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TechnoratiMIDLAND, Va. - The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.1 percent for the 12 months ending in June, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the economy.
Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.
"They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen to believe the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."
But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-income Americans are being pinched.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its June inflation report that egg prices are 19.5 percent higher than they were in June 2006. Over the same period, according to the department's consumer price index, whole milk was up 13.3 percent; fresh chicken 10 percent; navel oranges 19.8 percent; apples 11.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5 percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by 9.6 percent.
These numbers get lost in the broader inflation rate for all goods and services, which measured 2.7 for the same 12-month period. Across the economy, rising food prices were offset by falling prices for things bought at the mall: computers, cameras, clothing and shoes.
"All of that stuff is going down in price, but prices for gasoline have gotten higher, and food prices have gone up," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist for Wachovia, a large national bank based in Charlotte, N.C.
People also go to the mall a lot less than they go to the grocery store, so they're constantly reminded that dietary staples are up sharply.
Why are food prices rising?
It's partly because of corn prices, driven up by congressional mandates for ethanol production, which have reduced the amount of corn available for animal feed. It's also because of tougher immigration enforcement and a late spring freeze, which have made farm laborers scarcer and damaged fruit and vegetable crops, respectively. And it's because of higher diesel fuel costs to run tractors and attractive foreign markets that take U.S. production.
The Labor Department's last detailed survey of consumer spending, in 2005, showed that Americans spent about 12.8 percent of their income on food. A bit more than 7 percent of their income was spent on food at home, and 5.7 percent was spent on food away from home.
These percentages suggest that higher food prices, while unwelcome, won't break the bank for most consumers. But for retirees such as Jacqueline Wilson, 60, of Upper Marlboro, Md., rising food and fuel prices take a big bite out of fixed income. "I make every dollar count," said Wilson, outside a Giant supermarket. "I cut back. ... I get only as much as I need. I don't buy it because it is 10 for $10, but so that I'm using it and not wasting my money."
Asked about her view of the economy, she answered, "Terrible."
In broad terms, the economy isn't terrible. Unemployment is near record lows, and the second quarter posted a strong 3.4 percent growth rate. But it is for those Americans who are pinched by rising food and gasoline costs, and that's a lot of folks. Half the nation's families earn below the median family income of about $56,000. Three-fifths of American families report income under $70,000.
At the Al-Mara farm in Midland, Va., Jeff and Patty Leonard run a large dairy operation where about 600 cows produce 19,000 pounds of milk each day. They plant about 1,000 acres of corn, so they don't face all of the rising feed costs like some farmers. But they sympathize with consumers because the costs of nitrogen fertilizers and diesel fuel have all gone up sharply, raising production costs by nearly 30 percent.
"That's how your farmer feels here at home when we're trying to buy soybean meal, food for our cows and trying to maintain our equipment," said Patty Leonard. "I can understand exactly what the shopper is going through."
Milk prices aren't set on the farm. That's done by marketing cooperatives, which this year have been successful in passing on higher production costs after several dismal years of prices that took dairy farmers back to the 1970s.
"It's pretty much a realignment of the actual value of milk in today's dollar," Patty Leonard said. "Milk has been cheap for a long, long time."
Globalization also explains higher milk prices. Australia, a leading milk exporter, is struggling through a drought, and European governments are pulling back dairy subsidies. So U.S. farmers, aided by a weak dollar, are stepping in to meet growing demand for milk products in China and India. That's pinched supply at home and abroad, driving up prices.
"U.S. per capita dairy consumption is the highest it's been since 1987," said Chris Galen, vice president of the National Milk Producers Federation, pointing to rising U.S. demand for cheese, made from milk. "Americans are eating more cheese than ever - not just volume but per capita."
To make more milk, or raise more chickens that lay more eggs, farmers need feed corn and other feed products. But corn prices have soared over the past year as Congress pushes ethanol, a renewable fuel made from corn. Fields that previously grew soybeans are now yielding corn, and that's driven up the price of soybeans as they become scarce.
Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development shocked the farm sector earlier this summer with a report that corn farmers are expected to lock in prices of $4 a bushel through 2010, about double what corn fetched two years ago.
"You will probably be seeing these prices rise for quite a long time and stabilizing, maybe, but not going back to the $2-a-bushel corn," said Jacinto Feitosa, co-director of the center in Ames, Iowa.
2007 McClatchy Newspapers
53 Comments so far
Show AllThere is a way to fight back. It is called GROW YOUR OWN.
You put effort into a lawn or potted plants, so change out some of that lawn and your potted plants for food. Grow a tomatoe plant instead. Grow some celery, grow some brocolli in what was once your lawn.
Share your produce with others. If Sally grows potatoes, she can trade with Sam who grows carrots.
When we all start growing our own and start sharing, the corporates will feel the pinch.
Start supporting your small farmers too. The people who only have one or two acres of veggies. And farmers, keep your prices down, below the corporates, to help folks. Consider going to Upick instead of selling to a corporate canner. Keep to the integrity of your local community helping others rather than the greed of empowering yourself. Be part of your community in addressing our failing government. Do it out of goodwill. Many of you small farmers are Christian, remember...
Peace on earth. Goodwill toward men (not self and not corporate).
Corporatism and greed is the spawn of satan.
Ken Boettger
All I have to say is I have enjoyed reading this page. I have no comments but just to say you guys keep up the great work.
Greed and claptrapitalism or free markets not not being free at all.
In the 90's the government wanted to stave off the lowering of milk prices because they said the dairy famrs could not make a profit,, when in truth it was the disributors and corporate farms who wanted more profits, and the cure was, less cows and dairy farms.
The solution was to have government buy up diary herds and farms and then pay farmers not to raise more milkers but milk replacers if they stayed in dairy buisness.
The chemical solutions includied using beef by products including their own waste recycycled into cattle feeds, and also made the cows mad, and hormones to increase a cows output so that a stationary bovine milk producing assembly line with at least oen more milking and one pint more milk per milking.
this also burnt the cows out quicker and the need for more milk replacers increased.
The Federal system of interference in milk prices is indeed set bny the majro corproate distributors with Kroeger one of hte reasons the high cost of milk was set by governemtn process's.
What many people did not realize was that dairy cows are a very large part of the beef industry also, the so called stewers.
Hundreds of thousands of diry cattle grow old and produce less milk, half if not more of dairy calves were born males and made into steers and these entered the food chain, drasticly at begining of program, and steady supply today.
Cheaper in cost than the traditonal beefsteaks of Angus and Hereford aor others of their ilk, we even have some breeds who have been bred to longer length to increase the number of cuts, this made growing traditional beef less profitable.
The new response by Angus and Free range growers of beef is to sell their animals over the internet and to high level Corproate grocery chains as organic, more costly, and the one that returns the most profitable method, over the Internet to the more afflent customers.
Farmners with herds of under 500 animamls today are turning to the internet with farmers of under 200 seeing more than triple increases in profits by internet sales and as a last means to staying in buisness left to them.
Corn production has for over 50 years been a subsidized crop, with acerage, seed, water, fertilizers and guaranteed price per bushel set by government and the subsidizing by more than favorable Income Tax and even so far as listing of raising sheep subsidies as a strategic necessity.
Note: Ever wonder why you see so many small herds of sheep and gentlemean, , farmers today?
Now enter a dumb as rock environmental movement who react when the corproates tell them too and want corn to replace oil as an energy source and once again the popualce are going to pay and pay for every ounce of corn to firms like Monsanto Ely Lilly and others and the energy firms will sell the fuel with a guaranteed return of 110% for developement and growing and thenm be allowed to set the pricre at their eenrgy staitons to the consumer once again.
Who do we blame?
Greed? Avarice? Stupidity? Ignorance? Don't give a damn attitude of people? Human nature? Economic system?
While economic system is most assuredly the cause the effects of it are in the main beyond most peoples means to change except in how they reasign their prioritys in lifestyles.
