Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Kirk McLoren wrote: (cpm wrote) -SNIP No. Food outside the corporate stranglehold isn't cheaper, it's more expensive, it's also higher quality, better tasting and considerably healthier. --- 65 cents for Fuji apples and FRESH beats the heck out of corporate distribution in my book -- -SNIP Heck, you could grow some of it yourself. --- Sure, plant corn in front of your condo. Most people have little or no land -- Sheesh, if you are a meat eater, you can actually go source your meat from CSAs, see how the animals live, meet your butcher, see how it's prepared. you don't have to eat downer cows if you don't want to. It'll cost more. The folks providing that food have to live too. we have cows - and sheep and turkeys and chickens to name a few. Not my first rodeo. Used to live on 3000 acres. And I know what obstacles the corporations placed in the little guys way. My uncle ran a small abator and freezer plant. No ecoli in his meat thankyou. Well said; Given these salient points, then you know quite well how much work and effort goes into putting food on the table. You know, much better than most how hard 'everyday' folks would have to work in order to feed themselves and their own, and how much time they would have left over to pursue their 'normal' vocation. If valuation were calculated accordingly, I think the argument that food should be a great deal more expensive than it is, is a pretty easy conclusion to reach, were this a given. As to the snipe about growing corn in front of a condo, you know quite well that there are community gardens all over the US, that urban farming is quite real, and that most if not all condo complexes have common areas, and not just a few of them allow gardening. If folks wanted it, they could have it. I say that statement is a straw man. You know better, and you know you know better. The free market aspects of agricultural economics in the US started to sunset back in the 1930s as 'large scale corporate interests' began moving the laws around to favor their agendas. Sure, it's funny to see folks yelling about free market economics where there is no free market, sad really. On the other hand, there is a burgeoning free market agriculture (not new really, but certainly a new growing awareness) in small farms engaged in pursuing sustainability at local economic scales. Are corporate 'interests' doing stuff to counter this? Oh sure. Working hard at it. Starting up astroturf outfits like American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology AFACT (http://www.itisafact.org) to promote rBST, getting their pals in government to cut funding to research sustainable agricutural approaches while increasing funding to the more and more privatized government labs where the gene and pharma work is being done to further their product lines and market agendas. Sure, this is happening, and many more things besides. No argument. But I still flatly reject that food needs to be cheaper, as it implies those bringing it to market should be earning less (and you know very well how little they earn as it is) I also flatly reject that the work that needs to be done, needs to be done 'breaking the stranglehold of corporate food distribution (paraphrase)' I say opting out of corporate food distribution as far as one is able achieves a lot of benefit for not a lot of effort. Keith said something a long time back, and to me it rang quite true; that being -in a nutshell- that the future is communities sustained by immediate local small scale agriculture. This can happen on the scale of multiple billions, or a few million, but it is the future. Are things bad? sure. It is also true that some things are good, and I dare say, some things are even getting better. You know all of this, I know you do. Why are we arguing? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Kirk McLoren wrote: If you want cheaper food you have to break the stranglehold the corporations have on distribution. I'm sorry, but this level of rhetoric is just getting to be too much for me. Cheaper food? You want CHEAPER food? The base food in the US is already so cheap, that folks go out of businesses trying to produce it. Cheaper? The most sensible discussion I've ever heard on the cost of food revolved around keeping the price of food artificially low, so that only large scale industrial approaches could be considered viable, and low production high quality (read small farm) approaches were doomed to economic failure. This approach 'frees' up lots of 'consumer dollars' to go other more important things, like HDTVs and iPhones, new SUVs, granite counter topped trophy kitchens (that never get used) rather than nutrition and health. Please note that I am only speaking of the USA. My first hand knowledge outside there is really weak. I've not even set foot outside the USA in over 20 years. Stranglehold? You mean the stranglehold of desiring only the one criteria of cheap perhaps. That's the only stranglehold I see them having. To grow high quality food is time consuming, and labor intensive. You want it to be cheaper too? So, the folks who work their asses off 50 weeks out of the year, 7 days a week should earn less for their efforts at bringing nutritious high quality food to market? last time I was at a farmers market (and I go about every week) I didn't see any corporation there strangling people. But then again, the food wasn't cheap. It was fairly priced. Sorry, but that line really pushed my buttons. