LTHForum.com

Honey bee crisis could lead to higher food prices

By STEPHANIE S. GARLOW

WASHINGTON (AP) — Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.

"No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.

About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.

"If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation's farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore."

Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank....

In my mushroom club, there are several people who are members of the local bee society. Every time I have asked them about this bee issue, they said it is a natural phenomena that bee colonies occasionally disapeer. They roll their eyes claiming what they have read is more hysteria.

Chicago-area working-poor families are struggling to afford one of life’s basic needs: food.

In a survey of 301 working-poor residents of Cook County by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, 61% said their families had faced financial difficulties in securing food in the past year.

Forty-nine percent of the respondents identified three or more examples of their poor circumstances, including a lack of money to buy groceries, skipping meals to stretch the food they had or simply going hungry....

The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the second quarter of 2008 was $46.67, up about 3.5 percent or $1.64 from the first quarter of 2008.

Of the 16 items surveyed, 14 increased and two decreased in average price compared to the 2008 first-quarter survey. Compared to one year ago, the overall cost for the marketbasket items showed an increase of about 8.5 percent.

Two types of cooking oil and bacon showed the largest retail price increases. A 32-oz. bottle of corn oil was up 47 cents to $3.48, a 32-oz. bottle of vegetable oil rose 38 cents to $3.01 and one pound of bacon was up 22 cents to $3.57.

Other items that increased in price were: flour, up 18 cents to $2.57 for a 5-pound bag; apples, up 14 cents to $1.54 per pound; whole fryer chickens, up 12 cents to $1.47 per pound; a 20-oz. loaf of white bread, up 12 cents to $1.90; ground chuck, up 12 cents to $2.85 per pound; pork chops, up 9 cents to $3.40 per pound; Russet potatoes, up 8 cents to $2.55 for a 5-pound bag; 1 gallon of whole milk, up 7 cents to $3.88; mayonnaise, up 5 cents to $3.19 for a 32-ounce jar; sirloin tip roast, up 4 cents to $3.84 per pound; and a 9-oz. box of toasted oat cereal, up 1 cent to $2.98 per box.

Items that decreased in price were: 1 dozen large eggs, down 34 cents to $1.82 and 1 pound of cheddar cheese, down 11 cents to $4.60....

The Government is to launch a campaign to stamp out Britain's waste food mountains as part of a global effort to curb spiralling food prices.

Supermarkets will be urged to drop "three for two" deals on food that encourage shoppers into bulk-buying more than they need, often leading to the surpluses being thrown away. The scandal of the vast mountains of food that are thrown away in Britain while other parts of the world starve is revealed in a Cabinet Office report today. It calls for a reduction in food waste: up to 40 per cent of groceries can be lost before they are consumed due to poor processing, storage and transport.

The report says UK households could save an average of £420 per year by not throwing away 4.1 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten.

...

Britain declares ware on food waste



What would be their response to Costco and Sam's Club?

Regards,

Honestly, most people that I know find ways of using up food that they purchase before it goes bad.

OK, did an evening's shopping at the local Jewel, mostly in an effort to save gas (and partly to pick up the Aaron's Kosher Chicken that Stevez and other LTHers turned me on to) I've been shopping in my garden and at the farmer's markets since school was out, so I was horrified when I got to the checkout.

Now I'm curious: it seemed that almost all the pantry staples and produce items were upwards of double what I paid at Marketplace on Oakton (jarred olives and peppers, fresh lemons, canned fish, etc.) I'm curious - am I just so out of it that the prices have gone up there, too - or is it a false economy to try to save the gas? I mean, I spent at minimum an extra $30 on items whose prices were double what I remember. (instead of about an 8-mile round trip, so figure maybe 1/2 gallon of gas? $2? Did I get that about right? Sigh.)

I cannot wait until we have our grocery at Asbury and Oakton - that could mean a real savings if it's both in gas and in grocery.

I've heard the same thing from owners of apiaries at farmer's markets.

HIRES SLEUTH TO TRACE PREDATORY BEES; Paris Confectioner Then Brings Suit Against the Ministry of Fine Arts for Damages.
September 25, 1924, Thursday

PARIS, Sept. 24. -- A Paris detective has just had the strangest job probably ever performed by his profession. M. Lamande, living in the Avenue des Gobelins, hired him to trace the coming and going of bees that annoyed him...

(Full article here)

This is no sillier than the enactment of a bee-control lawyear in Evanston, effectively banning beekeeping. While it is true that there are a number of possible problems with keeping bees in a densely poplulated environment, this law struck me as using (forgive me) a hammer to swat a fly.

Epicurious has an interesting article on cost savings. Though I don't know how they justify anything at $7.29/lb being on that list.

I cannot wait until we have our grocery at Asbury and Oakton - that could mean a real savings if it's both in gas and in grocery.

While prices may still seem painfully high in the supermarket aisles, long-suffering consumers are beginning to see a break in their grocery bills—a bit of good news amid economic gloom.

Falling raw material costs coupled with a feeble economy have curbed soaring food inflation in recent months. Food prices fell on a month-to-month basis in February for the first time since April 2006.

Last year, food and beverage prices rose 5.4 percent as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest annual jump since 1990, because of a big run-up in commodity and energy costs.

But as the global economy tanked in late 2008, prices for oil, corn, wheat and soybeans fell. Those declines, after a predictable lag, are filtering down to grocery shelves, said Ephraim Leibtag, a Department of Agriculture economist.