[bruin]

Nobody wants to pick your food anymore. Eventually, enough of these guys will quit so the remaining few can raise their prices to cover the fuel costs and pass that along to the consumer.

So the harder to pick foods will end up going up the most. Which harvest takes the most fuel?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050608/farm_scene.html?.v=4

[Leanan]

It's really scary, how much oil it takes to harvest crops. Never mind what it takes to grow, irrigate, and transport them.

And it's not just fuel costs that are rising...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')igh fuel prices also are driving up the costs of everything else cutters have to buy. The high steel prices have already caused steep jumps in the prices of farm equipment and repair parts, he said.

[Raxozanne]

well agriculture was always going to be a big problem. The warning signs are there.

[lorenzo]

This is pretty amazing news. Just imagine what will happen when oil becomes really expensive.

It's this kind of news that's proving the PO pessimists right. 30% for such a sector is truly amazing! Imagine what awaits other fuel intensive sectors.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bruin', 'N')obody wants to pick your food anymore. Eventually, enough of these guys will quit so the remaining few can raise their prices to cover the fuel costs and pass that along to the consumer.

So the harder to pick foods will end up going up the most. What harvest takes the most fuel?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050608/farm_scene.html?.v=4

[strider3700]

I thought that america was full of illegal immigrants that did most of the picking? Up here in canada we are advertising for mexican immigrants to become citizens and pick for us. Basically noone here wants to work hard for minimum wage.

[Sys1]

Moreover, global warming will certainly decrease what is left to harvest in the post peak oil world.

[SD_Scott]

I can't speak for the present time, but when I was growing up in Illinois, I worked the soy bean and corn fields harvesting, planting and detassling. At that time there were no immigrants working in that area. I think it's still that way today. The border states probably have a lot of them, but way up north in the midwest I bet it's pretty rare to see immigrants. Plus it's more mechanized and doesn't require as many hands.

[Leanan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') thought that america was full of illegal immigrants that did most of the picking?

[Leanan]

I'm in NY, and we have a lot of Mexican migrant laborers. They pick apples and grapes in the fall.

[Pops]

The real problem is that though custom farming outfits can raise their rates, and packers, processors and retail outlets can raise their prices, farmers take what the market pays based on supply and demand.

There isn’t a way to pass along the costs for the farmer, his only recourse is to sell the farm to a strip mall / subdivision developer.

Good old capitalism – even the name is based on “possessing wealth”.

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SD_Scott', ' ') Plus it's more mechanized and doesn't require as many hands.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sys1', 'M')oreover, global warming will certainly decrease what is left to harvest in the post peak oil world.

[bobcousins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sys1', 'M')oreover, global warming will certainly decrease what is left to harvest in the post peak oil world.

[aldente]

I was building a small garden for vegetables this spring in our backyard and couldn't believe how much physical work was involved. It took me a whole day to move the earth for a mini field of just 4 square meters and I did sweat like a pig.

Driving by the large mechanically plowed fields the next day I realized that there is no way on this earth to go back to an agriculture that is managed by hand, not even remotely.

[Colorado-Valley]

I have a 120-acre farm with a couple of tractors. If I have to go to hand labor, it's quickly going to become a 40-acre farm with a lot of pasture!

I won't be raising a bunch of beef cattle for the supermarkets anymore. I'll be more interested in raising a large garden for myself and doing sustenance farming.

Peak oil would be a complete disaster for agriculture and for feeding urbanites.

[RonMN]

but everything on that 120 acres does not have to be a "crop"...alot of acres could be fruit or nut trees & stuff you don't replant every year (rhubarb, asperigus, etc etc etc).

If 60 acres were made into "harvest only" land...you'd be pretty well off.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('albente', 'D')riving by the large mechanically plowed fields the next day I realized that there is no way on this earth to go back to an agriculture that is managed by hand, not even remotely

[Pops]

Just to get on your butt a little Ron, on an individual basis the whole Levitating Guru Farmer-That-Doesn’t-Farm bit may be great, but it ain’t gonna feed Denver, let alone Dallas – and in fact planting is only a small portion of the picture as I’m sure you know.

Once the Colorado-Valley’s of the world see that a bigger truck is only getting them deeper in debt there will certainly be a big shock to the system – maybe the collective digestive system.

[MD]

More evidence that the economic wishful thinking that energy price won't drive inflation this time is just that, wishful thinking.