Food Prices Remain Stable
The runup in global food prices seems have stabilized for now, according to the weekly Economist food price index. It’s a 254.5 this week, down 3.5 percent over the last month, but still up 57.9 percent over a year ago.
Archive of posts filed under the food category.
Elasticity Translated
Ajay Shah explains what’s hidden behind the economic term “elasticity” – people with empty bellies: GDP growth yields fewer poor people who respond to higher wheat prices by purchasing less meat or wheat, i.e. we have less of a shock absorber. That generates a reduced elasticity of demand of wheat. So prices have to rise …
US Food Production
Simon Donner today answered a bunch of questions I had about US food production numbers: [T]he extra corn for ethanol has to be planted on productive croplands, lands with the right soils, and most of that land is being used. In 2007, soybean planting – the other major feed crop grown in the midwest US …
Food Price Index
Food prices popped back up a bit over the last week, according to the Economist, but have remained relatively stable for the last month. Down 1.7 percent over the last month, up 58.7 percent over the last year. West Texas Intermediate is up 99.8 percent over the last year (that would be “double”), and gold, …
Additional Food Doom
New Scientist has been banging the drum about wheat virus doom of late, but I wasn’t convinced that they were not being alarmist. (My key metric: no one else was writing about it.) Oh crap. Other people are writing about it: The fungal disease could spread to other wheat producing states in the Near East …
Dust in the Sahel
I wrote a piece in Sunday’s newspaper about new work by Ben Cook at NASA Goddard and his colleagues about the role of dust in the Dust Bowl drought. As the name implies, we knew the Dust Bowl was dusty. The new bit here is a much more clear understanding of the role of dust …
What I Love About the Internet, Episode XIV
That I can sit here in the comfort of my own home, idly curious about irrigation in California’s Imperial Valley, and look up the 1950 Census of Agriculture’s California county-by-county data. 503,686 Q: How has irrigation in California’s Imperial Valley changed over the years? A: Great question, John! In 1950, there were 532,543 acres under …
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Coleman, Stiger in the Morning Paper
A couple of pieces worth reading in the morning paper by my colleagues on subjects of personal interest: Mike Coleman on the political realities underlying the energy grandstanding coming out of Washington Susan Stiger on the virtues of growing and eating locally
Food Prices Flatten
Global food prices have leveled off, according to the Economist food price index out today. It’s settled at 251.5, down 0.6 percent from a week ago and up 61.3 percent from a year ago. I don’t understand it well enough to know for sure, but I’ve got to assume that 0.6 percent over a week …
Food Prices Down Slightly
This week’s Economist Food Price Index: 253.9, down 4 percent from last week. (Could someone do me a favor and let me know if the Economist link works? I’ve got a paid subscription now, so I’ve no idea what is free and what is behind their pay wall.)