We recognize the symptoms now what are the cures?
The serious, no matter if they live in apartments especially if they have balconies can grow many of their facorite veggies and especially herbs in samll containers.
Veggies such as smaller varietries of tomatoes amke nice hanging basket fruits and suchinnis and squash grow profusely from even samlll gallon containers with herbs on window sills and in flower boxs spaced with rooting carrots or beets.
A personal Victory Garden over corporoate and politcal Bull Crap economic thieves.
Oh and to get fowl or beef, fish is almost so poisonous today as to be needing a lable much like cigarettes, "Cautin may be hazardoud =s to your helalth and pregenat women, (who else gets pregenant), should not consume", being as how your neighbor or condo sharing clones may get disturbed at a cow on the commons you and 2,3 or more in a group can buy one whole or half internet beef and share it, ten peoples upper freezers will hold an orgainic grass munching half a beef easily.
Now onward and ever forward in the battle against high food prices.
Now back to work, and where are my organic carrot sticks.
I grew up on a dairy farm, our herd of thirty Holsteins ate grass in the meadows, hay in the winter, we had a large silo and each of the cattle was fed two cups of silage before each milking. Our prize bull, John, was given silage whenever we cleaned his pen, so he wouldn't kill us.
We also fed our cows 'soybeans' and our milk scored the highest cream ratio in the state. I never heard of E-coli, we used our cow and bull shit for fertilizer. We raised all of our own crops, had a mill on the upper deck of the barn and sold wheat, barley, rolled oats, beans and chicken feed.
The 200 acre farm was managed by my grandfather, my dad, my two brothers and I. Mom sold eggs and butter for her pin money and she had a lot of pins, one was a brand new 41 Packard. We had our gardens and orchards and every meal was a feast. We were only one of millions of small farmers and we didn't recieve any government money and the U.S. only imported exotic foods. The U.S. was one of the world's food baskets.
Those millions of small farmers are history, now in comparrison there are only a few. Our once farm and all of the others once in that county are now housing developments, not far from an Indian casino where crime, polluted lakes, traffic jams and local government regulations are the big problems. The most expensive building is the county jail. The next most expensive is a high school with a double decker parking garage for the students and a 30% drop out rate, armed cops patrolling the campus and a good place to buy illegal drugs.
"Oh beautiful with smog filled skys and amber waves of drugs and many gangs of thuggggggs. America, America, why have you gone astray"?
Because that's the way the neo-cons want it peasant and you ain't seen nothin yet.
Strange way of going about life.
A stupid president (Bush/Cheney) who thinks spending billions of dollars on a pre-emptive strike on another nation does not effect the economy or the economic sentiment of the citizens.
Growing corn to feed to cattle so we can produce dairy products to be consumed by human adults when we would be better off eating the corn (a booming medical industry can only exist within an unhealthy nation). Dairy and beef industries are not ecologically friendly.
Corn now being used to produce ethanol when brush and grasses (hemp) are better suited for ethanol production because of the amount of fertilizer, space and energy needed to produce them.
Interstate transportation of produce that could be grown and purchased locally.
We are learning, at a snail's pace, but we are learning...
Guliper: Thanks for the tip.. I'd thought about it often and have even saved up a few seeds (hopefully I got lucky and they're not the terminator kind). I'd love to have a functioning productive 'victory garden' with all the veggies I can't afford to buy growing in it (or an even bigger more productive neighborhood garden). See Gov't? I don't even want your help. I'd rather do it myself.
Claudius: Don't get me started on student loans. That's part of the reason why I eat what I eat (hopefully soon to be alleviated by said garden).
Keep hope alive everyone..Good luck on the crash. Maybe we should have a pre-crash party while we still can. Everyone's invited..
As Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said about the starving peasants"let them eat cake"I do feel there is truth in that we all want to make a buck,and when there is any price increase from external sources we add on our percentage.
