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calderhome@yahoo.com
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The ethanol fuel hoax had led to double digit food inflation in 07!
Chicken prices have doubled in price over the last 12 months!
Ethanol derived from corn as an automobile fuel takes more energy to
produce than it yields when burned in a car engine, thus we spend more
money to lose energy.
We subsidize ethanol by more than 50 cents a gallon, and we burn lots
of oil and coal to make it. The farming needed to produce ethanol
causes needless topsoil erosion, and the entire production process
increases global warming.
The only way to end the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global
warming is through mass production of fission nuclear power plants
producing clean hydrogen fuel. The ethanol scam is a political hoax
designed to make Midwestern corporate farmers rich - and thus gain
their political support - while starving the poor.
Chicken prices have doubled and milk prices are skyrocketing. United
Nations food agencies say their cost for basic foodstuffs has doubled
due to the massive corn harvest wasted on ethanol production, and the
United Nations can no longer afford to feed the world's starving
peoples.
You cannot run cars on food products and expect to feed the 6.7
billion people we now have on Earth. Food cost-based inflation will
speed up the bankruptcy of our Social Security system due to automatic
cost of living index increases.
The ethanol fuel hoax was a disaster born out of political
calculation, not scientific analysis.
--------see story below--------
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18902.html
MIDLAND, Va. - The Labor Department's most recent inflation data
showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.2 percent for the 12 months
ending in July, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the
price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are
actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American
consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do
without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why,
despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the
economy.
Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed
several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He
expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.
"They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen to believe
the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."
But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-
income Americans are being pinched.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its July inflation report that
egg prices are 33.7 percent higher than they were in July 2006. Over
the same period, according to the department's consumer price index,
whole milk was up 21.1 percent; fresh chicken 8.4 percent; navel
oranges 13.6 percent; apples 8.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5
percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by
8.8 percent.
These numbers get lost in the broader inflation rate for all goods and
services, which measured 2.4 percent for the same 12-month period.
Across the economy, rising food prices were offset by falling prices
for things bought at the mall: computers, cameras, clothing and shoes.
"All of that stuff is going down in price, but prices for gasoline
have gotten higher, and food prices have gone up," said Mark Vitner, a
senior economist for Wachovia, a large national bank based in
Charlotte, N.C.
People also go to the mall a lot less than they go to the grocery
store, so they're constantly reminded that dietary staples are up
sharply.
Why are food prices rising?
It's partly because of corn prices, driven up by congressional
mandates for ethanol production, which have reduced the amount of corn
available for animal feed. It's also because of tougher immigration
enforcement and a late spring freeze, which have made farm laborers
scarcer and damaged fruit and vegetable crops, respectively. And it's
because of higher diesel fuel costs to run tractors and attractive
foreign markets that take U.S. production.
The Labor Department's last detailed survey of consumer spending, in
2005, showed that Americans spent about 12.8 percent of their income
on food. A bit more than 7 percent of their income was spent on food
at home, and 5.7 percent was spent on food away from home.
These percentages suggest that higher food prices, while unwelcome,
won't break the bank for most consumers. But for retirees such as
Jacqueline Wilson, 60, of Upper Marlboro, Md., rising food and fuel
prices take a big bite out of fixed income.
"I make every dollar count," said Wilson, outside a Giant supermarket.
"I cut back. ... I get only as much as I need. I don't buy it because
it is 10 for $10, but so that I'm using it and not wasting my money."
Asked about her view of the economy, she answered, "Terrible."
In broad terms, the economy isn't terrible. Unemployment is near
record lows, and the second quarter posted a strong 3.4 percent growth
rate. But it is for those Americans who are pinched by rising food and
gasoline costs, and that's a lot of folks. Half the nation's families
earn below the median family income of about $56,000. Three- fifths of
American families report income under $70,000.
