crops are on drip and probably people will use whatever little water they have to keep the plants alive and hope for a low crop load.

In New Mexico where I have friends they had a drought for years but last summer it rained every single day and the one crop I know of there had 3/4 of it's yield lost to rotting on the plant of the fruit.

The global climate change is wreaking havoc on crops all over the place. The farmers are not making out like bandits. There is simply a lot less produced. And we are all worried around here. Please hope for some rain for us.

[brentspeak]

4. Thanks for that post.

The small farmers are struggling, unlike the corporate farms. I hope things get better for you soon.

[OhioChick]

5. Those prices at the pump aren't falling anymore

but instead, rising. Food prices will probably get higher, yet.

[Spike89]

6. production lag also to blame

You've got to remember that the food you're buying today for the most part went into production quite some time ago. It may be cheaper to get fresh veggies to the store right now, but those veggies were grown with tractors, harvesters, petro-fertalizers, etc. that were running on that high priced oil. That is for fresh veggies. The beef in the stores was fed high fuel-cost grain, etc. Processed foods have an even longer lag time, wheat from last year is still making today's bread for instance. Many of the big commercial crops are pretty much seasonal, i.e., tomato paste, ketchup, corn meal, wheat flour etc. may be packaged all year, but the vast majority is grown and harvested in a relatively short season (last summer, when gas was $4/gallon).

[Tashca]

7. I haven't read about profits since fall..but

I believe this fall most food conglomerates were making record profits....has that changed recently???....I somehow doubt that. They seem to have a very good marketing arm...