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• Wednesday, January 2, 2008 04:15 AM

  Food gets more expensive

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071231/wl_csm/o2008food_1

  Two major trends have been pushing prices up faster than they have risen for more than 30 years. One is that increasingly prosperous consumers in India and China are not only eating more food but eating more meat. Animals have to be fed (grains, usually) before they are butchered. The other is that more and more crops – from corn to palm nuts – are being used to make biofuels instead of feeding people.

  At the same time, the world is drawing down its stockpiles of cereal and dairy products, which makes markets nervous and prices volatile.

  The result, says Joachim von Braun, who heads the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, is that "the world food system is in trouble. The situation has not been this much of a concern for 15 years."

  According to recently released “Annual Energy Management Report”, in Fiscal Year 2006 the Pentagon consumed 320,000 barrels per day of site delivered oil; and that does not include the oil used by our mercenaries or our client nations where we fund their military. You can bet the 'leading candidates' have no cares about the cost of food --- or even if the dollar continues to collapse. Eat hardy, you may well go on a real diet next year.

  —bucky1 Read bucky1's other letters
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