US Ag Secretary: It's not about food or fuel, it's about food and fuel
Food prices rise; that's just a truth of contemporary life. For some people, there's a debate on whether prices for things like tortillas are affected by so much corn going to make ethanol (but not all of that is food-grade). US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is urging people to think about the whole picture before blaming corn ethanol for recent price increases. Part of the bigger picture is an increase in the price of diesel fuel, Johanns said. "What's a significant piece of the food chain? It's moving that commodity from farm to table," he said to a group of farm broadcasters in Washington D.C. recently. Domestic Fuel has more on Johanns' statements, but after you read what they say, share your thoughts on food prices in your area. Do you buy local? Avoid strawberries in winter? That sort of thing.
[Source: Domestic Fuel]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Owain Ozymandias Buck 7:39AM (6/05/2007)
Folks,
We're lucky to have food as cheap as we do. Sec. Johanns is right on target on this one. We have more than enough capacity to grow many times our food requirements. Think about what food used to cost in either labor or time not too many years ago. In comparison, we've got it made.
Transportation is expensive. Truthfully, it may have been artificially cheap for a long while. This should encourage more localized production of non-commodity type crops such as vegetables, fruits, etc.
I wonder if anyone has done a study tracking success of small (locally grown) vegetable stand operations with energy costs. Hmm. There's got to be a sweet point.
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John Ard 9:14AM (6/05/2007)
My dad is a truck driver and I can say that the cost of diesel must be raising prices, at least a little. There have been a few recent cases where the fuel surcharge he recieved for a load paid more than the load itself. Just for some perspective, consider the fuel cost for his one truck last year: ~$50,000. For about 100,000 miles, so $.50 a mile. That's a lot to cover when most loads pay $2.00/mile.
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