At the Al-Mara farm in Midland, Va., Jeff and Patty Leonard run a
large dairy operation where about 600 cows produce 19,000 pounds of
milk each day. They plant about 1,000 acres of corn, so they don't
face all of the rising feed costs like some farmers. But they
sympathize with consumers because the costs of nitrogen fertilizers
and diesel fuel have all gone up sharply, raising production costs by
nearly 30 percent.
"That's how your farmer feels here at home when we're trying to buy
soybean meal, food for our cows and trying to maintain our equipment,"
said Patty Leonard. "I can understand exactly what the shopper is
going through."
Milk prices aren't set on the farm. That's done by marketing
cooperatives, which this year have been successful in passing on
higher production costs after several dismal years of prices that took
dairy farmers back to the 1970s.
"It's pretty much a realignment of the actual value of milk in today's
dollar," Patty Leonard said. "Milk has been cheap for a long, long
time."
Globalization also explains higher milk prices. Australia, a leading
milk exporter, is struggling through a drought, and European
governments are pulling back dairy subsidies. So U.S. farmers, aided
by a weak dollar, are stepping in to meet growing demand for milk
products in China and India. That's pinched supply at home and abroad,
driving up prices.
"U.S. per capita dairy consumption is the highest it's been since
1987," said Chris Galen, vice president of the National Milk Producers
Federation, pointing to rising U.S. demand for cheese, made from milk.
"Americans are eating more cheese than ever - not just volume but per
capita."
To make more milk, or raise more chickens that lay more eggs, farmers
need feed corn and other feed products. But corn prices have soared
over the past year as Congress pushes ethanol, a renewable fuel made
from corn. Fields that previously grew soybeans are now yielding corn,
and that's driven up the price of soybeans as they become scarce.
Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development
shocked the farm sector earlier this summer with a report that corn
farmers are expected to lock in prices of $4 a bushel through 2010,
about double what corn fetched two years ago.
"You will probably be seeing these prices rise for quite a long time
and stabilizing, maybe, but not going back to the $2-a-bushel corn,"
said Jacinto Feitosa, co-director of the center in Ames, Iowa.
Chicken prices have doubled in price over the last 12 months!
Ethanol derived from corn as an automobile fuel takes more energy to
produce than it yields when burned in a car engine, thus we spend more
money to lose energy.
We subsidize ethanol by more than 50 cents a gallon, and we burn lots
of oil and coal to make it. The farming needed to produce ethanol
causes needless topsoil erosion, and the entire production process
increases global warming.
The only way to end the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global
warming is through mass production of fission nuclear power plants
producing clean hydrogen fuel. The ethanol scam is a political hoax
designed to make Midwestern corporate farmers rich - and thus gain
their political support - while starving the poor.
Chicken prices have doubled and milk prices are skyrocketing. United
Nations food agencies say their cost for basic foodstuffs has doubled
due to the massive corn harvest wasted on ethanol production, and the
United Nations can no longer afford to feed the world's starving
peoples.
You cannot run cars on food products and expect to feed the 6.7
billion people we now have on Earth. Food cost-based inflation will
speed up the bankruptcy of our Social Security system due to automatic
cost of living index increases.
The ethanol fuel hoax was a disaster born out of political
calculation, not scientific analysis.
--------see story below--------
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18902.html
MIDLAND, Va. - The Labor Department's most recent inflation data
showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.2 percent for the 12 months
ending in July, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the
price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are
actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American
consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do
without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why,
despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the
economy.
Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed
several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He
expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.
"They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen to believe
the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."
But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-
income Americans are being pinched.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its July inflation report that
egg prices are 33.7 percent higher than they were in July 2006. Over
the same period, according to the department's consumer price index,
whole milk was up 21.1 percent; fresh chicken 8.4 percent; navel
oranges 13.6 percent; apples 8.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5
percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by
8.8 percent.
These numbers get lost in the broader inflation rate for all goods and
services, which measured 2.4 percent for the same 12-month period.
