EconomicsUSA: Food: Prices mount, the sky's the limit

Christian Science Monitor (Mar16,2k11)

refWrite anticpates a continuous rise in food prices, but with intermissions.  Is the present rise due to the winter? -- remember how the USA Labor Dept explained away the winter unemployment as being due to workers who coudn't get into work.  But were they all laid off and on the dole?  Or was there simply a  drop in wages paid out for workers who were not laid off, the explanation being due to an accounting error that entered figures for lessened money to workers in wage entered by mistake in the unemplyment figures?  -- EconoMix?

Food costs soaring in US after harsh winter. Will higher prices last?

Higher wholesale food prices contributed to a jump in the producer price index in February, the US reported Wednesday. Consumers are likely to see food prices rise at least 4 percent in 2011.

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Maria Mateus shopped for groceries at a supermarket in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 8. Analysts expect a hike in meat and dairy prices, in particular, due to the effect of bad weather on feed corn.

Tony Avelar / The Christian Science Monitor

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by Ron Scherer, Staff writer / March 16, 2011

New York -- After several years of almost no inflation, many Americans may be surprised to find some of their favorite foods, from burgers to pizza to a glass of orange juice, rising in price this year.
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  Graphic: Grocery bill set to rise 
  
  (Research: Geoff Johnson, Photo: Alfredo Sosa/Staff, Graphic: Rich Clabaugh/Staff)

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The producer price index, which measures changes in wholesale prices, rose 1.6 percent last month, mainly because of a jump in food prices, the Department of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The food segment, up 3.9 percent, saw the biggest monthly increase since November 1974, with soaring vegetable prices responsible for about 70 percent of that jump. On Thursday, the government will report the consumer price index.

In the year ahead, expect to see the largest food price increases in the protein group: chicken, beef, and pork, as well as dairy items. One key reason: The price of corn, used as feed by ranchers and farmers, has doubled in the past year. But vegetarians won't get off easy: Produce and orange juice are rising sharply, as well.

RELATED: Food safety law: Six ways it will make food safer

Higher food prices have wide economic ramifications and are being watched closely by the Federal Reserve. From a business standpoint, food producers – from agricultural giants to the corner pizza parlor – must raise prices or watch their profit margins evaporate. Many middle-class households are financially stretched to the limit, so any extra expense for such basics as milk or bread makes their life even tougher. Organizations that help the poor with food, moreover, find they can't help as many people because their dollar doesn't go as far.

PoliticsEgypt: Prez Mubarak: Fires cabinet, "tomorrow there will be a new one"

Yahoo! News [Jan29,2k11]

by Jailian Zayan

Mubarak defiant 

as Egypt toll rises, 

Obama wades in

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday addressed the nation for the first time since deadly protests erupted against his regime, vowing reform but showing no sign of relaxing his decades-old grip on power.

US President Barack Obama meanwhile called on Egyptian authorities not to use violence against the raging political protests, and drove home his message in a 30-minute phone call with Mubarak.

Four days after angry protesters first took to the street and with at least 27 people killed in subsequent street battles, a stoney-faced Mubarak said he had sacked the government and would pursue economic and political reforms.

"I have asked the government to resign and tomorrow there will be a new government," Mubarak, 82, said on state television as protests raged in Cairo and other cities despite a night-time curfew.

"We will not backtrack on reforms. We will continue with new steps which will ensure the independence of the judiciary and its rulings, and more freedom for citizens," he said.

Protesters who have been demanding Mubarak step down, as well as an end to endemic state corruption and police brutality that have become systematic under his rule, dismissed the speech as too little, too late.

"We don't care if the government resigns, we want him to resign," said demonstrator Khaled, 22, in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

Student Abdo, 20, said: "Prices are still high, the problems are still there, this doesn't solve anything."

Thirteen people died in clashes with police on Friday in the canal city of Suez, at least five in Cairo and two in Mansura, north of the capital, with many fatalities caused by rubber-coated bullets, medics and witnesses said.

Seven more people died on Wednesday and Thursday.

Key allies including the United States, Britain and Germany on Friday expressed concern about the violence, with Britain noting that the protesters had "legitimate grievances."

FoodGlobal: Corn and Soyabean: World moves into a great food-price shock

Financial Times - email newsletter

World moves closer to food price shock

The world has moved a step closer to a food price shock after the US cut stock forecasts for key crops, sending corn and soyabean prices to the highest level in 30 months -- posted by  Politicarp  update [jan14,2k11]  Kenneth Anderson, Volokh Conspiracy World Food Supplies and Prices Posted: 14 Jan 2011 09:22 PM PST (Kenneth Anderson)In conversation with someone who, as a senior NGO executive in international development and food aid, is well situated to respond on the question of rising commodity prices for food globally.  I asked specifically about the Wall Street Journal news story a few days ago on this topic, which reported: Prices of corn and soybeans leapt 4% Wednesday and wheat gained 1%, continuing the broad rally in commodity prices that began in June. With yesterday’s gains, prices of corn futures contracts are now up 94% from their June lows; soybeans are up 51% and wheat is up 80%. The USDA’s revisions reflect the impact of dry weather in South America and floods in Australia, which have compounded supply constraints that first started to emerge in the middle of last year, when a drought in Russia ravaged that country’s wheat fields. The agency also cut estimates for U.S. harvests of corn and soybeans. At the same time, demand is increasing. The USDA said ethanol producers likely will increase their use of corn, and consumption by emerging market countries continues to be strong. Prices of many agricultural commodities are still below the levels that sparked food riots in poor countries around the world in 2008. But economists see few signs that prices for grain, livestock and cotton will cool significantly anytime soon, signaling potential headaches for consumers and food companies. I was told that, if anything, this article understated the problem, at least if consumers in poor countries were taken into account and that food riots akin to those of 2008 would be unsurprising.  I was asked in turn why the US continues to subsidize ethanol, for which I had no good answer. (See also this story, HT Insta, and commenters are correct to note the Tunisian food riots.)