$29 Cheez Whiz? High Arctic food costs

Is this for real????

Isn't this the same area where they experienced light-time during their 24-hour period of darkness earlier this year? And was blamed on global warming ? (slams head into wall )
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Is there a connection?
I personally think all this is inner-connected and between the economy and ecology.... things are going to get a LOT worse.




These grocery shelves in the High Arctic community of Arctic Bay, Nunavut, have people talking this week — $38 for cranberry cocktail, $29 for Cheez Whiz, and a whopping $77 for a bag of breaded chicken.

Arctic Bay-based MLA Ron Elliott, who represents three of Canada's most northern communities, said he is concerned about already high food prices going up even more in the High Arctic.

"It's sort of the talk of the town," he told CBC News on Thursday. "You go in and people are pointing [things] out, and it's obvious to see that this has gone up, and that's gone up."

(more photos)
www.cbc.ca...

Gee whiz, That's a lot of money for cheez whiz..

I don't really know what to say H_A, the article states that "junk food" is no longer subsidised by this govt. program, but you'd think cranberry juice and honey would be healthy foods on the list. I guess though, that they are not "fresh" foods so they don't qualify either. On the other hand, I would think these communities would need to have non-perishable items on stock for weather reasons.
It must be terribly hard to live out there but also very exciting with alot of freedom. I assume that there are alot of hunters and fishers up that way too. Also, I heard that pineapples cost an absolute fortune in Hawaii and other countries that provide them to the USA. I mention this because of the cranberry juice, don't cranberries grow up there in the Canadian water boonies? I should think the residents of that area make their own cranberry juice! I wonder what else grows up there and when for them to eat locally?

reply to post by TechVampyre


Thats what he/she should have titled the thread "Gee whiz, $29. Cheeze whiz"

Originally posted by mutantgenius
reply to post by TechVampyre

 

Thats what he/she should have titled the thread "Gee whiz, $29. Cheeze whiz"

Yeah but...I'm not that cheesy to do somethin' like that

But seriously, how is this justified? Who is deciding what's junk food now? (I mean, we all have a good idea but, is there a junk-food committee now?)

They just keep pulling those strings and we all keep jumping.

This world has got to implode so we can rebuild again.

Well, when you read the article, and realize that that is the actual cost to get the food in there, plus some profit for the retailer, it sort of changes things.

The government used to subsidize the cost of shipping the food in, and now they only subsidize "healthy" food. I can see why the government might not want to pay 20 dollars a jar of Cheez Whiz any more. Its not like our nation is rolling in cash atm.

I hear what youre saying about the world needing to implode! Sadly, it seems like the only thing that is gonna wake up the majority of people, I wish there was another way, I can't see it though, short of the second coming or Aliens on the White House lawn.
I think the people up that way always had high prices for stuff though. I'm not saying it's fair and for it to be newsworthy there must have been a large hike in prices. Talk about sticker shock! $40 Baby formula though? I think one of those cans last a week, tops. How do people make money down there? Do they rip each other off all day or what? Like, the store owner obviously lives there, then there will be other stores, like pharmacies, hardware stores etc..is this how they make their living up there or what? What other jobs are there in that area, I wonder?

Having lived in the high Arctic, there is a fundamental restriction to the flow of goods. It's called the MacKenzie River. When an ice road is inadvisable due to freeze-up or melting ice and the ferry can't run because of the millions of tons of broken ice, all foods need to be flown in, adding a vast increase in expense.

Look at the small cheese whiz next to it. Why would the price triple from that?

Also this isn't a sign of food prices going up, it's a sign that it's damn hard and expensive to deliver to islands in the high arctic in the winter.

I live in Southern Ohio, and I have seen food prices spike, and the food itself is now in smaller packages. You cannot buy a full pound of anything that is pre-packaged anymore. Diesel fuel costs more that gasoline, and the process for gas costs more, and takes longer than for diesel. Everything we buy here is brought by truck, even food for the local Amish People has to be brought into town. I live on Social Security, and we have not had a cost of living raise for three years now, and yet the gas, food, and everything else, including the herbs we love so much, and gone up and up, while our pay checks remain the same.

