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May 17, 2007
Food Prices on the Rise
LA Times Food prices are rising faster in 2007 than they have in the last 15 years, after April saw a 3.9 % national increase in grocery prices. Although there are many factors in the rising prices, including inflation, drought, and unseasonable freezing temperatures, the bulk of the blame is falling on the rising price of corn, now in high demand for ethanol production. And here in the US we're not alone: yesterday Noam Chomsky put out an piece on Common Dreams which blames ethanol production and free trade for the recent 50% jump in the price of tortillas, a national staple.
There has been a ton of media attention on the price of food this spring. As Diane pointed out yesterday, several more politicians have jumped on to the Food Stamp Challenge bandwagon, which we blogged about last month during the Pennywise Eat Local Challenge. And Ethicurean has been chronicling the West Coastfallout over Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini's calling the Ferry Building's Farmers Market a "boutique," even though Petrini himself says in his books and in person (we saw him Tuesday here in Manhattan) that people should spend more on food. The Dairy Queen herself (one of the coolest food advocates we've never met) caught a bit of heat herself when she disclosed her own food budget a week ago.
Factory farm supporters have often claimed that industrial food production is more economically viable than small-scale production. Learn more about food economics and how subsidies factor into the equation on our issue pages. And if the subject has put you in the mood for some discussion, drop us a comment or feel free to start a thread on our forum.
Posted by leslie at May 17, 2007 05:09 PM
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