I totally agree with above comments that call BS on how our statistics are reported. Inflation that doesn't count food or energy (Camus13), so if you do not eat or use anything that involves transportation, then you're okay. Likewise, unemployment BS called out by Illinois Independant. It is disingenuous to compare today's BS statistics to anything historical or to anything else. If Paul Krugman is reading, and if you haven't already, would you kill these comparisons for once and for all?
Quit screwing with energy prices and access and the peasants will be able to eat corn instead of cake again.
Or start a co-op, and run your own food chain based on people not profit. If consumers want it, you'll be a hero.
Oh, and calves are still fed slaughterhouse blood to increase protein, even though there are restrictions from feeding cows to cows. This is another topic but I'm sure most people don't really get the point about what they are eating.
What this article doesn't mention is the main reason why prices of food are skyrocketing--monopoly control of the grocery business! Walmart Superstores and a few other chains completely control the food distribution system. Here in El Paso we used to have seven or eight major grocers. Now it's just Albertsons and Walmart. Albertsons overnight increased the prices of most basic foodstuffs by 50% to 100% this year. In a town where the majority make the minimum wage, this kind of increase is huge! It's no wonder that employees and consumers have turned to stealing to make ends meet. Boycott the chains. Shop at food coops, fair trade retailers, or from farmers themselves. And pull out the grass and plant a vegetable garden.
It is true, corn is not a natural diet for cows. Pasture fed cows get about 10% of thier diet from corn. Factory farms and feed lots fatten cattle with corn. It ruins thier digestion and also creates disease organisms like e-coli that would otherwise be killed off in the digestive process. This requires antibiotic treatment and well it is a bad farming practice. I won't go into chickens but it is more disgusting.
Twister22,
For a second there, I thought you were describing the lifestyle of a graduate student. I can identify with that!
Because no one sees these comments, I thought I would post
Yes, I know, consider the source. But the points are valid.
"Food Companies Have Jumped Into Blaming Ethanol For Price Hikes
Food companies have jumped into blaming ethanol for their price hikes, but here's the real truth:
Movie theater popcorn: This type of corn is not used for ethanol production. Its market price has been affected by dry weather, nothing more, nothing less. Yet movie theaters are eager to charge patrons another 75 cents for boxes of popcorn that may have only cost them 4 cents more during a drought?
Corn flakes: only 3 cents worth of corn goes into a box of this cereal. The cereal costs anywhere from $3.00 to $4.00 a box in grocery stores. The majority of your money goes towards labor and marketing costs. Don't forget transportation costs to deliver the cereal to stores: gasoline is high.
Starbucks coffee: Starbucks, which charges an exorbitant amount for a regular cup of coffee, claims it must charge more for drinks because dairy prices have gone up due to ethanol. This is not so: dairy prices are up because of increased demand for whey protein in China, and because of an increased demand for milk in the U.S. after dairy farmers sold off heifers following a time when there was an oversupply of milk.
Meat products: Some of the richest companies in the world sell you Tyson chicken or Smithfield Foods' pork. These companies watch their profits soar yet complain that feed prices have nominally increased. The Tyson company has even benefited from biofuels by selling chicken grease for fuel.
Corn tortillas: We've all heard the problem of a shortage of corn tortillas in Mexico. It was a supply issue of Mexican white corn, not U.S. field corn. Mexican farmers have responded by producing more white corn. U.S. field corn is not used for corn tortillas. Another attempt to discredit ethanol based on misleading information."
Source: Ohio Corn Growers Association
Corn for fuel is plain nuts. It burns dirty, if not dirtier, than oil. Sustainable? Yes. Renewable? Yes. Clean? No way in hell.
Instead of bitchin' about your local farmers market, ask them why their prices go up in sync with the local grocery store.
They took food and fuel out of the calculation for the core inflation index this time around. It makes things look better than they are.
As far as ethanol is concerned, corn is the wrong feedstock to use. Sugarcane has a much higher energy balance calculated as the energy that goes in versus the energy that comes out. If you put 1 unit of energy into corn, you can get 1.3 units out. It is more than 4 units out with sugarcane and more that 2 units out with sugar beets.