On this note, I am right now watching as Egypt declares that they are at long last free. I think other countries will see this, that if the people come out in force, and occupy the streets, and stay the course for a few days, calling for the ouster of their leadership, they will get their way. I predict this will go viral in the Muslim World, and will eventually come to America. I had a vision several years ago that Americans were surrounding the Capital and demanding that the President and his staff come out to be arrested for crimes against the Constitution and humanity. A part of this vision was a place (Secret Military Base) I will not name was destroyed by an in place nuclear device, set of remotely. I sincerely hope this does not happen, but Americans are being oppressed too. I hear the Patriot Act is still in force, wire-taps are down without warrants, cameras are everywhere, watching every move we make, and people are being labelled "terrorist" and taken to other countries for torture. The Social Security Trust fund has been robbed, and America has been bankrupt since 1933. We are owned and ran by a Banking Cartel that is above the law, and operate on a debt based money system that is designed to fail at a certain point. The government is trying to raise the debt ceiling again forcing the fall of the dollar even more. What does the membership think? Will this come to America?

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
Look at the small cheese whiz next to it. Why would the price triple from that?

3 times the weight and volume, perhaps?

Also this isn't a sign of food prices going up, it's a sign that it's damn hard and expensive to deliver to islands in the arctic circle in the winter.

Freeze-up and break-up of ice roads is the ultimate culprit. Think of your butter and eggs having to be flown in for a few months each year. Meat? Same thing. Want a banana or ANY fruit or vegetable.... ouch! What they can make up there, they do. That means bread and pop, basically, because there's no large food processing plants up there. Fish you can get, though, and is a staple in the north, as is caribou and, if you're a smart cookie, ptarmigan. Yummers.

Originally posted by masqua
Fish you can get, though, and is a staple in the north, as is caribou and, if you're a smart cookie, ptarmigan. Yummers.

edit on 11/2/11 by masqua because: grammar

They have the same thing in the Alaska bush. As shocking as it may be to folks from outside, subsistance living really hasn't changed much over the centuries. You catch, gather, and kill your food for the winter during the plentiful summer and fall. It is a diet very high in animal fats and traditionally very low in carbohydrates. Truth be known, the higher the prices on absolute crap like cheezewiz and anything with refined carbs is, the healthier those folks will be in the long run.

Where it gets pretty crappy is where the government types butt their noses in. In Alaska, for instance, the natives were traditionally nomadic, summering in areas that were inhospitable in the winter and wintering in areas that were muck and mire in the summer. This worked well for centuries... along comes the US government saying "Your children MUST recieve federal mandated educations in our schools, so pick a place and settle there." Voila, no more nomadic people, huge hit to the abillity to live a full subsistence lifestyle. Add in the foolishness of harvest regulations and limits on taking ocean mammals that traditionally represented a large portion of the native diets and you have a people that are forced into paying exorbitant amounts of money just to keep themselves from starving.

reply to post by masqua


Yeah I see that now (the size) I thought at first it was just double the size and triple the price.

Originally posted by masqua
Having lived in the high Arctic, there is a fundamental restriction to the flow of goods. It's called the MacKenzie River. When an ice road is inadvisable due to freeze-up or melting ice and the ferry can't run because of the millions of tons of broken ice, all foods need to be flown in, adding a vast increase in expense.

So is this normal then? What would be a very high priced food say, 5 years ago?

Even prices in places like Hatteras Island in NC are significantly higher where it's harder to deliver things. And that's not close to being as remote as the Arctic.

Still a lot of money to pay for Cheez Whiz though. Can you imagine what a tomato might cost there? Yikes.

reply to post by Human_Alien


This has absolutely zero about normal food prices increasing, this is all about government subsidies and entitlements. These people live in extreme northern Canada where shipping in supplies is considerably more than if they lived in southern Canada. Over the years the Canadian government had been heavily subsidizing this cost, and the inhabitants got used to it. Now the Canadian government has decided to start flexing their power to push healthier foods on these people who don't really have any choice otherwise by cutting subsidies on products they decided to. And they've know this program was going to be implemented since early last year.
SURPRISE!

Government of Canada announces Nutrition North Canada to support healthy eating in the North

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT (May 21, 2010) - A new northern food retail subsidy program called Nutrition North Canada will make healthy food more accessible and affordable to Canadians living in isolated Northern communities, thanks to the Government of Canada.

Under the new program, the most nutritious perishable foods such as fruits, vegetables, bread, fresh meats, milk and eggs will receive the highest rate of subsidy. The revised list of eligible items also includes a provision to improve access to commercially-produced traditional, Northern foods.

“Our government has listened to Northerners who know and use this program the most. We believe that Nutrition North Canada will increase access to more affordable, nutritious food for Canadians living in remote Northern communities,” said Minister Strahl.