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Chris Burck wrote: artificially low prices and control of distribution are two sides of the same coin. from seed to shelf, the same entities are running the game. i didn't hear anyone suggesting farmer's markets are corporate controlled. No. What was suggested was that 'corporations' have a stranglehold on distribution, and you want cheap food you have to break that stranglehold. That's what was not just suggested, that was clearly stated. So, Farmer's Markets are not distribution then? If there is no corporate stranglehold on Farmer's Markets, then the food there should be cheaper, yes? No. Food outside the corporate stranglehold isn't cheaper, it's more expensive, it's also higher quality, better tasting and considerably healthier. It's all well and good to sit back and yell about corporate strangleholds and all that. Sure, there is plenty there to yell about. At the end of the day, guess what? It doesn't matter. If you haven't learned yet that 'corporations' aren't acting in your best interest, then you just aren't going to learn it. In most places in the US, you can source your food from within your own 'food shed'. Yeah, that means no grapes for 89 cents a pound in February, and you'll pay a serious premium for indoor grown tomatoes this time of year. But if you canned the ones you got when they were in season, you won't care. Heck, you could grow some of it yourself. Sheesh, if you are a meat eater, you can actually go source your meat from CSAs, see how the animals live, meet your butcher, see how it's prepared. you don't have to eat downer cows if you don't want to. It'll cost more. The folks providing that food have to live too. Is that wrong? If the corporations weren't airfreighting in grapes from south america to sell at Wallmart for .89 a pound, (with some gawdawful fuel load) then somehow that would make the februrary grapes cheaper? Please. Know farms, Know food. On 2/27/08, Chip Mefford [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Kirk McLoren wrote: If you want cheaper food you have to break the stranglehold the corporations have on distribution. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
artificially low prices and control of distribution are two sides of the same coin. from seed to shelf, the same entities are running the game. i didn't hear anyone suggesting farmer's markets are corporate controlled. On 2/27/08, Chip Mefford [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Kirk McLoren wrote: If you want cheaper food you have to break the stranglehold the corporations have on distribution. I'm sorry, but this level of rhetoric is just getting to be too much for me. Cheaper food? You want CHEAPER food? The base food in the US is already so cheap, that folks go out of businesses trying to produce it. Cheaper? The most sensible discussion I've ever heard on the cost of food revolved around keeping the price of food artificially low, so that only large scale industrial approaches could be considered viable, and low production high quality (read small farm) approaches were doomed to economic failure. This approach 'frees' up lots of 'consumer dollars' to go other more important things, like HDTVs and iPhones, new SUVs, granite counter topped trophy kitchens (that never get used) rather than nutrition and health. Please note that I am only speaking of the USA. My first hand knowledge outside there is really weak. I've not even set foot outside the USA in over 20 years. Stranglehold? You mean the stranglehold of desiring only the one criteria of cheap perhaps. That's the only stranglehold I see them having. To grow high quality food is time consuming, and labor intensive. You want it to be cheaper too? So, the folks who work their asses off 50 weeks out of the year, 7 days a week should earn less for their efforts at bringing nutritious high quality food to market? last time I was at a farmers market (and I go about every week) I didn't see any corporation there strangling people. But then again, the food wasn't cheap. It was fairly priced. Sorry, but that line really pushed my buttons. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Hello John As many of us know, the earth's ability to supply resources for 6 billion people has reached it's limit. Now it's which end use these resources are assigned. Food or fuel? More of one means less of the other. We are in decline. Then many of us know wrong. It's not true, and it doesn't take a lot of research to establish that. What has been reached, long since, is the earth's ability to supply resources to feed the twin black holes of rich-country consumerism and the global corporate pillaging that depends on it (and created it and maintains it). About 1.2 billion people go hungry, but that's not because of a shortage of food. There's more than enough food for everybody, more food per capita than there's ever been before. They're hungry because that's how the industrial food production and distribution system works - they