[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'H')ow many of you actually do something and start planting your own food?

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'H')ow many of you actually do something and start planting your own food?

[manu]

No, it is the same as before. GYO. Grow your own.

[Fredrik]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'H')ow many of you actually do something and start planting your own food?

[sciencegirl]

Last time I went shopping I noticed that the price of toilet paper was way up. Even the el cheapo 1 ply was super expensive. Anyone else noticing the price of crap wrap sky rocketing.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'H')ow many of you actually do something and start planting your own food?

[mattduke]

5%. link

[emersonbiggins]

Heh. Try 15%.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'H')eh. Try 15%.

[cube]

The problem with trying to measure food inflation is that a lot of food manufactures are giving you less food and trying to sell it at the same price.......hoping you won't notice.

For example ice cream is no longer sold in half gallon, or at least the brand that I usually buy. If they give you 10% less food but raise the price by 5% ---> that does NOT count as 5% inflation. I think that's where these ridiculously low inflation numbers came from.

[dorlomin]

Food prices may including things like cakes, ready meals and even fast food (not sure) but while there ingrediants prices are going up the wages, advertising, capital costs and rents and so on are not. The cost of a highly processed food is far greater than the cost of its inputs: so while wheat and corn go up, this pushes up the cost of meat and eggs it may not be as big a factor in the cost of TV dinner.

Also the full impact of transport cost increases may not have been passed on to the producer and then on to the consumer. Whats more some companies may be holding back on price increases this early in the inflationry period. So they may be making a loss or atleast less of a profit worried about losing customer to compition or just pricing them out of a market with little business confidence.

It will take time for the full impact of the recent inflation to work itself into the cost of goods and yet longer to work itself into wage demands.

The devil is in the details of what foods are in the basket.

Funnily enough two different UK forums, one with alot of working poor on it has had several threads about the cost of foods going up, another with a far more middle class orientation was very non plussed when I brought up food inflation. Different people are buying different things and have more flexible budgets.

[vision-master]

Bin-in-hers aka bananas have like almost doubled within the past year.

[Roy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he problem with trying to measure food inflation is that a lot of food manufactures are giving you less food and trying to sell it at the same price.......hoping you won't notice.

[vision-master]

Dig this. This morning my trucking broker friend calls and we touch base on PO, although He hasn’t been a believer in the past, he's starting to come around. We get talking about food prices (that’s what he’s runs, fruit from Cali). He goes on to tell me, theirs no money in hauling can-goods. Then he tells me about his brother who sent a truck down to Texas for some can-goods and made a total of $500. Fuel costs alone were $3,600. Not enough profit to cover tire wear. The big corporations are not willing to pay the current shipping costs. So, these independents will get squeezed so much that stuff will not get transported SOON! Anyhoo, he figures we will start seeing food shortages within three Months and or if fuel rises another $1 gal. And, on top of that, he say’s you better start stocking up. This is from someone who just bought an F-350 4 door. :Shocked:

[dunewalker]

I suspect that the JIT inventory system will start to crumble by this 4th of July holiday. By that I mean shortages of normal items in grocery stores as well as others.

[jlw61]

This is very interesting information and I'm not surprised to hear it. I do however believe you will find that there will be shortages in certain kinds of things. For instance, while Virginia will be swimming in peaches, Wisconsin will be full of apples because, I believe, truck shipping plays a big part on the distribution of those items. How California will be able to ship all of its produce, I haven't a clue.

The north south runs will still have the railroads (FL oranges come up along I-95 by the train load) but the East-West migration of food is going to be a bit of a problem. I suspect the worst shortages will be, as you said, canned and fresh foods if it is traveling East or West. The railroads will still be hauling for a long time, but it takes longer and I don't know how well the railroads can ramp up on refrigerator cars.

[allmeyer]

I've been to the local Wal-mart recently and I've noticed that A LOT of items had passed their expiration date and were still on the shelves. This hasn't happened in the past - older food is usually put up on a 50% off shelf for quick sale. I was a little upset because I bought some macaroni & cheese without looking at the expiration date and it was a week old. I'm wondering if this is a way to make the shelves look fuller.

[dunewalker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('allmeyer', 'I')'ve been to the local Wal-mart recently and I've noticed that A LOT of items had passed their expiration date and were still on the shelves. This hasn't happened in the past - older food is usually put up on a 50% off shelf for quick sale. I was a little upset because I bought some macaroni & cheese without looking at the expiration date and it was a week old. I'm wondering if this is a way to make the shelves look fuller.

[Heineken]

Maybe we'll get out of Iraq and Afghanistan when people start starving here in large numbers?

[Dreamtwister]

I don't know what it's like in Minneapolis, but several of my neighborhood grocery stores have had "temporary shortage" signs on the front doors for, literally, months.