Posted on 02/04/2011 11:27:46 PM PST by FromLori
U.S. cattle and hog futures are expected to hit record highs this year, a Reuters Polls showed, setting the stage for less meat on the dining table.
The expected higher prices could make it harder for many countries to tamp down surging inflation and calm citizens angered by record high food prices. Already, there have been riots and protests in some North African countries.
Grain prices have been forecast to remain stubbornly high as well this year, with two straight years of high prices seen as the latest sign in the end of cheap food.
"There is going to be less meat per person in 2011, quite a bit less," said Ron Plain, an University of Missouri agricultural economist. "That should push up prices."
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“eah... if food prices ever skyrocket here expect unrest and rioters to start burning down government offices”
The difference will be that those on the government dole will be given meat while those who are working will go without. Control the food supply and control; the serfs.
Old proverb: "you don't burn food!"
We'll be forced to start withholding our food from the people who eat it and don't pay for it. Specifically, welfare cases and government employees.
What a shame.
I bought five turkeys at Thanksgiving. Gotta get them canned.
In tough times when the shtf, it will be about getting the protein. Spices can make up the difference from defatting the meats for flavor. Defatting keeps the meats from becoming rancid after dehydrated.
“Yeah... if food prices ever skyrocket here expect unrest and rioters to start burning down government offices. “
Naa - we’d up the food stamp level. Never a problem here, at least for people that get free food. Others, maybe you have a point.
Some simple and incontrovertible facts. First, inflation is a tax, and it is both inefficient and (perhaps for this reason) typically an act of desperation.
Second, there is little way to escape inflation taxes unless one withdraws in whole or in part from the market system. And because some people — usually those who are most affluent — can put their wealth into illiquid forms (i.e., far removed from the monetary system), it is quite inefficient, arbitrary, and regressive. Wealth can be hidden in illiquid forms. Income usually can not and so it hits the working poor disproportionately.
Third, this is all well known to economists on both the left and right. For a Democratic administration to resort in such great measure to inflation is tantamount to intellectual and ideological treason. And yet they do it.
Fourth, inflation isn’t the underlying problem, in that it is merely the immediate manifestation of a country that is bankrupt and often out of fear has compromised and degraded its basic values — and I mean that quite literally. Devaluing the currency is only the most transparent manifestation of a general degradation of values.
Thank you for reading my little recitation of Macro-Econ 101 first principles.
You've just illustrated a great example of hedonic adjustments to your own personal food prices. Less quality and more effort but rated equivalent to prime rib.
That is not correct. Ethanol from corn is not the reason for higher corn prices and meat prices. Humans consume less than 12 percent of what is produced in the US. The balance is produced for cattle and other products and basically unpalatable to the human palate.
The primary by product from a gran ethanol plant is highly enriched cattle feed. Basically, you are taking out the crap from corn that does not benefit the cattle diet and end up with a byproduct quite good for cattle. It is added to the normal ration of cattle actually and in ideal cases can increase the weight gain productivity up to 10 percent.
In fact, there is a glut of distilled grains available to cattle producers from ethanol plants and it is selling well below its market value. We export several hundred million tons to China alone.
The reason for higher food prices including corn, meat, etc. is the higher price of oil and the current manipulation of financial markets. When you devalue currency, which is what is happening in the US and around the world, commodity, including food prices, goes up.
It is a major part of it. One of my long time friends is a hog farmer and the price he has to pay for corn is virtually putting him out of business.
I live here in Iowa and am closely aware of it.
After being processed, the "left-overs" are almost pure fiber and don't have as much food value as is being "spun" about it. That info from an Iowa State University experimental farm about four miles from here.
You may want to check this out:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/15/hogs/
To the relief of hog farmers, prices have eased a bit lately, but not by much.
Gee, and here they’ve been subsidizing food-to-fuel conversion. Yeah, that was a good idea; right up there with shutting down irrigation in CA.
Politician (n.) from the Greek POLY meaning many and TICK, a bloodsucking insect.
Thank you for posting it I think it’s a great breakdown and I agree.
“Go fishing, it’s FREE!”
Not where we live. You have to pay for a license. If you are caught fishing or crabbing without one, there is a hefty fine. Sigh....
"Meat was the next food item to be controlled. A ration of two pounds per person per week became effective in May. [ca 1943] Consumers needed to present small blue tokens to receive the rationed portion from a meat dealer. On 4 May “Meatless Tuesday” for public eating-places was introduced. Anyone keeping meat in a cold storage locker had to declare it by 30 June. On top of these controls, it became mandatory for butchers to follow new rules for cutting meat."
An interesting read for those who haven't gone through this drill, and may be a template for the future, is HERE.
Must have a pressure canner. This assumes quart jars, cut the salt and pepper in half for pint jars.
Cut the raw meat from the bone, putting it into clean jars. Once full, add 1 tsp salt (adjust to taste) and 1/2 tsp pepper, fill with water or broth, put on lids/rings and pressure can according to your canner instructions. This is “raw pack”.
You can cook the turkey (like you would a chicken for soup), bone it, put the meat and broth into clean jars. If you seasoned the broth, you don’t need to add any spices to the jars. If you didn’t season the broth, add the 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper to each jar. Add the lids/rings and pressure can according to your canner instructions.
The Ball Blue Book covers this, as do most “how-to” books that come with the canners.
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As in Egypt so will we end up in a few short years.
People will have a big problem in the US putting food on the table sooner than later.
But thanks to a bunch of dead folks and people who vote numerous times per election we have “hope and chains”
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