Hi all, I'd like to point out that a big downside of Euro priced fuel in the US is the asinine tendency to produce goods in one part of the Country (World) and then TRANSHIP all across the country. Fuel is an interesting component of freight costs in the distribution network. As fuel costs rise, so do consumer goods costs and that hurts the less economically advantaged disproportionally.
My company manufactures Organic Vegetarian Foods on the West Coast of Calif. Fully 5-6% of our annual budget costs go to truck freight to distribution. If the price of Diesel (Dino) doubles (taxes, price manipulation, etc) the price of our products has to rise. Unfortunately, due to brokers in the middle, this wholesale price rise of 5-6% gets whacked again by the distributors who mark up on a straight % basis of delivered price. Suddenly, our affordable, vegetarian, organic food becomes very unaffordable to the people that need and want it the most. The parasitic drag of the brokerage mark up also becomes unbearable. eg. Our delivered price goes up 6% the broker adds their mark up (30%) on top of the DELIVERED price. Fuel goes up, the broker makes more $$$ for sitting on their butts. Short of producing on both coasts, (duplication of everything in the system, loss of economies of scale, etc,) How do we get good, healthy food to those that want/need it? The same situation applies to fresh produce, even more so. If biodiesel were an option, how long before the same Bastards got control of the sales and distribution? And charged accordingly? I'm all for localized production where possible, but the food distribution system is a real challenge. I am thinking that if a few Natural Foods companies in the area can co-op biodiesel production from our WVO and contract freight with a trucking company, we can be in a bit more control of our destiny. Pipe dream? Got to start somewhere. Mark Osborne --- Appal Energy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You know, the really nice thing is that there is at least somet type > of > circuit interupt between the manufacturing sector and the legislative > sector. > > Despite all the legislated subsidies for fossil and nuclear there > remains > the problem of ever-increasing costs and ever decreasing supplies > giving > rise to price increases. > > The market can be a wonderful thing, eh? > > :-) ..... Still begging for $4.50 a gallon (US).... > > Todd Swearingen > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
