[Sarge]

My buddy lives in Kuwait (contract work). He said gas prices have not changed in years but food prices have skyrocketed.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by LuckyStrike

http://www.ndwheat.com/growers/detail.asp?newsID=1209................................At the root of increased input costs is the price of oil. There in turn may be many factors involved in the rising cost of oil. .............................

At least some articles agree with me. And to cement my severe case of BDS, the catalyst for the oil crisis was the stupid Bush war in Iraq, and it has snowballed the economy down hill from there.

[LuckyStrike]

The war is a factor, but I think primarily on the speculative side of the equation. Increased demand for energy due to economic growth and development in China and India and other places is a big factor. Also don't forget that oil is priced in dollars. The precipitous fall of the dollar against foreign currencies that was triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crash makes the dollar worth less. That factor alone should account for a significant portion of the increase in oil prices.

Just suppose that some major exporter of oil were to say "screw the U.S., we will no longer sell oil to the United States". What effect would that have on the price of oil? There would probably be a short term upward spike in the price of oil due entirely to speculative trading. It would have no effect on supply and demand. Why? Because oil is a fluid commodity. Any oil produced anywhere in the world becomes part of the global oil supply. When an oil tanker is loaded anywhere in the world that oil will be bought and sold many times before it ever reaches it's destination. An oil producer cannot hurt us without hurting all consumers of oil around the world.

[pyritechips]

You have anticipated me, Tom. I was about to post elsewhere that, despite the fact that I am all for a cleaner Earth, the thought of burning food as fuel is absolutely criminal! Bio-fuels should be banned worldwide.

[pyritechips]

Originally Posted by Bastiat

See you are talking about production. Apparently my point was to obtuse for you. We produce what we eat and market what we don't need. How we choose to use what we produce....including overeating (another media hype) is the prerogative of the US citizen is it not? Do you believe we somehow owe a responsibility to feed the citizens of other nations?

Two points on that. At the risk of getting accused of being anti-American, it is not a long stretch of the imagination to conclude that Americans are gluttons, en masse, food and fuel wise. Cutting back would, reduce the amount of money shipped out of the country to ship in oil and increase the amount of food it can export and earn larger profits. This would also strengthen the Yankee green-back worldwide.

As for responsibility, no you don't, legally, but morally...?

[Bastiat]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

Two points on that. At the risk of getting accused of being anti-American, it is not a long stretch of the imagination to conclude that Americans are gluttons, en masse, food and fuel wise. Cutting back would, reduce the amount of money shipped out of the country to ship in oil and increase the amount of food it can export and earn larger profits. This would also strengthen the Yankee green-back worldwide.

As for responsibility, no you don't, legally, but morally...?

Don't look farther than your own backyard Canadian gringo, Canadians over-consume food as well. Like the US you also produce way more than your population could consume if it wanted to, just like the US.
Morally? Now that's funny.

[pyritechips]

Originally Posted by Bastiat

Don't look farther than your own backyard Canadian gringo, Canadians over-consume food as well. Like the US you also produce way more than your population could consume if it wanted to, just like the US.
Morally? Now that's funny.

No seriously! I don't differentiate when it comes to North America. Our habits are frightenly similar. It was a rhetorical question that I was asking everybody, myself included. Question: do we have a moral obligation to feed the poor? I know that Canada is one of several countries that is being criticized for not sending the commited amount of food aid. Can we say: "Sorry, folks; we need this for ourselves and as an alternate fuel source.".

[Bastiat]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

Can we say: "Sorry, folks; we need this for ourselves and as an alternate fuel source.".

Yes.

Next question.

[pyritechips]

Originally Posted by Bastiat

Yes.

Next question.

So, what will happen when water thirsty states come to Canada looking for water and Canada says "Sorry folks; we need it for ourselves."? Will they start siphoning off the Great Lakes?

[Bastiat]

Originally Posted by pyritechips

So, what will happen when water thirsty states come to Canada looking for water and Canada says "Sorry folks; we need it for ourselves."? Will they start siphoning off the Great Lakes?

Just our part of the water.

[lotuseclat79]

Radical Science Aims to Solve Food Crisis
Article here.

Scientists are pondering a new "green revolution," half a century after the first one, to solve a growing food shortage that has reached crisis proportions in some countries.

American consumers are experiencing the trickle-down effects of the lack of food. People in Haiti, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen and other countries have taken to the streets in recent weeks and months to protest the rising costs of food. An official with the World Food Program yesterday called it a "silent tsunami" of world hunger.

The causes are many, including rising fuel prices, the diversion of land to grow biofuel instead of food crops and droughts in Australia, one of the world's main producers of wheat. Additionally, the global population is growing, notably in places such as India and China, where increasing prosperity has allowed more people to buy more and finer food.

Many people look to science to ease the pinch — after all, it worked once before.

-- Tom

P.S. Yum - lab meat!

[Knotbored]

There is no shortage of food-there is a shortage of cheap food, just as there is no shortage of fuels-just a shortage of cheap ones.
I live in a rural area with vacant farmland by the mile. The main crops raised around here are flower seeds and tulip bulbs, because they pay the farmers better then food crops.
The tax and employee costs make investment in food crops an illogical use of expensive land.
Remove the property tax on farmland and allow farmers to negotiate wages and benefits on his employees and reduced food prices will drop like a rock.
The profit from corn or wheat is only a couple hundred dollars an acre, and that barely pays the county property taxes.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by Knotbored

There is no shortage of food-there is a shortage of cheap food, just as there is no shortage of fuels-just a shortage of cheap ones.

BINGO!!

I live in a rural area with vacant farmland by the mile. The main crops raised around here are flower seeds and tulip bulbs, because they pay the farmers better then food crops.
The tax and employee costs make investment in food crops an illogical use of expensive land.
Remove the property tax on farmland and allow farmers to negotiate wages and benefits on his employees and reduced food prices will drop like a rock.
The profit from corn or wheat is only a couple hundred dollars an acre, and that barely pays the county property taxes.

You're scary, and making entirely too much sense to be posting in CivDeb.

You are touching on sacred cows when you start talking of reducing property tax on farmlands. The rural communities in my area would be broken overnight and their schools shuttered (real estate tax is the bulk of school financing in Texas). The local and state politicians heads would explode if you reduced their available revenues. They don't care if we have to pay $5 for an ear of corn, or whether we can even afford to buy one.