We should be investing and advancing cellulose ethanol as fast as we can. The 1 billion tons of biomass that the U.S. produces every year could make more than 100 billion gallons of ethanol each year. The U.S. uses 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year now. The energy balance for cellulose ethanol is more than 8.
Twister22, I don't know where you live, but in northeast Indiana I pay one dollar a dozen for free-range eggs, two dollars a pound for free-range chicken, three dollars a pound for free-range lamb, all within 12 miles and I know the people.
Stay away from Ramen anything. It will bring you to an early grave. Rice has a low nutritional value. Dry beans are a simple protien. Also corn. Together they make a complete protien, a substitute for one third or one half of your red meat. You can grow tomatoes in five gallon bucket on your doorstep.
Even veggies are getting expensive. I try to eat organic as much as possible, and hate when I have to settle for Frankenveggies/fruit or frozen veggies.. it's just not the same. I rarely buy eggs and allow myself the luxury of having organic milk daily. The cheapest foods out there right now are rice (50 lb bag at the Hispanic grocery store will last me a year or more), dry beans, Ramen (MSG loaded crap), and no-name breakfast cereals (which I don't mind since they are the same as brand name), or plain unprocessed oatmeal. I also eat chicken legs, and cheaper cuts of pork, but no steak (too expensive.. I can't afford to spend $10 on just ONE piece of meat). Bread is off the menu. This is not what I'd call a the best diet, but it's keeping me alive for now. This is the diet of a single worker with no pets or other dependents who makes less than $30k annually.
There are fewer people all the time that grow any of their own food or even buy locally grown food.
Now that many are dependent jack up the price by any means necessary. THAT IS UNREGULATED CAPITALISM.
You ain't seen nothing yet!!!!!!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/world/africa/02zimbabwe.html?ex=130422...
Been there, done that. I remember when the jews did this to Germany. It took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread.
The plain fact of the matter is that those in the know;mainly the wealthy old-moneyed elite; realize that with all the strife the world is facing manmade and weatherwise,not to mention the fact that the United States is on the brink of economic collapse, that the going is not going to get any better and they are cashing out!And then there wont be anything left for the middle class let alone those in more dire circumstances!
A progressive tax system might help with greed!
WILDLANDER: You are right, the price of milk has risen at least 50% in the past few months, and just one other example: A 8oz can of Cambells tomato soup is $2.89 at our local markets, that wasn't even a dollar a year ago. Everything in the supermarkets is priced out of sight and many items have risen 50% or more. The price increases quoted in this article are way off, ___ on the low side.
I do believe, if we could search out who actually owns the major food corps, we'd find the money trail of paperwork would all end up at Exxon/Mobil or some other major oil company. They own everything, including our elected in DC.
BTW, Wildlander, you got a bit heavy on the criticizm of ALL of US Americans on your 1:23 post. Are yu an American? You listed you are from Washington. Are you one of the illegals by chance? Probably not, anyway, you could have put yourself in the bad guys and gals group if you are an American and had written. May God have mercy on OUR souls, instead of on YOUR souls. I doubt God will have mercy on us after our Bushitis though.
As an Iowan, I have never been for the "burning" of FOOD (corn to ethanol, etc)and I tell all my farmer friends, which they all agree, but they sell where the money is. When they're heads (the politicians) come up for air, they'll allow industrial hemp into the process.
Camus13 thank you for the statistical lowdown. Now look at the unemployment figures. We don't count all unemployed like the EU. Americans know something's wrong and we know it's not being reported. When you start to peel the onion of governmental deception in this country, you realize we are living in a controlled society. We desperately need a 2nd Republic.
What happened to the article on free range chicken eggs? Must have had a copy right and had to take it down?
The reason to eat more veggies. Cheaper.
I've been vegetarian for my whole adult life. We don't eat very much processed food (much of it is bad for you, and insanely energy intensive to produce).