simply get shoved aside, out of the picture. The food vs fuel controversy also falls apart when you have a closer look. Sustainable food production and sustainable fuel production are compatible, even complementary, and can supply the needs of a much bigger population than 6 billion. But not if we leave it to the business-as-usual folks either to do it for us or to dictate the way we live. See eg.: http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg69331.html Myth 3: Too Many Mouths to Feed Best Keith Keith Addison wrote: Brownfield: Ag News of America Consumers can and will pay more for food Monday, February 25, 2008, 3:12 PM by Peter Shinn For the past 11 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has celebrated the fact that Americans generally pay around 10% of their total income for food, the lowest total of any nation on earth, with an event called Food Checkout Day. It's typically held in the first week of February to symbolize the number of days the average American has to work in order to earn enough money to pay for their food bill. But due to a wide range of factors, it looks like that date may have to be pushed back next year. In fact, U.S. consumers have enjoyed steady to declining food prices, at least in real terms, for many years. That's according to Bill Lapp, President of Advanced Economic Solutions, who says those good times for American food consumers are over, most likely forever. Lapp, the former leading economist for ConAgra, told Brownfield bread prices rose over 10% in 2007 and are likely to do at least that again this year. He added other food prices will also head higher as food manufacturers increasingly pass on the costs of high commodities to consumers. The good news, Lapp said, is that most U.S. consumers can afford to pay up, even if they won't have much choice in the matter. I think consumers are more prepared than we realize to accept higher prices on food and I think that's part of our future, Lapp predicted. It's largely been set in stone for us already. Set in stone because the factors that have driven ag commodity prices sharply higher since August of 2006 haven't changed. And according to Lapp, who spoke Friday at USDA's Ag Outlook Forum, those factors are manifold. The risk of weather and a 5% increase in world coarse grain demand and still strong global economic growth and [biofuels] mandates from the government all suggest, Lapp said, that the bonfire that we've started is still going strong. All that, Lapp emphasized, makes robust U.S. crop production this year critically important. He called the consequences of a potential 10% cut in this year's corn crop due to drought scary. And he said it may be a number of years before technological advances that improve yields boost crop production enough to generate surpluses in the face of the strong demand factors he listed. There's a lot of things in the pipeline - some of the new varieties and their resistance to drought have really benefited the industry, Lapp pointed out. But it's going to take a while and the first thing we have to do is attract more acreage into production and eventually we can have those yields, he added. And again, of course, we're always vulnerable on a year-to-year basis from weather-caused yield declines. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages):
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
farmer markets are cheaper or more expensivd, depending on the item and time of year. csa packets are actually quite competitive. of course, farmer markets are distribution, and outside of the corporate network. kirk's point was that there aren't enough of them (at least that's how i read it), and that it's no accident that they are more or less on the margin. On 2/27/08, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello John As many of us know, the earth's ability to supply resources for 6 billion people has reached it's limit. Now it's which end use these resources are assigned. Food or fuel? More of one means less of the other. We are in decline. Then many of us know wrong. It's not true, and it doesn't take a lot of research to establish that. What has been reached, long since, is the earth's ability to supply resources to feed the twin black holes of rich-country consumerism and the global corporate pillaging that depends on it (and created it and maintains it). About 1.2 billion people go hungry, but that's not because of a shortage of food. There's more than enough food for everybody, more food per capita than there's ever been before. They're hungry because that's how the industrial food production and distribution system works - they simply get shoved aside, out of the picture. The food vs fuel controversy also falls apart when you have a closer look. Sustainable food production and sustainable fuel production are compatible, even complementary, and can supply the needs of a much bigger population than 6 billion. But not if we leave it to the business-as-usual folks either to do it for us or to dictate the way we live. See eg.: http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg69331.html Myth 3: Too Many Mouths to Feed Best Keith Keith Addison wrote: Brownfield: Ag News of America Consumers can and will pay more for food Monday, February 