Food price inflation is here to stay, warns chief of PepsiCo

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Times Online

The surge in the price of food will continue for at least a further two years, the chief executive of one of the world's biggest food companies has told The Times.

Indra Nooyi, the joint chairman and chief executive of PespiCo, predicted that “structural inflation for food is here to stay for another two to three years”, and that it would be propelled by government initiatives to subsidise ethanol programmes, the biofuel that is seen as a more environmentally friendly alternative to oil.

Over the past 12 months milk prices have doubled as demand for corn, the staple diet of a dairy herd, increased substantially. Corn is also used in the fermenting process to produce ethanol. The cost of a bushel of corn doubled over the same period.

<snip>

Ms Nooyi is not the only senior business figure to predict that high food prices were here to stay. Carl Weinberg, co-founder of High Frequency Economics, a think-tank, predicted that continuing food-price inflation, along with an expected slowdown in China, presented one of the biggest downside risks to the American economy.

Read more: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3221937.ece

[annabanana]

1. "no one NEEDS your stuff" says I to the chief of PepsiCo.

(I might miss my Quaker Oats on a cold morning.. . .but I'm MUCH better off without the soda and salty snacks)

[bulloney]

2. This stuff about ethanonl inflating food prices is pure bullshit!

Look at the farmer's share of any food product. The price of corn in a box of corn flakes costing $3.00 and more is less than a dime. The cost of wheat in a loaf of bread costing $1.25 is around 7 cents. And I can go on and on.

As for the "ethanol subsidy," if you include the military costs of extracting oil from the Middle East and delivering a gallon of gas to a U.S. gas station pump, you're paying over $6.00 a gallon, but we never hear about that subsidy, do we? OK, so ethanol and other alternate fuels from farm commodities are subsidized, but if it helps us get away from our dependence on Middle East oil, it's worth the price.

These lying corporate propagandists wouldn't know what the truth is if it bit them in the ass.

[Skittles]

3. YOU ARE CORRECT, BULLONEY

welcome to DU :hi:

[ursi]

4. with food prices going up along with heat, etc., I worry about those

who live on less than $30,000. a year and there are many.

[InkAddict]

5. We're trying to get the apt. ship-shape for storage of

bulk staples and heading off to GFS, but we need to find room for a large EnergyStar freezer that, even so, will most likely offset the cost of all our light-bulb changes. Can't win! Wondering what the property manager would say to a couple of square-foot veggie gardens or a cold frame...hmmm - The flower/seed catalogs will be arriving soon.