Bread is on its way to becoming a delicacy.

[roamer65]

Wheat future prices surged to well beyond $20/bushel on the March contract today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVSE.uhXlJhw&refer=home

I see food riots in our future.

[Oleladylib]

1. Bread went from 1.99 to 3.09 in 1 week.. Flour went from 15. to 30. for bakers.

[grasswire]

2. Keep American wheat at home.

The Chinese are driving this run on wheat. Are we willing to trade our wheat for their cheap goods? That's what is happening.

[ThomWV]

7. Bingo!

Folks, pay attention here. This is how it really is. This is the trade.

[roamer65]

9. Kazakstan imposed wheat export restrictions today.

I see more countries attempting to control the supply in this manner very soon.

[Kali]

17. well, let's not forget the cost of petroleum

[Warpy]

18. I know there's little love for the Chinese

for looting what we had left of several industries, for slapping a 20% tariff on imports while ours is a ridiculous 2%, but consider that the price of rice has soared 60% in Asia. That's breakfast, lunch and dinner for an awful lot of people.

They might have our jobs, but they're living in prison conditions to do them. They are being mercilessly exploited to make all the consumer shit we seemingly have an unquenchable appetite for. Starving them doesn't seem like the right thing to do here.

Prices will likely go up there, too, and there are already riots by peasants who haven't shared in the prosperity and who have shared in the pollution produced by the factories, in the evictions of neighborhoods hundreds of years old to make room for more skyscrapers. China is on the verge of becoming so unstable the jobs will have to be shipped elsewhere.

[mdmc]

21. YES

Thanks for the reply:kick:

[bulloney]

32. That's one of the downfalls of these free and open markets.

The major grain handlers, who control virtually all of the grain in this country, don't give a rat's ass about feeding people in the U.S. They're only concerned about turning the biggest profit possible. And if that means shipping it overseas despite shortages at home, they'll do it in a minute.

Trans-national corporations such as Cargill, ADM, Bunge, et al are positioned so that they don't have any obligations to serve anyone but themselves. They're a quasi-government of their own.

[Hannah Bell]

39. try wall street. n/t

[villager]

3. the first step will be to quit wasting grain to feed livestock....

n/t

[spotbird]

6. Amen. nt

[Hoof Hearted]

12. Absolutely true. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

16. I think the first step

is to quit wasting it for ethanol for cars.

[villager]

25. well, the livestock wasting has been going on for decades...

...prior to the ethanol-wasting! ;-)

[AZ Criminal JD]

26. The prices weren't going up in those decades

It is only when we started wasting it for ethanol that the prices started to sky rocket.

[villager]

27. but the ecological toll was already disastrous... the economic toll is catching up....

n/t

[Kali]

29. as far as I know they aren't using wheat for ethanol - mostly corn

the price of production is based on all the petroleum inputs and THOSE are what have been skyrocketing.

Yes corn prices are being affected by the push for ethanol. Not sustainable in my opinion AT ALL, but the OP was about wheat.

And don't forget NAFTA - corn to Mexico just had a new opening.

[NickB79]

30. Wheat isn't used directly, but former wheat fields are being converted to corn

Because of the demand for ethanol. Thus, less wheat on the market and soaring wheat prices.

[Mojorabbit]

34. Yes but I read that a lot

of farmers that were growing wheat are now growing corn.

[Kali]

35. no doubt some are, but I'm not sure how much wheat is converting to corn,

just because I know wheat needs less heat and water so they may overlap, but not entirely grown in the same areas. Probably more soy and some other crops going to corn, would be my bet.

[bulloney]

33. Ethanol does not use the entire kernel of corn.

The starch is taken out to make ethanol. The remaining portion of the corn is the meal that is used for feeding livestock and other food-related uses.

This bullshit about ethanol causing food shortages is nothing but propaganda from the oil companies. And when have they ever been honest with us?

[Kali]

28. not the same grain, nor grown in the same places

not much wheat fed to livestock, sorry

[AZ Criminal JD]

36. Your attempts to defend Ethanol are amusing and wrong

First of all wheat and corn are grown in the same places. Not every farm but in the same general areas.

