[ExI] Food Production

Dan dan_ust at yahoo.com
Thu Apr 23 15:22:37 UTC 2009


--- On Thu, 4/23/09, MB <mbb386 at main.nc.us> wrote:
> >> ...Given that energy and food are linked
> >  > together in a very short loop due the
> >> ability to use ethanol and vegetable oil
> >  > as fuel, any serious and lasting reduction
> >  > of the energy production worldwide will
> >  > cause the richer nations to use their
> >  > riches to buy food and oil at higher
> prices.
> >
> > Hmm. I don't know about the "short loop". When
> > oil prices jumped way up, did food prices? If
> > so, it doesn't seem that food prices have come
> > down now!
> >
> 
> Where I live many food prices did jump considerably (milk,
> butter, eggs, vegs) and a
> good number of them have dropped a bit now, not back to
> pre-jump, but down.

I'm not familiar with the details of the food markets, but they are heavily subsidized in the first place and have price supports in most places, especially in the US.  Also, the subsidization of corn for ethanol in the US seems to have driven up grain prices.  Since corn derivatives are used in many food products -- e.g., corn syrup is used as an additive in many foods -- this shouldn't be surprising.  In other words, the demand for corn rose -- as some of it was siphoned off by further government subsidies -- while the supply didn't increase, one would expect the price to go up.

Regards,

Dan


      



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list