its not just the US that has ever rising food prices

http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2697786.ece


Leading article: We have to accept that the era of cheap food is coming to an end

What is pushing up global commodity prices? It is likely that a substantial demand shift is beginning to affect prices


We are so used to our ultra-competitive supermarket sector keeping down prices that it comes as rather a shock to discover that the same item we bought a few weeks ago has become more expensive. But the shock value is beginning to wear off. Food prices are now rising at 6 per cent a year, twice as quickly as the general cost of living. And it is not just in the UK that we are witnessing this trend. In India the overall food price index is 10 per cent higher than last year. In China, prices are up 20 per cent for some staples. A similar inflationary trend can be discerned in America.

-snip - the rest of this article is dotted with crap.
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many crops are a once a year thing. when that crop gets ruined by the weather (climate change), another year must go by before people can hope to 'eat' that crop.

to know the full extent of how many crops have been ruined around the world, in the last 12 mo., we need some stats.

We all need to have small to medium sized gardens where we grow a portion of our own food. The food will be better. Our children and grandchildren will eat more nutritious food (as will we), and we can protect ourselves against the increasing cost of food. What do you do in the winter? You can or freeze the food you grew in the summer. That's the way my mom and dad did it. We will soon be doing that too. It will be good for us. Of course, we won't have food in years in which we have a drought. That's what you can food for.

cheap.

This about what this will do to them.

As oil/gasoline costs go up, the price of food production will go up. Modern agriculture is premised on cheap fuel to replace man and animal power. Think about all the mechanized farm equipment: tractors, combines, harvesters, trucks w/produce trailers*, trucks with produce boxes, packing equipment, etc. These all require some form of outside energy, usually petroleum based. The manufacture of synthetic fertilizers also requires energy.

I think "modern" (20th century style) agriculture will eventually fail, simply because the cost of powering the machinery will exceed the probable income from the product. Some compromise between pre-industrial-era and modern techniques will have to be worked out to continue to feed the earth's current population.

*never, ever follow a loaded tomato trailer...every bounce throws tomatoes overboard, and, well, ewwwww...

(grew up around ag stuff, and ran a farmers' market)

we continue to allow Congress backed by big Agri-Business to push ethanol as the answer to our energy supply problems we can continue to expect higher prieces for food. All to much corn is being diverted to the production of ethanol. This is driving up the price for both food and corn, the best of both worlds for Agri-Business. There are many problems with ethanol including lower BTU's, higher ozone output, transportation problems and tendency at higher percentages to damage fuel delievery systems in autos.

We need to stop Crongress's profit driven efforts to jam ethanol down our throats. On the other hand I applude the required rise in fuel mileage requirements currently before Congress.

Meat and dairy farmers have already told us the high cost of corn is driving thier costs up.

... and weapons and armaments, and only a 10% profit on investments in food production and distribution ... where would you put your money?

If that capital was made by ownership in food production and distribution and you liquidated in order to chase the far larger profit-making opportunity, what would happen to food production and distribution? If there were TWO ways to increase the profits from food production and distribution - increasing the price of food and lowering the cost of labor - why would you not do BOTH?

If there's little or no taxation or regulation in the shifting of capital from one area of endeavor to another, even across national borders, what's to stop such shifts or even slow them down?

Is there ANY limit (ethical or otherwise) on the amount of profit one should make on an investment? If ALL of the basic human survival needs were relegated to unregualted profit-oriented private 'enterprise' what's to stop the prices from going up? As more and more wealth is in the hands of fewer and fewer people, where's the "competiton" except in ever-cheaper labor?