The Price of Food: 2007 vs. 2008

When the price of bacon rises, so shall I rise up!

I'm from Iowa, so I can tell you a major factor in the rise of the price of food, especially corn- the reason is corn ethanol. It's terribly inefficient and raises the price of all food, but my state's senators, Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, and my representative Steve King, keep voting for corn and ethanol subsidies and block any attempts to switch to sugar and switchgrass ethanol, both of which are better bio-fuels.

Politics. Yuk.

I agree with Greg

Yup Bio ethanol from corn is insanity.

But it is also PAYOLA for your corrupt glove puppet politicians.

And remember kids, these guys would happily see you starve so that they get on inch closer to the trough.

The weird thing is that all the chaff and stalk and husks from argriculture, could be burned to create energy, or even distilled to make Methanol, it's not as good as ethanol, but it is a win with next to no cost.

I would just like my own parliament(UK)to explain how it is that we need to be spending £150 billion on nuclear submarines at a time like this.

Greg

you are spot on about Switch grass.

It grows well in non arible lands, and you can harvest it twice a year

That data is from May. As of June 27, 2008 10:02 CDT, July corn is at $7.57 per bushel, or 216.91% higher than last May. This recent run-up is due to the foul weather (flooding) affecting the expected yields in the corn belt.

Think of how that will affect the input costs of all those products with high fructose corn syrup as one of the main ingredients...

greg, i'm from iowa too and i hear ya. i think i might start pooping in my gas tank to see what happens.

Looks like i am going to ordering alot more or growing my own produce. Anyone know where i can get a live chicken in NYC? lol

I love that two main staples for vegans, flaxseed and lentils, are skyrocketing. So much for saving money by not eating meat.

errr... actually, i know of not one vegan or vegetarian that thinks not eating meat saves money. do you mean the good ol' cheap college diet of cheese pizzas and cheap Subway veggie delites or something?

So help me, if this affects my beer, its on.

matt -

You must not know many vegans. Most of the ones I know or have met believe they can actually save money on food by not buying animal products.

Food price increases in developing nations have sparked riots and protectionist export bans that create even worse shortages (and higher prices) for net importers. Yet still we provide $37 billion in price supports for US growers of most of these commodities. Talk about lining up at the trough....
Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

odd. I was full-on vegan for a short while, and a vegetarian for three years. as i sit and think about it, i find i know about ten vegans, and probably have known about 20 friends in the last ten years who were vegetarian. all of them talked about how (and i, myself learned that) shopping at a grocery store takes about twice as much time and about 1.5 x as much money. maybe our friends should get together and hug it out.

Everyone laughed at my all-bacon diet. LAUGHED!

No, not the beer...

yea i'm vegetarian (but not strictly.. i still eat laura's lean beef and organic chicken), but it's definitely a more expensive diet. produce is more expensive than meat and has been, especially now that we're using a lot of it as fuel in our gas guzzlers. that's why i thought many people were NOT vegetarian, because it was cheaper.

yunno, i'm really glad everyone is sharing good information on this post and not just arguing semantics. it gives me hope that we can unite further and make something good out of this national/global crisis. thanks everyone for being good...

we need to start making vehicles that run on peanut oil... ... i heard that Mrs. Dash is the equivalent of Nitrous in the bio fuel race circuit...

With regards to the vegan/vegetarian diets being cheaper... it totally depends on where you live. I agree that lately it's been more expensive than usual to buy veggies. I live in Vancouver, BC. In the past I could get a weeks worth of veggies for under $20. Much cheaper than buying expensive meat and cheese. When I visited family in Columbus over Christmas I could not beleive the price of vegetables. We are very lucking in the west.

At least $.99 instant noodles are still the same price! :D