Montesquieu
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Since the crops of the midwest are flooded we have to expect that food will be harder to come by and from farther away. Plus the transportation will cost more because of gas prices. What do we do?
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Food Prices Soar
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Dr.Who
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I do not know if the actual damage in the midwest is enough to disrupt the amount of food available to the whole world or not. I doubt it.
More likely it is just supply and demand. Originally droughts in 2006 were a problem. Then there are just dramatically more people in the world than ever. Tons of corn has been converted into ethanol instead of being eaten. A part of the problem is not scarcity of food but just that it has become more expensive due to the cost of oil. There is technically enough food to go around but a lot of people just can't afford it.
The best thing to do would be to let farmers grow as much food as they can sell without restricting or manipulating what they do in any way. Leave them alone and they will all want to grow and sell as much as they can for one simple reason - that is how they make a living.
They will gravitate toward growing the most profitable crops and as a result the crops that people most want to buy and can buy.
The world food market can be in perfect equalibrium; a feed back system that always produces just what is needed as long as politicians don't tinker with a good system.
On the other hand a few hundred years ago we had a thing called the Medeaval warming period in which food grew at great rates and mankind experienced a period of great prosperity. If we are having some global warming (which is doubtful) then all sorts of plants are going to grow much better - and we can eat them.
Andy
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There is nothing we can really do to force more crops to be grown if that's what you mean.
There is only one thing the federal government could do to help reduce food prices. That's end the Ethanol scam. Remove the subsidies, and farmers will go back to growing food instead of fuel. Increase in supply, price will drop.
But beyond that, we can only hope the farmers will recover from the flood. Not much else.
There is only one thing the federal government could do to help reduce food prices. That's end the Ethanol scam. Remove the subsidies, and farmers will go back to growing food instead of fuel. Increase in supply, price will drop.
But beyond that, we can only hope the farmers will recover from the flood. Not much else.
pocketfullofshells
Well-Known Member
its clear we must resort to Cannibalism.
my guess is what we do is pay a bit more for food, and buy less crap.
my guess is what we do is pay a bit more for food, and buy less crap.
Food prices have been soaring for a while. Where have you been?
As Andy pointed out, we have ethanol incentives and high fuel costs to thank for that. Ordinarily the latter alone wouldn't matter since the food and fuel markets have historically been distinct from one another, but ethanol has merged them. Now farmers convert corn and wheat into ethanol until the price of food roughly matches the price of fuel, which is severely inflated.
We'd be better off if we'd just dumped all that food into a giant ditch and just set it on fire. At least then we wouldn't be squandering bajillions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing an inefficient fuel product for which there is 0 demand.
As Andy pointed out, we have ethanol incentives and high fuel costs to thank for that. Ordinarily the latter alone wouldn't matter since the food and fuel markets have historically been distinct from one another, but ethanol has merged them. Now farmers convert corn and wheat into ethanol until the price of food roughly matches the price of fuel, which is severely inflated.
We'd be better off if we'd just dumped all that food into a giant ditch and just set it on fire. At least then we wouldn't be squandering bajillions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing an inefficient fuel product for which there is 0 demand.
Andy
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I just had a "GAHHH!!" moment just in reading through this... prior to now, our government has been paying farmers to NOT FARM... paying them to not use a field.... and now we complain about higher food cost???
End not only Ethanol subsidies... END ALL SUBSIDIES... darn it. When our government is this stupid, why do we keep allowing them to increase our taxes and justify it?!?!
End not only Ethanol subsidies... END ALL SUBSIDIES... darn it. When our government is this stupid, why do we keep allowing them to increase our taxes and justify it?!?!
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Dr.Who
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