25, 2008, 3:12 PM by Peter Shinn For the past 11 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has celebrated the fact that Americans generally pay around 10% of their total income for food, the lowest total of any nation on earth, with an event called Food Checkout Day. It's typically held in the first week of February to symbolize the number of days the average American has to work in order to earn enough money to pay for their food bill. But due to a wide range of factors, it looks like that date may have to be pushed back next year. In fact, U.S. consumers have enjoyed steady to declining food prices, at least in real terms, for many years. That's according to Bill Lapp, President of Advanced Economic Solutions, who says those good times for American food consumers are over, most likely forever. Lapp, the former leading economist for ConAgra, told Brownfield bread prices rose over 10% in 2007 and are likely to do at least that again this year. He added other food prices will also head higher as food manufacturers increasingly pass on the costs of high commodities to consumers. The good news, Lapp said, is that most U.S. consumers can afford to pay up, even if they won't have much choice in the matter. I think consumers are more prepared than we realize to accept higher prices on food and I think that's part of our future, Lapp predicted. It's largely been set in stone for us already. Set in stone because the factors that have driven ag commodity prices sharply higher since August of 2006 haven't changed. And according to Lapp, who spoke Friday at USDA's Ag Outlook Forum, those factors are manifold. The risk of weather and a 5% increase in world coarse grain demand and still strong global economic growth and [biofuels] mandates from the government all suggest, Lapp said, that the bonfire that we've started is still going strong. All that, Lapp emphasized, makes robust U.S. crop production this year critically important. He called the consequences of a potential 10% cut in this year's corn crop due to drought scary. And he said it may be a number of years before technological advances that improve yields boost crop production enough to generate surpluses in the face of the strong demand factors he listed. There's a lot of things in the pipeline - some of the new varieties and their resistance to drought have really benefited the industry, Lapp pointed out. But it's going to take a while and the first thing we have to do is attract more acreage into production and eventually we can have those yields, he added. And again, of course, we're always vulnerable on a year-to-year basis from weather-caused yield declines. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Chip Mefford [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:Chris Burck wrote: artificially low prices and control of distribution are two sides of the same coin. from seed to shelf, the same entities are running the game. i didn't hear anyone suggesting farmer's markets are corporate controlled. No. What was suggested was that 'corporations' have a stranglehold on distribution, and you want cheap food you have to break that stranglehold. That's what was not just suggested, that was clearly stated. So, Farmer's Markets are not distribution then? - If a half day on Saturday works for your community have at it. -- If there is no corporate stranglehold on Farmer's Markets, then the food there should be cheaper, yes? No. Food outside the corporate stranglehold isn't cheaper, it's more expensive, it's also higher quality, better tasting and considerably healthier. --- 65 cents for Fuji apples and FRESH beats the heck out of corporate distribution in my book -- It's all well and good to sit back and yell about corporate strangleholds and all that. Sure, there is plenty there to yell about. At the end of the day, guess what? It doesn't matter. If you haven't learned yet that 'corporations' aren't acting in your best interest, then you just aren't going to learn it. In most places in the US, you can source your food from within your own 'food shed'. Yeah, that means no grapes for 89 cents a pound in February, and you'll pay a serious premium for indoor grown tomatoes this time of year. But if you canned the ones you got when they were in season, you won't care. Heck, you could grow some of it yourself. --- Sure, plant corn in front of your condo. Most people have little or no land -- Sheesh, if you are a meat eater, you can actually go source your meat from CSAs, see how the animals live, meet your butcher, see how it's prepared. you don't have to eat downer cows if you don't want to. It'll cost more. The folks providing that food have to live too. we have cows - and sheep and turkeys and chickens to name a few. Not my first rodeo. Used to live on 3000 acres. And I know what obstacles the corporations placed in the little guys way. My uncle ran a small abator and freezer plant. No ecoli in his meat thankyou. Is that wrong? If the corporations weren't airfreighting in grapes from south america to sell at Wallmart for .89 a pound, (with some gawdawful fuel load) then somehow that would make the februrary grapes cheaper? Please. Know farms, Know food. On 2/27/08, Chip Mefford wrote: Kirk McLoren wrote: If you want cheaper food you have to break the stranglehold the corporations have on distribution. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080227/b0af414a/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