Corn is a blessing to mankind--a truly cheap food, rich in calories and capable of sustaining life. The average wholesale price of corn was less than $.02 per pound in 2000; but by 2007, thanks to the new alcohol refineries in the Midwest, the average price doubled to $.06 per pound. Even after doubling in price, corn is still our cheapest foodstuff, so what is the problem? You might not eat much corn at your house, a few tacos once in a while, a little corn syrup, maybe some in the dog food, but for the most part you eat bread, meat, milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, so who cares about the price of corn?

The problem is that when the price differential among commodities exceeds the difference in food value, the prices of other grains go up too. Farmers also switch what they raise, from what is cheap to what is hot in the marketplace; in the last couple years they switched en masse to raising corn. Now wheat has tripled and soybean prices have more than doubled! The runaway corn price finally bubbled over into the soybean and wheat markets in 2007. Soybeans, another food staple, now sells for more than ten dollars a bushel, more then double.

In 2001 the average price of wheat was about $2.50 per 60 pounds or $.04 per pound; right now the price is $9.25 per 60 pounds or $.15 per pound, and has gone up more than 350% since our government started to burn corn. Wheat prices have more than doubled in 2007. This may mean some minor or major inconvenience for people in the U.S. Our fool's love affair with Ethanol is going to lead to starvation in other areas of the world.

[Kali]

41. where the hell did you get that I am defending ethanol?

did you reply to the wrong post?

Isn't wheat was grown further north and in cooler, drier areas than corn or soy? Of course there must be lots of overlap and of course a lot of farmers are switching to corn - including folks who might have been pasturing animals instead of cropping - but my real point was that the cost of fuel and fertilizer are driving the rise in all prices.

I never defended ethanol and strongly feel it should be reserved for human consumption only, not burned in vehicles. :toast:

[Double T]

4. wall street speculators are driving up the prices of ALL commodities.

What is needed is a revolution to crush the greed monger corporate criminals and their enabling investors.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Do you remember the price gouging for coffee and sugar in the 1970's

This is probably the same thing- seeing the oil companies rake it in, the Wheat growers are creating "shortages' to jack up their profits as well.

[spag68]

11. wheat growers

I doubt seriously if the farmers are doing anything of the sort. If you must blame someone, take into consideration the price of fuel and fertilizer. The only "farmers" who are making much are ADM, and the conglomerates, who are probably manipulating the market.

[roamer65]

13. What is happening is many farmers are contracting to grow corn...

for the biofuel (ethanol) plants. My dad (an ex-farmer) told me about it the other day. They are simply doing what they have to in order to make a living. The farmers aren't the ones getting rich. You are absolutely correct, spag68.

[baldguy]

8. Once the megacorps perfect Soylent Green we'll have nothing to worry about.

[lonestarnot]

10. I see them too.

[NNN0LHI]

14. Here is the punch line in the last paragraph

Corn futures for May delivery advanced as much as 1.1 percent to $5.5275 a bushel, and last traded at $5.485. Corn, which reached a record $5.55 yesterday, is up 25 percent in the past year on record demand for grain to produce ethanol and feed livestock.

[liberal N proud]

15. As prices of transportation soar, so will the price of everything else

We are in a spiral where there is no apparent end to the rising cost of living. The haves will have it all and there will be nothing left for the rest of us.

[The Straight Story]

19. Sad but true (nt)

[grasswire]

20. so how does one properly store wheat and flour...

...for the long haul?

[SoCalDem]

24. Flour freezes well..and bread's not hard to make at all

You cannot replicate the "wonder-bread (doughball) bread", but homemade's pretty darned yummy...

[Habibi]

22. We'll all be on low-carb diets soon!

That's a good thing, right?

[Skittles]

23. no

it's not

[malaise]

31. That's true across the globe

People will soon be jailed for stealing bread as they were in 19th century England. Fuck the greedy rich and their puppet governments.

[musiclawyer]

37. Seriously, far less wheat and corn in the diet is a good thing

Buy yeah, the price point sucks.

[JDPriestly]

42. If you don't have enough wheat or corn, you don't have enough

meat or milk. That's because the animals we eat as food also eat wheat and/or corn. As for eating other vegetables as the main part of our diet, dream on. It takes a lot of lettuce, spinach, green beans to provide enough calories to keep a normal person going for a day. Beans take quite a bit of land.

[Jack Rabbit]

38. Wait until it's moldy bread

Shall we all start planning to survive on potatoes?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

40. I find it hard to eat without bread

Bread, cheese, and wine is enough to satisfy me. But eating without bread just seems uncivilized.