In practical terms, what this means is that I buy a lot of the same things at the store week in, week out, year in, year out.
My food bills in June 2007 were DOUBLE what they were in the winter/spring of 2005. (We don't even buy milk, which is one of the staples that has risen most, or more than a few eggs.)
I'm thrilled that computers are cheaper, etc.
But my local taxes are up. The cost of garbage/sewer street cleaning is twice what it was three years ago. Water rates are way up, as are electricity and natural gas. My co-pay for medical insurance has increased dramatically.
My salary? It has barely increased.
I don't imagine my circumstances are unusual. I don't know how people with more kids, etc. are making it.
Well....I mean non-predatory people.
Inflation in this decade has been at least as bad as it was in the 1970's. The only differences are that interest rates are lower today and the government constantly revises its methods for calculating the consumer price index to assure the CPI rates are lower than the actual rate of inflation. This assures that wage earners and social security recipients will see their real income diminish each year.
How the US figures figures 101:
Cost of Living figures are counted as CORE INDEX which means we do not count FOOD AND ENGERY.
Why you ask.
Because FOOD AND ENGERY insists on raising the Cost of Living Index which means if your wages or social security check is hooked into CLI you would get more money. Because workers might want increases in wages instead of holding steady for the last 12 years.
Our leaders get better figures if you count computers, boats and other items which have be going down. Now I buy a computer once a week and on Tuesday and Friday I buy a new boat. I'll have to ask my wife about FOOD AND GAS to get the low down on were our money goes.
I would bet that inflation is really 10% and increases like that are only for the hedge funders and CEO's so lets tell them (the rest of America) 2%.
They lied about the WMD, they liked about Iraq's relationship to terrorists so why not lie about Cost of Living figures.
I believe I now live in the United States of Lies.
"I lift up mine eyes unto the hills whence cometh my help." Psalms 121
Hills of potatoes, hills of beans, hills of corn...
The Feds answer to this would be to raise interest rates so that there are fewer jobs and the competition will keep wages from rising. Since they can not seem to do anything about the fundamental causes of this kind of inflation, they just use the same tactics that they used in the 70s and 80s.
Wildlander said: "To bring animal rights and energy into this is BS. It has to do with greed." and "To blame this on gas prices is Bshit too."
Absolutely! It surely isn't anything systemic. It's just greed. Ever since 2003 when Greed(tm) was first test marketed in the dairy industry, prices have been out of control. According to the Wall Street Journal, if the success of dairy Greed continues, other industries will likely start using it.
Truly scary, but what can we do? Surely we don't want to squander a bunch of time looking at ethanol and corn syrup, oil policy and sugar protection, or ADM lobbyists and crooked politicians. I'm afraid this new Greed thing is simply an untamable monster and we should just learn to save our pennies until the glorious revolution.
Very true Hazmat ethanol will be massively subsidized. Ughh I'm sick of corn.
ethanol is shaping up to be another giant subsidy to the likes of monsanto and archer daniels midland. hemp seed for hybrid diesel fuel!
rising food prices a little known fact!?!?!? does this guy live on air?? bush said war is clouding our optimism?!? it is hunger.
And by the way, the B in Bshit is for Bush not bull.
THanks DCbeltway
To blame this on gas prices is Bshit too. A gallon of milk has many costs. There is labor costs, transportation, manufacturing, marketing, labeling, etc. Transportaion costs are miniscule compared to labor, labeling, marketing, etc. The transportation costs for a gallon of milk is about 10 percent of the cost. Or about 20 cents on what a gallon of milk was a year ago. So if gas prices double, you wouild expect a doubleing of that 20 cents... or 20 cents more a gallon over the last year. But we have seen 5 times that much of an increase.
My point is, the corporations are using the gas price increases falsly to gouge the consumer. THey are raising rates far above the increases in their actual costs.
