Thread: Food Prices Worldwide Rise Alarmingly

Divide and rule...

^ No sh*t.

Here's an article from the Wall St. Journal. A little Yank centric, but also worldwide, and Asia is noted. He's a manager of a fund.

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008


I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.
No, this is not a drill.


You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.


....And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.


These are trends that have been in place for some time.


And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.

Entire: R.O.I. - WSJ.com

Wheat costs in Asia? A bit off the mark when most everyone in Asia eats rice. Maybe if he said "staple foods" I'd be more inclined to listen to this. Still, I have seen near riots in Vancouver when the water sources were unpotable and folks were fighting for bottled water in the shops. Doesn't take much to foment a frenzied scare.

Meanwhile, is this leading to hysteria in the US and elsewhere or good common sense?

Load Up the Pantry (Larder)

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.
You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)

These are trends that have been in place for some time.

And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.
The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.
Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point.

The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.

Load-Up-the-Pantry: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Need to tackle food price rises
22/01/2011

Agriculture ministers from Europe, Africa and Canada warned Saturday of dire consequences, including riots and social unrest, unless action is swiftly taken to improve food security and tackle price hikes.

The ministers from Germany, France, Poland, Ukraine, Morocco, Kenya and Canada met in Berlin to prepare for a larger gathering which was to begin later in the day.

The seven agriculture ministers were unanimous on the causes and consequences of food shortages, which are pushing prices sharply up and, they agreed, renewing the threats of social instability and the sort of food riots witnessed in Mozambique, Egypt and elsewhere last year.

``We will see them again in 2011 and 2012 if we don't rapid take the necessary decisions together,'' warned French minister Bruno Le Maire.

His Moroccan counterpart Aziz Akhenouch denounced the ``rocketing prices'' which threaten purchasing power as well as political stability in his country, which is a major wheat importer and saw prices double last year.

There was apparently broad agreement, at the Green Week meeting in the German capital, on some steps to tackle the problems; increased production with help from higher yields, and trade stimulation while fighting against the speculators who ramp up the market.

``It is important to open borders,'' for certain products, stressed Kenyan farm minister Sally Jepngetich Kosgey.

``Trade is part of the solution, not the problem,'' said Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation's director general, who also attended the meeting.

However there were sharp differences on the questions of further opening borders for agriculture products.

``Everyone wants first and foremost to support their own infrastructure, and trade with others comes after that'' said Canada's minister Gerry Ritz.

There was more consensus on the need to tackle the market speculators who inflame prices.

``There is total uncertainty today,'' on the available volumes of foodstuffs, Le Maire complained.

``It's not normal that their is so little information,'' he added, calling for more transparency to stabilise the market.

bangkokpost.com

Will certainly mess this country up, people are quite fond of their food.

Originally Posted by The Gentleman Scamp

During a recent conversation with my father he told me the price of meat in UK is double what it was.

Life is truly awful for too many people, it is very vert sad - there should be enough food on the planet for no one to have to go hungry.

The most important answer I would love to hear is how much of the increase is caused by the legitimate factors mentioned, and what percentage of the increase is the result of corruption and/or pure opportunistic greed by everyone in the food chain.

If the money gets to the farmer
good news

Supply and demand. If Africa and South Asia stopped reproducing willy nilly there wouldn't be so many scrounging mouths to feed.

Originally Posted by Mid

Need to tackle food price rises
22/01/2011

Agriculture ministers from Europe, Africa and Canada warned Saturday of dire consequences, including riots and social unrest, unless action is swiftly taken to improve food security and tackle price hikes.

The ministers from Germany, France, Poland, Ukraine, Morocco, Kenya and Canada met in Berlin to prepare for a larger gathering which was to begin later in the day.

The seven agriculture ministers were unanimous on the causes and consequences of food shortages, which are pushing prices sharply up and, they agreed, renewing the threats of social instability and the sort of food riots witnessed in Mozambique, Egypt and elsewhere last year.

``We will see them again in 2011 and 2012 if we don't rapid take the necessary decisions together,'' warned French minister Bruno Le Maire.

His Moroccan counterpart Aziz Akhenouch denounced the ``rocketing prices'' which threaten purchasing power as well as political stability in his country, which is a major wheat importer and saw prices double last year.

There was apparently broad agreement, at the Green Week meeting in the German capital, on some steps to tackle the problems; increased production with help from higher yields, and trade stimulation while fighting against the speculators who ramp up the market.

