Let them eat cake

Submitted by Robert Logue on March 6, 2008 - 10:07am.

tags:

South beach diet, Atkins diet , Pineapple diet, etc. I'm gonna call this one the "demand-pull inflation empire diet," or DIED for short. Catchy, huh? It conjures up Swiftonian images when people start putting food in their SUVs rather than their mouths.

I don't agree entirely with this article, such as its condemnation of some of the sustainable agricultural policies in the UK, the rest is on the right track. Organic, locally grown food is the least vulnerable to oil price changes, is probably going to get a lot more popular in the near future out of necessity, rather than preference.

You may have seen better articles on this subject, so if you have, post 'em. I've seen others, this is just the most recent.

"Who knows there's a food crisis?"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/magnus_linklater/article3492123.ece

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Inflation making war more expensive

Submitted by Robert Logue on March 11, 2008 - 11:08pm.

It appears as though the cost of waging war has doubled as inflation hits the price of military equipment. This article is for the UK army, but the same should be true for the US (if not more so). It won't be political change that ends US imperialism, but bankruptcy. The die is cast and the clock is ticking. Enjoy the show!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/11/military.iraq

'Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Gandhi

Graph frustration

Submitted by Robert Logue on March 6, 2008 - 10:48pm.

Ok, I just spent the last 30 minutes going through the Bank of Canada's statistical database to calculate the how the price of wheat has changed in a variety of major currencies, but now I have NO CLUE HOW TO LOAD IMAGES ON HERE! Someone help me please.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Gandhi

Praise the computer gods

Submitted by Robert Logue on March 7, 2008 - 7:52am.

Wheat Prices: Exchange rates from BofC, Prices from UofIllinois

My prayers to the computer gods have been answered... the new update lets me put images in comments, so here it is.

Notice the amount the price has changed in all three currencies. The price has climbed by 284% in USD, 138% in CAD and only 120% in Euros. There are certainly supply related reasons for price increases, seeing as prices are rising in all currencies (and not just the ones shown here), but the face that the price increases have been more than double in USD than in the EURO and CAD is an indication that a large portion of these price jumps may have very little to do with real economic factors, but rather nominal ones (i.e. the US' printing press being in overdrive). Edit* if the graph isn't clear here, look at it in the images section.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Gandhi

London - Home of the second highest unemployment rate in Ontario

Submitted by Jeff P. on March 8, 2008 - 10:54am.

Here is a link to that graph

1) Harper has gone to great lengths to tie our economy closer to the United States'. This is probably greatly benefiting his oil buddies back home who made sure he was elected.

2) You know there is a problem when we see Jim Flaherty (finance minister) on the front of every newspaper in Canada telling people how to spend our money (2-3 weeks ago). then his ugly head keeps popping up all over the place blaming the unemployment rates and toileting economy on taxes. I can here them now: Boys, the trickledown effects of NAFTA don't seem to be making there way down as we originally planned... must be the few taxes that are left - attack.

3) London just lost another lot of manufacturing jobs at the 3M plant today. London now has the second worst employment rate in all of Ontario. Many rich folks, who are the loudest voices in the media, will point to new manufacturing sector jobs opening up like those at Diamond Aircraft and Toyota. Both of which are strongly against unions and go to great lengths to keep them out. Which means absolutely zero job security and on average lower pay (which means less money circulating in the rest of our city).

4) There was a gentlemen at the LPPS / John Clarke event who mentioned it is important to watch the police budget in relation to job losses and social service cuts. I would love to see that graph. Faulkner (made just under 200 000 public dollars last year) managed to squeeze another increase of 4 million dollars out the city budget two weeks ago. I hope the fourth highest per capita police budget and fourth highest per capita police to citizen ratio'd city in Canada is happy with their increases... not to mention the olympic sized swimming pool that was added to the giant addition of the Main Police station.

http://radicalblogs.org/lpps

Food'n Beer vs. driving a car...

Submitted by Jeff P. on March 6, 2008 - 8:12pm.

Making my own beer is one of my favorite past times. There are many benefits including lower costs, higher quality, no preservatives and sans processed sugars (the cause of the worst hangovers). After making the journey to Fergus Ontario last week, with the purpose of restocking the grain bins, I found a nasty surprise. Grain/Malt prices are through the roof. I was shocked to find all imported supplies from the UK and Germany have more than doubled in price. Local Canadian simple grains had the least movement in retail value which is a bit of a saving grace (^ 20%).

I asked the knowledgable owner of the supply depot, what her take was on this situation. She replied that in over 20 years of dealing in this business, she has never seen such volatility in costs. For the first time ever, she had to reprice her products three or four times a month for the past 2 months. Normally she would be able to set a price and stick with it for the whole month, if not year. She has heard the same thing from suppliers in N.A. and Europe: Ethanol production is the cause.

Remember that Global Hops shortage that was mentioned a few months back? Well, homebrewers and commercial outfits alike are feeling the full brunt of that problem. Back in the summer, a pound of Hallertauer hops would go for $7-8. Now, if you can even find some (not kidding) you will be paying $70-80 a pound. There are a few small breweries that are showing their support to homebrewers by selling their extra stock at reasonable prices.

Strange weather caused the hops crop failure. Massive increases in ethanol production and spiking shipping costs were both stimulated by surging oil prices. The loss of our precious grain and malt crop land has caused a drastic increase in brewing costs. Considering oil prices don't seem to be dropping anytime soon and ethanol is one of the easiest bio-fuel alternatives (will easily adapt to our current infrastructure) you should enjoy those cheap full bodied imports while they last. The buck a beer phenomenon will probably move into the two buck a beer phenomenon - also stretched with brain-painfully high levels of processed sugars.

Support your local craft brewery!

http://radicalblogs.org/lpps

Costs

Submitted by Toban B on March 7, 2008 - 7:44am.

Jeff:

As you indicate, the ethanol industry and the support behind it is only part of the problem as there are also oil cost issues here. Industrial farms need oil for their tractors and what not.

If there also have been sharp natural gas cost increases (in certain areas) that might affect the cost of fertilizer or other sides of the production & distribution chain (e.g. heating costs somewhere along the way).

Is global warming disrupting agriculture in some areas enough to have these impacts? It's a question that's worth bringing up, I think.

Anyway, the common denominators that connect the issues that you and I are raising are energy-intensive living and fossil fuel dependencies. Ethanol is approached as a replacement for fossil fuels--and a very overrated one at that.