Richard Ha writes:
The rising cost of food is a real and present danger.
- Last month the price of meat in the U.S. rose at the fastest rate in ten years.
- The cost of shrimp is up 61 percent from a year ago.
- It’s predicted that pork production may be down ten percent this year, due to a widespread virus, and the cost is already up 13 percent this year.
- As all these costs go up, many people have turned to eating chicken, but even the price of chicken breast is up 12 percent since a year ago.
Right here on the Big Island, our Pahoa school complex has the highest percentage of students in the entire state participating in the free/subsidized school lunch program. EIGHTY-NINE percent of the students in the Pahoa school complex qualify for, and receive, free or subsidized lunches.
There are socioeconomic consequences to all of this, and it’s exactly why the Big Island Community Coalition is advocating so strongly for lower electricity prices, which will directly lead to lower food costs.
From peakoil.com:
As the price of meat continues to skyrocket, will it soon be considered a “luxury item” for most American families? This week we learned that the price of meat in the United States rose at the fastest pace in more than 10 years last month….
The price of beef has also moved to unprecedented heights. Thanks to the crippling drought that never seems to end in the western half of the nation, the size of the U.S. cattle herd has been declining for seven years in a row, and it is now the smallest that is has been since 1951….
And we already have tens of millions of people in this country that are struggling to feed themselves. If you doubt this, please see my previous article entitled “Epidemic Of Hunger: New Report Says 49 Million Americans Are Dealing With Food Insecurity.”
So what happens if drought, diseases and plagues continue to cause food production in this country to plummet?