Patience,
When I first saw the title of your post {In "
Most Recent Ten Posts"} I thought that you had started a new story titled, "
Drought in the Grain Belt".
That sounded like a most promising title for a story. May use it myself sometime.
Many don't realize how food prices continue to rise--but subtly.
I don't shop much anymore--that task falls largely to my sister.....
But let's take one product: A pretty good tasting Generic Cookie, 24 ounces for $1:40.
They raise the price to $1:49. Two months later they cut the size of the package down to 18 ounces, and raise the price to $1:53.
Then a couple months later--don't know what they're doing to those Cookies--scrimping on Sugar, using cheaper Flour, cheaper and/or less Spices.....
But the Cookies just don't taste the same.
Then about three months later, the price goes to $1:55.
Trivial?
No, not when most of the other staple foodstuffs are doing the same.
Those "Penny Crawls" add up.
Yes, one can do without Cookies, but one cannot do without food.
Now add in the Corn and Soy Bean increases that seem to be in the offing.....
Corn walks to Market.That means that every pound of Pork that you eat represents about 3.5 to 4 pounds of Corn that the Hog was fed.
Don't have the figures on Beef. Beef are less feed efficient than Swine, but at least some of their weight gains are from Pasture, Hay and Silage.
On the other hand, drought will make Cattle Grazing less productive too.
Soy is also used as Livestock Feed, but it is also used as filler in a good many cheap foods (like Frozen Burritos).
Currently the best guestimates are that the drought will cause food prices to rise somewhere between $12 to perhaps $20 per week, for the average American Family.
{Remember, this is
in addition to the regular Penny Crawls...}
We can afford this--
for awhile. But it will mean real suffering, even some starvation, for poor people in third world countries that rely, at least partly on American Grain to feed them.
The main thing though, is that the Economy is like an old piece or Denim or Canvas--dry rotten and streached as tight as a Drum Head.
It's already stressed near the maximum, and every little Pebble and Stone that you pile on it brings us that much closer to.....
Well, something.
I don't think that a 10% increase in food prices will cause Economic Collapse or Riot and Insurrection in the streets.....
Not by itself.
Look at fuel prices--particularly Gasoline prices at the pump.
People need a certain amount of Gas weekly just to get to work and what not...
Car Pooling and Mass Transit has been pushed about as far as they can go without creating massive changes in how we live...
{Even if someone thinks there
Ought to be massive changes--things either need time to change gradually...
Or they seriously rock an already unstable boat.}
But if people living on the edge of their finances are forced to spend more on Fuel, they will have less for food.
I will give a single example:
For the first time in over twenty-five years, we have canceled our Cable Subscription.
We weren't big TV Watchers, but we had a few favorite Cable Shows and we grooved on the "On Demand" Movies--mainly the free ones.
We didn't want to--and it wasn't 100% necessary but it was
highly desirable to cut back somewhere...
But multiply that by tens of thousands of American Homes...
Laid-Off Cable Workers (among others--just a
single example) stress the system too.
Food and fuel prices--more than likely--will conspire to stress the system to the max...
Then add in something that costs the Economy--on the whole--as much or more as Hurricane Katrina did...
{The aftermath of Katrina is still pulling the Economy down to some degree...
What?!? You don't think that Government (Or even Private Charity) Money to rebuild,and to feed, house and clothe refuges in the Interim doesn't necessarily come at the expense of something else?}
O well...
.....RVM45
