Food Prices

SwineCast 0676

• Are higher food prices affecting consumers?  And what does it mean for U.S. agriculture and agricultural policy?  Let's ask American Farm Bureau Federation chief economist Bob Young. 

SwineCast 0306 Show Notes:

• Recapping the farm bill outcomes for pork producers and a preview of World Pork Expo with NPPC's David Warner
• China figures to be a bright spot in world pork import needs. Bruce Cochrane has more
• Economist says higher gas prices could help to level the biofuels playing field. However, he's not running for office...
• Food prices increase 40% around the world over the past year

SwineCast 0304 Show Notes:

• Special "Food AND Fuel" USDA conference with Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer lays out the economics on why they aren't mutually exclusive.  Link to video and transcript.
  

Worldwide alarms are now beginning to sound regarding the devasting impacts of U.S. (and other Western nation's) ethanol policy which has combined with growing food demand and sequential droughts in key grain growing areas around the globe to produce an impending humanitarian food crisis.

The UK Telegraph says food-based ethanol production may be reaching its political and moral limits. By forcing, through mandate and subsidy, a fifth (and soon to be one third) of the U.S. corn crop out of the food chain and into your gas tank, a mounting humantarian crisis has begun to emerge on a global basis.