``It is important to open borders,'' for certain products, stressed Kenyan farm minister Sally Jepngetich Kosgey.

``Trade is part of the solution, not the problem,'' said Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation's director general, who also attended the meeting.

However there were sharp differences on the questions of further opening borders for agriculture products.

``Everyone wants first and foremost to support their own infrastructure, and trade with others comes after that'' said Canada's minister Gerry Ritz.

There was more consensus on the need to tackle the market speculators who inflame prices.

``There is total uncertainty today,'' on the available volumes of foodstuffs, Le Maire complained.

``It's not normal that their is so little information,'' he added, calling for more transparency to stabilise the market.

bangkokpost.com

Getting the worthless speculators and other parasites out of the food chain would be a good start. The commodities markets now have about as much credibility and purpose as casinos.

Originally Posted by Rattanaburi

Well, we really are in interesting economic times. We haven't seen stuff like this for years. It's crazy. Should I start filling my closet with canned or perserved food? With rising prices more fish will be taken from the rivers to save on spending. People will also want to save on food spending to keep up with those motorcycle,car, or credit payments. It's all got to have some effect.

"The world is yours." We'll see if that statement really is true for most of us.

It is all inflation from flawed keynesian monetary expansion in the US. Since the US dollar is the worlds reserve currency(for the time being), countries with soft or hard dollar pegs feel the inflation first.

These coutries need to revalue their currencies higher and export that inflation back to the US where it came from. Eventually they will do this and the inflation will show up in the US.

Stimulus money printing does not work, never has, never will.

Originally Posted by Panda

Half the world is starving and the other half is a bunch of cholesterol ridden lard arses.
Developed countries employ about 1 to 3% of the population producing food while developing countries typically employ around 50% of the population in agriculture.

People in developed countries can eat well for around 10% of their income, while people in developing countries can spend between 50 and 100% of their income just on food.

There's a lot more to the food shortage debate than just a bad year for crops.

It is mainly a monetary issue, nothing else.

Central banks around the world are printing money to bail out insolvent banks. The problem is that a central bank has nothing. A central bank can only spend purchasing power that already exists by printing money or conjuring money digitally.

They are diluting the money supply which devalues currencies which shows up as higher prices for commodities.

Originally Posted by Driventowin

Originally Posted by Bugs

Originally Posted by Panda

Originally Posted by Bugs

Indeed - perpetual aid only worsens the problem. There is some profound saying or another about giving a man a fish vs teaching him to fish - but I think the problem is also related to rabbits, or at least folks acting too much like rabbits.

True. But it depends on the kind of aid. Handing out food certainly isn't the answer and is generally only a last resort. Givin' da man a fish - dont' do it.


Things like education, building wells and irrigation systems, and teaching better farming practices are the way to go. Teachn' da man to fish - do it.

Unfortunately, in the agrarian societies of poor developing countries with little social infrastructure or support, producing big families is seen as a way of ensuring a supply of labour to work the farm and provide for the parents in their later years. Problem is that this cultural tradition (also practiced in the west until a few generations ago) doesn't work when population growth forces people onto marginal land with smaller plots. The same thing is happening in Thailand's north east at the moment.

Sure this makes sense if one has enough land to farm/ animals to herd. But what is the logic to adding numbers to an already starving family? Even in the west in most cases the logic fell apart because the marginal gains of adding another worker simply was not really there.

If the doomsday predictions in regard to global warming are correct things are only going to get worse - less arable land, less water, higher temps - Africa is farked.

Sorry to sound so dis-compassionate about this, but bottom line, it's natures balance..
It is a bit of a weakness (if you will) that man kind has compassion. Not necessarily in a bad way, but virtually every other animal/mammal has a balance in that the strong survive, but we as humans have to save every stray dog, cat, etc. even if they may know no better and have spent their entire lives on the street living like a wild animal and not a domesticated one that relies on us for their survival, they don't understand suffrage it's just what they've always known and have nothing to compare to, but we think they do..

Unfortunately these people are breeding themselves into extinction because they out produce their food sources, so I'm forced to agree with Marmite and the others..

On the bright side Africa has huge potential for agriculture if it is modernized and many countries there are beginning to recognize that like Nigeria which took on a lot of the farmers that fled Zimbabwe after their land was taken from them, and they have provided free land and bank loans to have productive, commercial farms put in place and their own people working them for education..

They are producing as much as 10 times per rai of land now over what they were before..With the world moving more towards biofuels which is also driving up the price of these crops considerably with competition for the resources since they (the farmers) can make more selling their crops for that now than they can for food..