Ken Boettger
Ellensburg, WA
Corn is a major contributor to America's obesity epidemic particularily high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Corn is better used for ethanol then in our diets. Its hard to open your cabinets or your refrigerator and not see HFCS in most of your grocery store products.
http://tinyurl.com/2jdows
I have to agree with Wildlander. Greed is out of control in this country. The current state of the Housing Market is another good example of ordinary people's greed gone wild.
Considering the fact the loyalbushie cancer has infected every fed agency and department, virtually all of which have been shown to distort reality to fit their deranged fantasies, it's safe to assume all numbers reported are low by at least, say, 10 percent. IOW, the situation for the 90% of us "little people" is worse and getting worse.
Usually "they" get away with reporting the "core" inflation rate, which doesn't include those two popular luxuries, energy and food. Now they have no choice, seeing as how the race appears to be what will meltdown first: America, or Earth...
Hey bud, vegans are greedy just like everyone else. To bring animal rights and energy into this is BS.
It has to do with greed. If you go look in the mirror, you will see it staring right back at you.
Everyone complains about Bush, but as long as you follow his and corporate americas idea of "whatever the market will bear" instead of pricing things at an honest level based upon a modest wage for your time, well then, there will be no solution to the decline of this country. And people like and worse than Bush will continue to occupy the black house.
And it will fail.
-Ken
Nice article, but it understates the increases. Our Milk here in Washington State has risen from $2 to $3 a gallon over the last year. This is a 50 percent increase. This report is way off stating only 19 percent. Our bread has nearly doubled in price. And hamgurber that used to be a $1 a pound now costs over $2 a pound. And I am sure the Bush Administration had something to do with the suppression of these prices.
But it is not all his fault, the people themselves are at fault. It is greed everywhere. Take the local farmers market. When prices go up at the grocery store, the private produce sellers raise their rates too. Not that it costs them anymore to tend their gardens but that they are greedy for as much as they can get.
The things happening in this country are not just a lack of integrity in this Administration or politicians - but lack of integrity of all Americans. The whole nation is a greedy bunch otherwise we would see a retaliation at our farmers markets and severe underpricing compared to the grocery stores.
But no, everyone with produce is going along for the ride.
The people of these United States are too greedy. So don't just blame Bush, he is just a reflection of your own greed manifest now in the dictatorship that is quickly overtaking this country.
May God have mercy on your souls.
Ken Boettger
Ellensburg, WA
Growing corn to feed cars is absurd
but growing corn to feed chickens is also absurd-what a waste of resources(not to mention the hell the chickens are put through--treated in ways not condoned for the most despised criminals).
Going vegan is the only logical response(as Mr. Spock, a vegetarian character, might say).
Let's look at the situation in Mexico, and let's also include the fundamental reason that the author left out: Market Manipulation.
When NAFTA came into play, that resulted in Mexico accepting subsidized corn at below market prices, which drove small farmers off the land. Now that there is no competition, big agribusiness can raise prices in Mexico without fear of loss of market share to competitors.
This has been a long term problem with subsidized US agriculture (and the commodities, not the foodstuffs, are subsidized. Vegetable farmers get zero subsidies - it all goes to ADM and Cargill and their sharecroppers). Why does a gallon of orange juice cost more than a gallon of gas, after all?
Basically, to solve this you'd have to end the industrial soybean-corn crop cycle that produces corn syrup and cattle-hog-poultry feed and exports, and replace that with an organic sustainable multi-crop system on a national basis.
Ethanol is a better use for corn syrup than food, as well. However, sustainable biofuels require sustainable agricultural-trade practices.
KEM
i'm so sorry about your bees and insects. yes, something is terribly wrong - and not just the rate of inflation. and if we as mammals stopped drinking all this bloody milk and eating dairy products after we are weaned, we wouldn't have all this trouble and the poor animals wouldn't be suffering and we'd all be a lot healthier.
GO CHIMP - THAT'S MY MOTTO !!!!!
Pre-Nazi Germany was economically ravaged. A lesson everyone can learn from as fascism doesn't seem to go away.
"Been there, done that. I remember when the jews did this to Germany. It took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread."