As many of us know, the earth's ability to supply resources for 6 billion people has reached it's limit. Now it's which end use these resources are assigned. Food or fuel? More of one means less of the other. We are in decline. Keith Addison wrote: Brownfield: Ag News of America Consumers can and will pay more for food Monday, February 25, 2008, 3:12 PM by Peter Shinn For the past 11 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has celebrated the fact that Americans generally pay around 10% of their total income for food, the lowest total of any nation on earth, with an event called Food Checkout Day. It's typically held in the first week of February to symbolize the number of days the average American has to work in order to earn enough money to pay for their food bill. But due to a wide range of factors, it looks like that date may have to be pushed back next year. In fact, U.S. consumers have enjoyed steady to declining food prices, at least in real terms, for many years. That's according to Bill Lapp, President of Advanced Economic Solutions, who says those good times for American food consumers are over, most likely forever. Lapp, the former leading economist for ConAgra, told Brownfield bread prices rose over 10% in 2007 and are likely to do at least that again this year. He added other food prices will also head higher as food manufacturers increasingly pass on the costs of high commodities to consumers. The good news, Lapp said, is that most U.S. consumers can afford to pay up, even if they won't have much choice in the matter. I think consumers are more prepared than we realize to accept higher prices on food and I think that's part of our future, Lapp predicted. It's largely been set in stone for us already. Set in stone because the factors that have driven ag commodity prices sharply higher since August of 2006 haven't changed. And according to Lapp, who spoke Friday at USDA's Ag Outlook Forum, those factors are manifold. The risk of weather and a 5% increase in world coarse grain demand and still strong global economic growth and [biofuels] mandates from the government all suggest, Lapp said, that the bonfire that we've started is still going strong. All that, Lapp emphasized, makes robust U.S. crop production this year critically important. He called the consequences of a potential 10% cut in this year's corn crop due to drought scary. And he said it may be a number of years before technological advances that improve yields boost crop production enough to generate surpluses in the face of the strong demand factors he listed. There's a lot of things in the pipeline - some of the new varieties and their resistance to drought have really benefited the industry, Lapp pointed out. But it's going to take a while and the first thing we have to do is attract more acreage into production and eventually we can have those yields, he added. And again, of course, we're always vulnerable on a year-to-year basis from weather-caused yield declines. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
You forgot the third option which is what most of land's productive output is used for nowadays -- industrial feedstocks. If we cut back on that, we'd have alot more for both food and fuel. Z On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 3:54 PM, John Mullan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As many of us know, the earth's ability to supply resources for 6 billion people has reached it's limit. Now it's which end use these resources are assigned. Food or fuel? More of one means less of the other. We are in decline. Keith Addison wrote: Brownfield: Ag News of America Consumers can and will pay more for food Monday, February 25, 2008, 3:12 PM by Peter Shinn For the past 11 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has celebrated the fact that Americans generally pay around 10% of their total income for food, the lowest total of any nation on earth, with an event called Food Checkout Day. It's typically held in the first week of February to symbolize the number of days the average American has to work in order to earn enough money to pay for their food bill. But due to a wide range of factors, it looks like that date may have to be pushed back next year. In fact, U.S. consumers have enjoyed steady to declining food prices, at least in real terms, for many years. That's according to Bill Lapp, President of Advanced Economic Solutions, who says those good times for American food consumers are over, most likely forever. Lapp, the former leading economist for ConAgra, told Brownfield bread prices rose over 10% in 2007 and are likely to do at least that again this year. He added other food prices will also head higher as food manufacturers increasingly pass on the costs of high commodities to consumers. The good news, Lapp said, is that most U.S. consumers can afford to pay up, even if they won't have much choice in the matter. I think consumers are more prepared than we realize to accept higher prices on food and I think that's part of our future, Lapp predicted. It's