by Starvid » Fri 21 Apr 2006, 08:31:04
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Torjus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Starvid', '
')For example during the last couple of years oil has gone from $20 to $70. Bread, milk and meat are as cheap as ever.
The consumer end has experienced lower prices, but that will probably change. The reason for this is, to my knowledge, that the store-chains have used their market power to negotiate ever lower prices with the farmers. My father is a sheep farmer and the price on sheep meat has gone down significantly the last years.
As more and more trade barriers have been removed, cheap the store-chains can use cheap imports to push the prices down.
But when the oil gets expensive enough that will change. To see any significant change I guess we need at least $200 a barrel.
An example:
Today, cheap Australian sheep meat is dumped on the European market. That is a long way for shipping a little meat. As the oil gets more expensive, so will these shipments.
Equally in Norway (Chicken this time): Chicken are being transported from the rest of the country to one facility in the south, where they are slaughtered. After packing they are shipped back again to places hundreds of miles away into the stores. The newest introduction in this process around here is the JIT philosophy, which makes for even more shipments.
With all that transportation in the picture, of course the food will become more expensive soon, a lot of fuel is involved. When the market starts realizing these fuel-prices are permanent, they will probably adjust their prices upwards too.
Without the cheap Australian sheep meat, the power in the market will possibly shift over again to local farmers and my father will make more money again.
A little long, and a little off topic. Just had to.
Torjus Gaaren
But I'd like to see som studies and statistics on the oil-food connection. Until we have that we only have conflicting personal experience.
My cousins are farmers. They have sheep and also grow stuff (barley? Whatever.). When I asked them how rising diesel and fertilizer price were going to affect them they looked at me like I was insane. Then they told me that the biggest extra cost would be extra cost for commuting to work in the city (they have two jobs, can't live on farming anymore).
The vast amount of their income from farming is EU subsidies and the vast amount of their expenses is labor and taxes on labor. Fuel and fertilizer are marginal events which don't effect much of anything.
So, we need statistics.