Odd, we in the real world remember when German monetary policy combined with Versaille treaty elements did this. Of course, I'm sure those danged jews must of pulled all that off too, somehow.
I feel better about the Farmer's Markets here on the Big Island of Hawaii. They don't raise the price to match the junk produce at Safeway. It's not 'Cheap', but I know the farmers and they work hard for what they earn. Of course, our milk and egg prices are the highest in the country - forget organic! I've retaliated by buying only local raised milk and eggs [every few months you see another producer quit], but I'm hoping to encourage them to continue to serve the market.
The biggest treat is the grass-fattened beef raised here. Long story, but partly because of the Mad Cow problems in Canada, our beef ranchers quit shipping feeder calves to the mainland to fatten, and are now selling honest to god grass-fattened beef. This stuff is so lean you have to add a little oil to cook it. Costs about the same as the stuff thats been in the cooler for the past 2 or 3 months before be put on sale here.
But, it's hard to find - only the health food stores and one local supermarket chain offers it regularly.
I've noticed a marked increase in prices tho, which of course leads to a decrease in my after-necessity money. That will impact the local economy because it limits what else I spend on, and how much I can donate to programs like the food bank and animal shelter etc. It will impact all of the charities that get my holiday money when I have it. And that doesn't begin to address how I cover unscheduled expenses. You know, all those unplanned problems that crop up as you are struggling to make an appointment...
Well, there's only one of me, and I don't have to worry about starving grandkids, so thats a 1 up for me.
We live in interesting times - hardly ever gets boring around here. I mean how many get to prepare for a hurricane as an earthquake rattles thru the neighborhood.
oldtimer - "I remember when the jews did this to Germany. It took a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread."
You remember Jews turning food into ethanol in Germany, right?
Also Jews were the reason for the hyper inflation in Germany. Am I correct?
Mr. KKK, this is a progressive site, not a Klan / Aryan nation gathering. I curious what that other Jew (Jesus) would have say if he had heard you lie and spread your racist hate messages against the innocents.
Go figure...
get rid of the dairy price controls and let the price float. having the state entitle farmers to the money of customers is a crime and should be ended.
Feeding corn to dairy cows is sadistic; cows are made to eat GRASS.
I see the bottomline answer regarding why the cost rise as Overshoot; you can read an excerpt from Catton's book on the subject here, http://dieoff.org/page15.htm and much more can be found googling. Ecological limits are being reached and are reflected by rising commodity prices. For an ever increasing number of families, East Street no longer exists. In trying to stay on Easy Street, many families overextended their debt and are paying the price for their exuberence. Playing with the Economic Policy Institute's Family Budget calculator is very revealing, http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/datazone_fambud_budget
Unfortunately, things will not improve going forward, as Business as Usual will continue and global society goes further beyond the planet's carrying capacity. IMO, the economic breaking point will be reached by 2010 due to the by then obvious decline of petroleum and natural gas extraction. The best thing a person can do to prepare is to get out of debt and gain employment on the non-discretionary side of the economy.
How do they know the prices at the malls are going down? Stores seem to change their prices at will. Anytime there is a sale they raise the prices just to make people believe they are getting a deal.
I have seen stores holding going out of business sales and they are still in business.
So the price of a camcorder goes down $50 and a big screened televison dips $100 dollars. There is always converter boxes and other accesories you must have and do not forget the monthly bills to hook up the crape.
I agree it is a greed fest out there.
The corporations and banks cannot be happy with a small charge they want to make 100s.
Dairy can only be so greedy. You are right it went up 50cents. Dairy is state regulated.
Some people drink a gallon of milk a day and that is why lots look like cows. They say you are what you eat.
We have a large half acre, organic garden, every year we grow enough to feed fifteen families, we take loads to the local food bank and a half way house.
Not this year, no bees, no hornets, no butterflies or even moths. NO bugs and no humming birds or few birds of any type. The garden is a jungle, full of big leaves, few veggies, tomatoes or beans. Something is terribly wrong.