EMAIL
| PRINT
| REPORT TYPO
| SEND YOUR FEEDBACK
|
The cost of food
- May 6, 2008 10:51 AM |
- By Your Voice
According to Mel Fruitman, vice-president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, Canada is not immune from the growing global food crisis.
How will Canadians be impacted? What foods are already rising in price? What other effects will food inflation have on consumers?
On Thursday, May 8 Mel Fruitman took your questions on food prices and consumption.
Read his answers below.
Categories
All News blogs
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Your Interview
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Recent Entries
- Staying healthy: How to monitor and reduce your risk of disease
- For decades, the most popular tool for assessing a person's risk for obesity-related problems like diabetes and heart disease was the body mass index, or BMI. But some experts think physicians should focus on their patients' waist measurements, and a... Continue reading this post
- Privacy online: How to stay secure in the age of social media
- Following another round of criticism over its privacy settings, Facebook is tinkering with its policies once again. But many users are starting to ask whether it's too little, too late. The site has struggled with negative user feedback, while continuing... Continue reading this post
- Your Interview: How to talk to your kids about sex
- By Renee RamsarranSex education is an ongoing process that usually starts at home. Children learn about sex and sexuality through their parents, yet families often hesitate to talk about certain issues with their kids. How can you take an active... Continue reading this post
Comments (7)
How has the impact of mega farm corporations controlled food distribution and cost as well as stock piling so that the poor are often severely impacted?
Mel Fruitman: Over the past number of years there definitely has been a trend towards consolidation of small farms into larger corporate farms, and similar consolidation on the distribution/retail side. However, I am not aware of that leading to stock piling in Canada, nor of it creating a detrimental effect on the poor.
Farm productivity has increased and competition at the retail level has benefited consumers. However, we are concerned about the restraints on price competition imposed by supply-management systems such as those for eggs, poultry, cheese, etc.
With so many natural phenomenon happening,[volcanoes,cyclones,frosts,etc.]do you believe EVERY food source will be impacted,be it from milk to coffee to rice to citrus fruits globally?
Do you believe people are finally starting to understand the cause and effects of global food and distribution affects EVERYONE from EVERY walk of life?
Do you believe people are finally getting the message that FARMERS FEED EVERYONE?
Mel Fruitman: These natural phenomena have always contributed to variations in the world-wide availability of foodstuffs (and to difficulties for farmers.)
What has happened recently is the co-incidence of a number of these events combined with a growing world-wide demand as the developing nations ramp up their consumption. This situation has been exacerbated by the mis-guided government policies which divert foodstuffs away from human (and animal) consumption into the production of biofuels.
When the effect of ever increasing fuel prices is factored in, there can be no doubt that all food products will be affected. On the other hand, given the vagaries of local weather conditions, we may still see periods when the supply of certain items exceeds demand.
Unfortunately a great deal of farmland in or close to urban areas has been converted to housing tracts. Also, many farmers have had to supplement their income from farming with off-farm income. We city folk have had a tendency to forget that our food comes from farms both near and far. All of the recent discussion is likely to make us more aware of and to think more about where our food comes from.
The increased incidences of severe weather occurrences resulting from climate change, will continue to impact food sources. Do you believe that increased governmental support for alternative energies will occur?
Mel Fruitman: If you mean will governments continue to mis-direct resources, I certainly hope not.
Canadian governments are giving out millions of dollars in subsidies (including to oil companies who certainly do not need them) to develop biofuels, in particular Ethanol.
Everybody to whom I have spoken tells me that turning corn into ethanol is more harmful to the environment than using the oil which it replaces. Also, it diverts the corn away from feeding people and animals. I am also told that continually growing corn on a piece of land and not rotating it with other grains severely depletes the nutrients in the soil ultimately rendering it unusable.
What dietary changes can people make that will reduce the impact of rising food prices? I assume that vegetarian and vegan diets are less pricey. Are there other healthy diet choices that will reduce the impact on our wallets?
Mel Fruitman: I cannot advise on healthy diets #151; that is best done by a dietician. However, we do have a great deal of flexibility in our food purchases in order to mitigate rising food prices.
We Canadians have become accustomed to having just about any food product we want at any time of year. Instead of eating only locally grown products when they are in season, as we used to do not too many years ago, we buy items such as , say, strawberries in the dead of winter after they have been transported thousands of miles from where they were grown. Obviously we are paying for this convenience (some might say indulgence).
This is where prices are most likely to rise first and fastest. Simply by adjusting our purchases, without dramatically affecting our diets, we will be able to keep the cost of our “food basket” relatively constant for some time.
Why should it affect us when we have are own oil and wheat?
Mel Fruitman: Unfortunately those commodities are sold and priced internationally. We do not have one price for domestic consumption and another one for export.
Will increasing prices lower the divide between non-organic and organic as prices rise or will organic always be priced at a premium over regular food?
Mel Fruitman: Probably not. Much of the premium in organic prices is due to marketing considerations. People are willing to pay more for the perceived benefits of organic, hence prices are higher.
The Minneapolis price of wheat, which is used to price to Canadian millers, was 10 cents per pound a year ago. It increased to 40 cents per pound in February and has now fallen to less than 20 cents per pound.
Given that there is less than a pound of wheat in a loaf of bread, what if anything do wheat prices have to do with the price of $4.00 loaf of bread?
Do you expect the recent lower wheat prices to result in lower bread prices?
Mel Fruitman: Obviously if the price of what doubled or quadrupled, the price of a loaf of bread did not do the same. As the cost of the components of a loaf increase, I would expect to see an incremental rise in the retail price. I am not familiar with the costs of bread baking so I cannot comment further.