Across the economy, rising food prices were offset by falling prices
for things bought at the mall: computers, cameras, clothing and shoes.
"All of that stuff is going down in price, but prices for gasoline
have gotten higher, and food prices have gone up," said Mark Vitner, a
senior economist for Wachovia, a large national bank based in
Charlotte, N.C.
People also go to the mall a lot less than they go to the grocery
store, so they're constantly reminded that dietary staples are up
sharply.
Why are food prices rising?
It's partly because of corn prices, driven up by congressional
mandates for ethanol production, which have reduced the amount of corn
available for animal feed. It's also because of tougher immigration
enforcement and a late spring freeze, which have made farm laborers
scarcer and damaged fruit and vegetable crops, respectively. And it's
because of higher diesel fuel costs to run tractors and attractive
foreign markets that take U.S. production.
The Labor Department's last detailed survey of consumer spending, in
2005, showed that Americans spent about 12.8 percent of their income
on food. A bit more than 7 percent of their income was spent on food
at home, and 5.7 percent was spent on food away from home.
These percentages suggest that higher food prices, while unwelcome,
won't break the bank for most consumers. But for retirees such as
Jacqueline Wilson, 60, of Upper Marlboro, Md., rising food and fuel
prices take a big bite out of fixed income.
"I make every dollar count," said Wilson, outside a Giant supermarket.
"I cut back. ... I get only as much as I need. I don't buy it because
it is 10 for $10, but so that I'm using it and not wasting my money."
Asked about her view of the economy, she answered, "Terrible."
In broad terms, the economy isn't terrible. Unemployment is near
record lows, and the second quarter posted a strong 3.4 percent growth
rate. But it is for those Americans who are pinched by rising food and
gasoline costs, and that's a lot of folks. Half the nation's families
earn below the median family income of about $56,000. Three- fifths of
American families report income under $70,000.
At the Al-Mara farm in Midland, Va., Jeff and Patty Leonard run a
large dairy operation where about 600 cows produce 19,000 pounds of
milk each day. They plant about 1,000 acres of corn, so they don't
face all of the rising feed costs like some farmers. But they
sympathize with consumers because the costs of nitrogen fertilizers
and diesel fuel have all gone up sharply, raising production costs by
nearly 30 percent.
"That's how your farmer feels here at home when we're trying to buy
soybean meal, food for our cows and trying to maintain our equipment,"
said Patty Leonard. "I can understand exactly what the shopper is
going through."
Milk prices aren't set on the farm. That's done by marketing
cooperatives, which this year have been successful in passing on
higher production costs after several dismal years of prices that took
dairy farmers back to the 1970s.
"It's pretty much a realignment of the actual value of milk in today's
dollar," Patty Leonard said. "Milk has been cheap for a long, long
time."
Globalization also explains higher milk prices. Australia, a leading
milk exporter, is struggling through a drought, and European
governments are pulling back dairy subsidies. So U.S. farmers, aided
by a weak dollar, are stepping in to meet growing demand for milk
products in China and India. That's pinched supply at home and abroad,
driving up prices.
"U.S. per capita dairy consumption is the highest it's been since
1987," said Chris Galen, vice president of the National Milk Producers
Federation, pointing to rising U.S. demand for cheese, made from milk.
"Americans are eating more cheese than ever - not just volume but per
capita."
To make more milk, or raise more chickens that lay more eggs, farmers
need feed corn and other feed products. But corn prices have soared
over the past year as Congress pushes ethanol, a renewable fuel made
from corn. Fields that previously grew soybeans are now yielding corn,
and that's driven up the price of soybeans as they become scarce.
Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development
shocked the farm sector earlier this summer with a report that corn
farmers are expected to lock in prices of $4 a bushel through 2010,
about double what corn fetched two years ago.
"You will probably be seeing these prices rise for quite a long time
and stabilizing, maybe, but not going back to the $2-a-bushel corn,"
said Jacinto Feitosa, co-director of the center in Ames, Iowa.
