Food prices are set to double

Food prices are set to double

www.news.com.au

AUSTRALIAN food prices could double within a few years on the back of global shortages and soaring fuel prices.

The drought, a shortage of water and agricultural land, insatiable demand from China and India and a lack of investment in research have combined with high oil prices to create a grim future for Australian families.

(visit the link for the full news article)

My guess is that the situation is similar in a lot of other countries. The sad thing is, a lot of people saw this coming, and as per usual, nothing was done by those in power (not that this comes as any surprise to me). I am also in the process of deciding whether to buy a new car but for the way fuel prices are rising - at this rate in 3 or 4 years only the very wealthy will be able to consider driving anywhere.....furthermore should we finally get our act together and start mass producing electric cars or those run by alternative fuels buying a new car at the moment may be a silly investment.

www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by the titor experience


I'm actually in the same boat as you regarding the purchase of a vehicle.

I abandoned having a private vehicle ever since I moved to Ottawa... but now that I'm in Toronto, the public transit system is not as good... and the city is way too big to rely on public transit in the first place.

But gas prices are so high... I really don't want to buy a gasoline driven vehicle.

Being a roboticist, I could rip the engine out of an old clunker and make my own electric drive for it... but heres the catch. Government laws state that electric vehicles are still not safety regulated, and hence, if I did swap the engine out, I couldn't get the vehicle safetied for road use.

Doesn't make sense considering it's the same frame, does it?


On the topic of food. We here in Canada have been hit by the same shortages you have. It's a worldwide thing. Problem is, it's the same price issue everywhere... which tells me it's a bogus scare.

If there really was a food shortage issue... different countries with different trade lines would be hit by the shortage differently. But their not. We don't share the same trade lines... but here we are with the exact same problem.

Again, just doesn't add up.

Originally posted by johnsky
reply to post by the titor experience

 

I'm actually in the same boat as you regarding the purchase of a vehicle.

I abandoned having a private vehicle ever since I moved to Ottawa... but now that I'm in Toronto, the public transit system is not as good... and the city is way too big to rely on public transit in the first place.

But gas prices are so high... I really don't want to buy a gasoline driven vehicle.

Buy a Hybrid. I have one and they are amazing! I can make 600 miles on one tank of Gas. I hardly ever visit the gas station any more, and when I do, the cost of Gas doesn't really matter anymore, because I'm not there anywhere near as frequent as I was with my old v8 engine.

If the market was flooded with hybrids, the gas prices would not be an issue.

Originally posted by the titor experience


My guess is that the situation is similar in a lot of other countries. The sad thing is, a lot of people saw this coming, and as per usual, nothing was done by those in power (not that this comes as any surprise to me). I am also in the process of deciding whether to buy a new car but for the way fuel prices are rising - at this rate in 3 or 4 years only the very wealthy will be able to consider driving anywhere.....furthermore should we finally get our act together and start mass producing electric cars or those run by alternative fuels buying a new car at the moment may be a silly investment.

www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

I just got done reading an article in the Economist, regarding food prices. They have increased 22% in China in the last 12 months. However, the Economist sees this hitting developing countries much worse than already developed and established nations. This is because the inflation in those countries is much worse than let's say here in the US.

Which means only the wealthy nations will be able to continue to live like they do. This is great news for me as I live in one of those.

I have a feeling that we are all going to go back to a real wartime mentality when it comes to our food supply, in the not too distant future. I did hear that for the first time in a long time this year, sales of vegetable seeds outsold flower seeds, so maybe this means that people are really thinking ahead when it comes to what they're eating. Again, I too have the luck to live in a wealthy place, but I think that the food issue could turn out to be so global and so massive that it will affect even us. I know that members of my own family remember food being hoarded during WW2, and wonder if we should all have an emergency supply of essentials....it really wasn't too long ago that we were rationed with which food we could buy, and if we think we're protected by the supermarket culture that feeds us, we're deluding ourselves. It would run dry overnight if people in general really panicked.
Perhaps producers should look at how many calories per acre they add to the food supply, and reduce the amount of meat produced in favour of more calorific crops, and we should all have more responsibility in terms of providing for ourselves. It's hard work, but I know we have potatoes in the garden, and a few other things started, and it feels really good.

reply to post by the titor experience


Good thread TTE

Just goes to show, we are raking in billions from sales of commodities, yet due to 10 yrs of drought, food prices have skyrocketed the last few years and are going to be a lot worse unless this drought somehow breaks....

