Things are getting rough here in the land of cheap food. Corn and soy -- building blocks of the industrial-food system -- are trading at or near all-time highs. And that's rippling through the food chain, from feedlots and food factories to the supermarket shelf.
Here's the latest:
[B]y next year, the price of a pound of chicken breast would climb to $2.63; beef round roast to $4.22, both up 10 percent. And the price of a pound of pork chop could be up to $4.78 -- a 30 percent increase.
Some folks see opportunity for reform in this situation: As prices for industrially produced food rise, the playing field will level for more sustainably produced food. But then there's another possibility: people will "trade down," economize, look for the cheapest food possible, regardless of quality or sustainability concerns.
On that note, from the consumer-trend spotter Euromonitor:
Troubled by a cloud of uncertainty, consumers in 2008 are filled with a sense of anxiety and gloom. To combat this, consumers are focusing on ways to stay financially stable during times of economic instability.... "With food, drinks and personal care products, the chances are that people will trade down particularly in areas that are less important to them."
Meanwhile, though ...
"Technology has been one of the areas where consumers have always been prepared to spend money. But with the economic slow down, growth may be limited to products that offer real benefits. Consumers will likely cut back in other areas in order to protect their spending on the next iPhone, computer or digital media player.
Climate Citizen: Michael Pollan on agriculture and health care
Tweet for the bees
Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers!
Comments
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rycarson Posted 11:35 am
05 Jul 2008
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kmp Posted 1:46 pm
05 Jul 2008
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SnoDragon Posted 3:50 am
06 Jul 2008
Maybe if people learned to cook (even at the basic level that I'm at: baking and pan-frying meats & veg, steaming & blanching, liberal seasonings, few sauces) using fresh ingredients and took a little more time doing it, we wouldn't have so much value-added "food-like products" to spend oodles of money on.
Then maybe we could eat better and more healthily and STILL have some extra pocket change to save up for that iPod, or to splurge on guilty pop chart pleasures on iTunes.
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sindark Posted 3:01 am
07 Jul 2008
Won't the factors driving price increases in industrially produced foods also impact food produced in more sustainable ways? Even if their input prices do not rise significantly, people might be expected to bid up the value of their products.
a sibilant intake of breath
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sjg Posted 4:30 am
07 Jul 2008
This year we're raising our own chicken.
This is not the cheap choice, because of all
the things we needed to buy and build to make
it possible. But we did that last year, and
we are still eating the chickens we killed
last fall. This year the feed has gone up,
it's about 35 cents a pound. Chicks are
about $3 each, and so the final product is
going to cost us about $2/lb live weight
and maybe $3/lb after cleaning. That's
closer to Trader Joe's prices than the super
market, but it's nice to know my chicken got
plenty of room to run around, socialize and
hunt insects. There isn't very much pollution
associated with raising your own chickens
either, they taste great, and we have lots
of good fresh eggs to eat too. We had to
design an insulated brood box because our
electrical system couldn't power a 250W bulb
24/7. We're off the grid, and totally solar
powered. A heat lamp on a thermostat did the
trick for keeping the chicks warm.
Cheers,
Susanna Gross
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John former Marine Posted 9:53 pm
07 Jul 2008
To everybody else, unless you're willing to humanely raise your own animals and then take the knife in your own hand, I recommend you try to eat low on the food chain if you absolutely must shop at grocery stores. Also, if you go to a grocery store and it's all nice cars/white people in the parking lot, you're paying too much for your food. A grocery store doesn't need the "atmosphere" of a night club...yet if I go into a SafeWay, a Giant, or a Harris Teeter, I immediately ask myself how expensive it must be to have everything so neat and clean and pretty.
The absolute best grocery stores with the best prices are the ones you see Central Americans, Koreans, Chinese, and Indians walking out of with old beat up little cars in the parking lot. They've got the best produce, the best grains, and brown rice comes in economical 20# bags, not the 1lb bags like Harris Tweeter. Sure, it stinks like a third world fish market, but that's what real life smells like anyways, not a sterile, synthetic, flower-like smell. Oh, and by the way, if you trade in your car and buy the car that those people have been driving, you'll save a lot on gas too.
Il faut cultiver notre jardin.
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