Comments on: More Bad News on Food Prices

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:11:11 +0000

If I could put my two cents in I recognize the problem and thanks Joe, I saw that article too! It’s a real eye-opener, basically once you start exporting something it becomes almost too expensive for locals to buy their own staple crop. Kind of a similar story with our doubled sugar prices here too. So despite the risk of increased inflation, I believe at least here in Bolivia the solution is not to subsidize food prices or attempt to lower them but to let the world market do it’s thing and instead pay people living wages! That’s what all strikes are for- a living wage. If food prices increased 18% in the last year, how can the government justify only paying people 10% more??

But to support Tom’s statements, we do have a roll (albeit small) in the world market in how we choose to spend our money, hence the suggestion to cut back on meat. Realistically, with the world population rising at it is every person could cut back half of the meat they eat and I don’t think it would affect production greatly since the demand continues to rise. In addition, due to the resources necessary to create meat, it’s already NOT possible for every human being on the Earth to consume meat at the same levels as the richest 5% (which includes all of us who have a computer and internet to read this) and that situation is only getting worse as natural resources are strained.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:28:42 +0000

That’s a tough one…when you start making tough cut-backs in lifestyle choices its not easy…for you or the people who depended sustaining the more extravagant lifestyle. On the up-side for them, this isn’t something that would happen over-night, ideally we could alter the supply-demand equation so that both sides shrink at approximately the same rate. This would give people who had previously been farming cattle the opportunity to switch their business model to something different in an orderly fashion. Obviously this isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, and unfortunately it could cause much hardship, but the important thing is getting the economy as a whole on a sustainable track.
The other mitigating factor is that most farming, especially cattle, is run on a mass-production scale by large corporations. The family cattle farm is (sadly) the exception these days. Most of the farmers who work in these corporations won’t have as much invested in the operation, and it will be even easier for them to make the switch.

In reality though, all that is never going to come to pass, Americans are just too set in their ways. More realistically, the changes we could make in the economics by eating less meat wouldn’t lower the price of food (including beef) at all. Instead this is more of a measure to try to keep prices just where they are now, which, looking at worldwide trends, will be a small miracle if we can do.

By: Joe S

Joe S — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:11:48 +0000

I saw a great article in the NYT recently about how quinoa prices have affected Bolivian farmers of such crop, and how quinoa’s popularity has made it difficult for Bolivians to afford it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.html

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:29:37 +0000

What about the farmers who rely on selling cattle for meat? Where do they fit?