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Food policy
Nov. 7th, 2008 01:58 amThis is pretty chilling.
"U.S. food prices will rise by at least 7 percent in 2009 because of higher feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle, said a group of food-industry economists on Thursday.
It would be the third year in a row that food prices rose faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate. Food inflation is the highest since 1990.
...
Although grain prices have declined since summer, this year's corn, wheat and soybean crops are forecast to fetch prices at the farm gate that are double their 2005 levels. Corn and soybeans are major ingredients in feed rations.
"We've been losing money for more than a year," said Bill Roenigk, economist for the Chicken Council, who said producers intend to cut production by as much as 12 percent. "We need to recover these feed costs."
...
Americans spend more than $1 trillion a year on groceries, snacks, carry-out foods and restaurant meals. Farmers get 20 cents of the food dollar. The rest goes to processing, labor, transportation and distribution."
Higher food prices are going to hit everywhere, we're seeing them at local bakeries (wheat prices rising) and at the farmers market. However, when I compare the price increases I see in our staples compared to the staples available in the supermarkets, we're being hit much less hard. (By staples I'm referring to milk, bread/flour, and eggs.) Recall I shop at the Greenmarket in Union Square, NYC, not known as a bastion of affordability.
Now, I have it easy. We have a car, and drive to the market, but even when we were carless, we had the luxury of a subway ride to a leisurely stroll around the market and a breakfast out. Hard to do if you live in an area less well-served by public transit, our have children to manage. Also, considering the rapid rise of transit fare, it is eminently possible that the extra round trip may present a burden, or the simple fact that lugging bottles of milk and vegetables was hard on my young, healthy body, and would simply be out of the question for someone older or disabled.
The Greenmarket system is pretty good in Manhattan, but only pretty good. In Queens, we're wildly underserved - there are two or three, and only one runs year round, if that. I don't even know how well the other boroughs are served, but the limits of access to those who will be hit hardest by the rising food costs are obvious and troubling, and that's only here. In Philadelphia, the access to local foods is laughable, and that's with New Jersey, the "Garden State" right next door.
I consider the benefits of locally grown, organic foods a simple fact, from the individual physical health they support to the environmental sustainability they support, with the benefits to our local communities standing well in between. All our communities need access to these things, and the lack of them is a crack that has been showing in our national makeup for some time, but rising food costs are turning that crack into a tragic chasm.
It's hard to know what to do - sometime Google can be a curse, as searching has overwhelmed me with information, but not given me any ideas on action. I think I'll be talking to our Greenmarket rep on Saturday.
(holycrapi'mtalkingaboutpolitics)
"U.S. food prices will rise by at least 7 percent in 2009 because of higher feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle, said a group of food-industry economists on Thursday.
It would be the third year in a row that food prices rose faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate. Food inflation is the highest since 1990.
...
Although grain prices have declined since summer, this year's corn, wheat and soybean crops are forecast to fetch prices at the farm gate that are double their 2005 levels. Corn and soybeans are major ingredients in feed rations.
"We've been losing money for more than a year," said Bill Roenigk, economist for the Chicken Council, who said producers intend to cut production by as much as 12 percent. "We need to recover these feed costs."
...
Americans spend more than $1 trillion a year on groceries, snacks, carry-out foods and restaurant meals. Farmers get 20 cents of the food dollar. The rest goes to processing, labor, transportation and distribution."
Higher food prices are going to hit everywhere, we're seeing them at local bakeries (wheat prices rising) and at the farmers market. However, when I compare the price increases I see in our staples compared to the staples available in the supermarkets, we're being hit much less hard. (By staples I'm referring to milk, bread/flour, and eggs.) Recall I shop at the Greenmarket in Union Square, NYC, not known as a bastion of affordability.
Now, I have it easy. We have a car, and drive to the market, but even when we were carless, we had the luxury of a subway ride to a leisurely stroll around the market and a breakfast out. Hard to do if you live in an area less well-served by public transit, our have children to manage. Also, considering the rapid rise of transit fare, it is eminently possible that the extra round trip may present a burden, or the simple fact that lugging bottles of milk and vegetables was hard on my young, healthy body, and would simply be out of the question for someone older or disabled.
The Greenmarket system is pretty good in Manhattan, but only pretty good. In Queens, we're wildly underserved - there are two or three, and only one runs year round, if that. I don't even know how well the other boroughs are served, but the limits of access to those who will be hit hardest by the rising food costs are obvious and troubling, and that's only here. In Philadelphia, the access to local foods is laughable, and that's with New Jersey, the "Garden State" right next door.
I consider the benefits of locally grown, organic foods a simple fact, from the individual physical health they support to the environmental sustainability they support, with the benefits to our local communities standing well in between. All our communities need access to these things, and the lack of them is a crack that has been showing in our national makeup for some time, but rising food costs are turning that crack into a tragic chasm.
It's hard to know what to do - sometime Google can be a curse, as searching has overwhelmed me with information, but not given me any ideas on action. I think I'll be talking to our Greenmarket rep on Saturday.
(holycrapi'mtalkingaboutpolitics)