largely been set in stone for us already. Set in stone because the factors that have driven ag commodity prices sharply higher since August of 2006 haven't changed. And according to Lapp, who spoke Friday at USDA's Ag Outlook Forum, those factors are manifold. The risk of weather and a 5% increase in world coarse grain demand and still strong global economic growth and [biofuels] mandates from the government all suggest, Lapp said, that the bonfire that we've started is still going strong. All that, Lapp emphasized, makes robust U.S. crop production this year critically important. He called the consequences of a potential 10% cut in this year's corn crop due to drought scary. And he said it may be a number of years before technological advances that improve yields boost crop production enough to generate surpluses in the face of the strong demand factors he listed. There's a lot of things in the pipeline - some of the new varieties and their resistance to drought have really benefited the industry, Lapp pointed out. But it's going to take a while and the first thing we have to do is attract more acreage into production and eventually we can have those yields, he added. And again, of course, we're always vulnerable on a year-to-year basis from weather-caused yield declines. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Consumers can and will pay more for food
Far from it. The problem is distribution not production. The Fed gvt pays farmers not to plant so that the market isnt glutted. There is an enormous acreage in these programs. If you want cheaper food you have to break the stranglehold the corporations have on distribution. You have to go through them to reach your customer. Half day Saturday Farmers Markets doesnt hack it. I buy fresh Fuji apples for 65 cents a pound and they crackle when you bite them and full of sweet juice. What do you pay for soft insipid pulpy last years crop in the supers? I wont eat them. If you had an alternative you wouldnt either. But the corporations have taken that from you. Kirk John Mullan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: As many of us know, the earth's ability to supply resources for 6 billion people has reached it's limit. Now it's which end use these resources are assigned. Food or fuel? More of one means less of the other. We are in decline. Keith Addison wrote: Brownfield: Ag News of America Consumers can and will pay more for food Monday, February 25, 2008, 3:12 PM by Peter Shinn For the past 11 years, the American Farm Bureau Federation has celebrated the fact that Americans generally pay around 10% of their total income for food, the lowest total of any nation on earth, with an event called Food Checkout Day. It's typically held in the first week of February to symbolize the number of days the average American has to work in order to earn enough money to pay for their food bill. But due to a wide range of factors, it looks like that date may have to be pushed back next year. In fact, U.S. consumers have enjoyed steady to declining food prices, at least in real terms, for many years. That's according to Bill Lapp, President of Advanced Economic Solutions, who says those good times for American food consumers are over, most likely forever. Lapp, the former leading economist for ConAgra, told Brownfield bread prices rose over 10% in 2007 and are likely to do at least that again this year. He added other food prices will also head higher as food manufacturers increasingly pass on the costs of high commodities to consumers. The good news, Lapp said, is that most U.S. consumers can afford to pay up, even if they won't have much choice in the matter. I think consumers are more prepared than we realize to accept higher prices on food and I think that's part of our future, Lapp predicted. It's largely been set in stone for us already. Set in stone because the factors that have driven ag commodity prices sharply higher since August of 2006 haven't changed. And according to Lapp, who spoke Friday at USDA's Ag Outlook Forum, those factors are manifold. The risk of weather and a 5% increase in world coarse grain demand and still strong global economic growth and [biofuels] mandates from the government all suggest, Lapp said, that the bonfire that we've started is still going strong. All that, Lapp emphasized, makes robust U.S. crop production this year critically important. He called the consequences of a potential 10% cut in this year's corn crop due to drought scary. And he said it may be a number of years before technological advances that improve yields boost crop production enough to generate surpluses in the face of the strong demand factors he listed. There's a lot of things in the pipeline - some of the new varieties and their resistance to drought have really benefited the industry, Lapp pointed out. But it's going to take a while and the first thing we have to do is attract more acreage into production and eventually we can have those yields, he added. And again, of course, we're always vulnerable on a year-to-year basis from weather-caused yield declines. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ - Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080226/c2501a63/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