Unfortunately, many of us don't benefit from the resources boom...

And with meteorologists predicting a possible El Nino again early next year, there's not a great chance of drought breaking where we grow most of our food

Peace

The vehicle thing troubles me too. My other half and I are students, so clearly not too well off at the mo, and we run around in two not too old cars that are reliable, and were really cheap to buy. There's the problem...how do we afford a newer hybrid, which we would dearly love that's kinder on fuel and the environment? I fear it's a trap many people fall into, and we have no alternative but car ownership as we live almost 8 miles from the main road, and the village a mile away has a bus scheduled once a week....I kid you not! Do I get a horse? What?

reply to post by Quazga


A Hybrid seems like a good idea until you meter the electrosmog in th back seat. Keep your kids back there and it will fry the neurons in their brains.....

Not super safe in the front seat either.

For faeries sake...I didn't think of that. Is it really a problem? A horse is looking like a darned good option right now!

Illahee
very interested in the electrosmog, is that the real name for it ?
only asking as we are getting rid of our volvo for a hybrid..=[
kind regards

Originally posted by Illahee
reply to post by Quazga

 

A Hybrid seems like a good idea until you meter the electrosmog in th back seat. Keep your kids back there and it will fry the neurons in their brains.....

Not super safe in the front seat either.

Electrosmog?

What about folks who who work in high voltage AC fields?
Doesn't seem to bother them.

A lot more 'electrosmog' - whatever the heck that is - at a high voltage power station than there is in an electric car.

Originally posted by the titor experience

Food prices are set to double

www.news.com.au

AUSTRALIAN food prices could double within a few years on the back of global shortages and soaring fuel prices.

The drought, a shortage of water and agricultural land, insatiable demand from China and India and a lack of investment in research have combined with high oil prices to create a grim future for Australian families.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The headline is a bit misleading methinks.

"Set to double" is a touch different than "could double" and two years pretty much takes it out of the "set to" category.


Plant your own vegetable garden.
It's not hard to do and along with being an interesting hobby you can reap real benefits.

Check out some of the recent gardening posts.
Some of the folks are growing veggies in somewhat extreme climates as well as high altitudes.

It is worth buying a few different kinds of seed and plant what you can. Here in London we have an allotment we rent for the year and do grow what we can.

Stock up on seeds and look for different subtypes if you can.

Electrosmog

I’ve got it , I was aware of this for quite a number of years after reading Wilhelm Reichs work, and how even sleeping beside electricity sockets can have an adverse effect. Maybe i didn't know the name ;]
I do check planning for mobile phone masts where we live never would have thought about it and the hybrid.. thanks for that!

My brothers child was born with tetralogy of fallot, and needed open heart surgery this is quite rare in Ireland, however 2 cases that same year lived within 2 streets of each other and right next to a high voltage power station. So It is worth avoiding this if you can, I agree it is getting more difficult when people dismiss the kinder scientist whom comes clean with the real risks.

Originally posted by Illahee
reply to post by Quazga

 

A Hybrid seems like a good idea until you meter the electrosmog in th back seat. Keep your kids back there and it will fry the neurons in their brains.....

Not super safe in the front seat either.

Ok, so what you say is intriguing, but If you want to be taken seriously, perhaps some metrics on those "meters from the backseat".

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like your point isn't really based on anything other than general conjecture. A great hypothesis I might add, but one without any support.