The door is wide open for the big oil companies to come in and invest some of those massive profits they've earned lately in the agricultural infrastructure in many of these countries and begin to cultivate their new fuel reserves for the future while at the same time feeding much of these people, and much of the world.. Africa could become one big farm project with the amount of land available and lack of large cities, now's the time to make the move before that latter happens..

All that is required to solve those logistical issues such as water and the like, is money. And the big oil companies have plenty of that coming in every day the time is now for them to shift much of that over to this future..

Not sure where you live but you will be in for a wakeup call when some of these creditor countries like China, Thailand, Korea, brazil, Hong kong and the oil states loosen their currency pegs against the US dollar. The inflation will be headed to the western world where it came from.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Supply and demand. If Africa and South Asia stopped reproducing willy nilly there wouldn't be so many scrounging mouths to feed.

Everyone here is missdiagnosing the problem.

Do people eat gold ? No, so why is gold at all time highs ?

It is all monetary inflation, better discribed as currecny devaluation. This is what happens when you implement reckless monetary policy to bailout the banking system when we would have all been further ahead by now, if we let the system collapse and rebuild like Asia did in 1997.

The problem is, its the world reserve currecny that is being printed and devalued. Maybe a picture would help people understand.
If you save your money in the only non paper currecy in the world, gold, then you will feel no inflation.

Originally Posted by BobR

Originally Posted by Mid

Need to tackle food price rises
22/01/2011

Agriculture ministers from Europe, Africa and Canada warned Saturday of dire consequences, including riots and social unrest, unless action is swiftly taken to improve food security and tackle price hikes.

The ministers from Germany, France, Poland, Ukraine, Morocco, Kenya and Canada met in Berlin to prepare for a larger gathering which was to begin later in the day.

The seven agriculture ministers were unanimous on the causes and consequences of food shortages, which are pushing prices sharply up and, they agreed, renewing the threats of social instability and the sort of food riots witnessed in Mozambique, Egypt and elsewhere last year.

``We will see them again in 2011 and 2012 if we don't rapid take the necessary decisions together,'' warned French minister Bruno Le Maire.

His Moroccan counterpart Aziz Akhenouch denounced the ``rocketing prices'' which threaten purchasing power as well as political stability in his country, which is a major wheat importer and saw prices double last year.

There was apparently broad agreement, at the Green Week meeting in the German capital, on some steps to tackle the problems; increased production with help from higher yields, and trade stimulation while fighting against the speculators who ramp up the market.

``It is important to open borders,'' for certain products, stressed Kenyan farm minister Sally Jepngetich Kosgey.

``Trade is part of the solution, not the problem,'' said Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organisation's director general, who also attended the meeting.

However there were sharp differences on the questions of further opening borders for agriculture products.

``Everyone wants first and foremost to support their own infrastructure, and trade with others comes after that'' said Canada's minister Gerry Ritz.

There was more consensus on the need to tackle the market speculators who inflame prices.

``There is total uncertainty today,'' on the available volumes of foodstuffs, Le Maire complained.

``It's not normal that their is so little information,'' he added, calling for more transparency to stabilise the market.

bangkokpost.com

Getting the worthless speculators and other parasites out of the food chain would be a good start. The commodities markets now have about as much credibility and purpose as casinos.

It does not work that way. The savers of the world are having their saving diluted by the central bank printing money.

Savers that are trying to avoid a loss that is being pushed on them by a central bank are not "worthless speculators"

If I have $100,000 in my savings account that is being diluted by a central bank then I have every moral right to save my $100,000 in the form of oil, rice, wheat or whatever I want.

Watch the price of cocoa tomorrow.

"Bond Recoveries Or Chocolate": Ivory Coast Issues Ultimatum With Cocoa Export Ban, As Chocolate Prices Set To Surge Monday | zero hedge

Originally Posted by Rattanaburi

Should I start filling my closet with canned or perserved food? .

Yes.

And read "The Long Emergency" (non-fiction) and "A World Made by Hand" and "The Witch of Hebron", both the latter 'fiction', to see what is is coming. All three books by James Howard Kunstler.

No need to panic-




This is more the problem-





The 'correct price' for any commodity is hard to figure given the complexities that factor into it, and the cyclical nature of markets. But food prices were certainly too low for too long- it's not all bad that we're seeing a rebound now. There are a lot of hungry mouths to feed. The real long term solution might be to offer free contraceptives.

The End of America? Not Quite - Seeking Alpha