Food prices

The price of corn is going up, according to NPR this morning. There are grain shortages and higher demand across the world. There's a significant drought in China. There are fewer poor people in China, India, and South America -- they're not just eating rice anymore; many of them can afford food just like we can now.

My dad always likes to pay the lowest price possible for food. But is what we pay for food really an accurate value = for what it takes to grow it, to transport it around the world, and how MUCH of it we have available to us here, in the US? And as there are more non-starving mouths to feed -- people who want more than beans and rice, who want choices and plenty of meat and grains -- AND higher gas prices...

What will that mean for trips to the grocery store as we know it?

The BBC says that wheat production is being pushed out by grains like corn, rapeseed, and sugarcane, which can be made into biofuel. See Why Are Wheat Prices Rising? and Rising World Food Prices. Ethanol is gaining popularity in the US, and so more corn is being used for fuel than for food, which hikes the price not only for producers of corn syrup and tortillas, but for farmers who raise beef and pork.

The BBC also remarka, "To put it bluntly, rich people eat more than poor people..."

Will food prices rise enough to make a difference in our eating patterns? It would be interesting if we couldn't afford to eat as complex a diet as we do now. My refrigerator is so full that I can't even see everything that's in there.

And I wonder what this might mean about Eucharist? A little bread, a little wine... this is what Jesus feeds us with. "And Father, we now present to you these gifts, from your creation." A little wheat and some pressed grapes aren't too big a deal in the world we live in now. And perhaps wheat prices will never rise enough to make a few dozen wafers or a couple rounds of pita bread very dear.

But these things come from fields and farms, too. What would it mean for us, ecologically and spiritually, if food was no longer cheap?