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Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

bloomberg.com

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Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#71

Post by nelsonmandela »

nness wrote: post #61
Cederfjard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I interpreting this correctly that there’s a minimum wage that applies to Australians but not foreigners, and farmers thus rely on foreign labor? Edit: In Sweden we have/have had similar situations with temporary immigrants that for example pick berries for exploitative wages, but that’s because there’s no actual minimum wage per se - in the rest of society decent wages are ensured by strong unions (except in area…

Some of Australia's visa's require that the applicant spend a few months working on a farm, usually fruit-picking. These workers are still entitled to the same minimum wages (as far as I know) and other protections, in theory. (Australia's geographical isolation makes it difficult to attract seasonal workers, unlike throughout Europe where traveling for work is comparatively cheaper and easier.) However, farmers have…

In addition to supposedly paying them minimum wage - the farmers employ a racket where they charge the poor souls exorbitant rates to stay on the farm as it is rural and there is no other accommodation thereby bringing the effective minimum wage down significantly.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#74

Post by brongondwana »

kingkawn wrote: post #63
imtringued wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That aljazeera link doesn't sit right with me. I mean, just look at that first picture. It's a small child sitting in a sandy place with a stainless steel bowl with porridge like food inside. There is no civilization in sight. Maybe some village houses, which represent the bare minimum shelter needed. So now you get to ask yourself, should I feel pity or should I recognize that this child is not living in an environm…

You gotta feed people to be able to do the restructuring. Your logic is hollow to someone starving. Also impressive you’ve attempted to resurrect the idea of “civilizing” people.

What do you mean by 'resurrect the idea of “civilizing” people'?

It smells remarkably like you're trying to manufacture a culture war out of whole cloth when the the comment you're replying to was talking about "bringing civilisation" which is quite clearly being used in the with the meaning of "infrastructure", not the meaning of "white western culture".

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#75

Post by Uberphallus »

a_bonobo wrote: post #36
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

"thanks to a combination of poor weather, increased demand and virus-mangled global supply chains." Seems like a lost opportunity to create so much anxiety with a long piece like this, to then only have this single line to hint at a reason for the rise. Can anybody more economically minded clarify if this is just post-covid rebound supply chain prices or is this food prices adjusting closer to their 'real' cost? Also…

Here in Australia, some food prizes are up because the farming industry relies on cheap backpacker labor. Borders are shut so no backpackers come in, so a lot of fruit died on the field. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/australia/agricultu... It should be noted that the entire industry is notorious for doing every dodgy thing they can get away with, wage theft, rent theft, extreme conditions, so local workers…

Most cereal, corn, and even some fruit harvest is highly mechanized, whereas many other types of produce require manual labor, so it's really not surprising.

In Europe, there are seasonal harvests that require surges of workers, who are sometimes legal and sometimes not. For example loads of foreign workers flock to the vineyards in France, Italy or Spain to collect the grapes for winemaking. It's around 3 weeks of work, obviously not worth a permanent contract.

There were very few restrictions in those countries by the time of harvest (September) so wine prices, to my knowledge, have remained largely unaffected, but if it happened otherwise, winemakers would have been, without doubt, lobbying against the restrictions.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#76

Post by raul-pilla »

kingkawn wrote: post #63
imtringued wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That aljazeera link doesn't sit right with me. I mean, just look at that first picture. It's a small child sitting in a sandy place with a stainless steel bowl with porridge like food inside. There is no civilization in sight. Maybe some village houses, which represent the bare minimum shelter needed. So now you get to ask yourself, should I feel pity or should I recognize that this child is not living in an environm…

You gotta feed people to be able to do the restructuring. Your logic is hollow to someone starving. Also impressive you’ve attempted to resurrect the idea of “civilizing” people.

So you're a proponent of the "give the fish" and not "teach to fish"? If the supplies flowing to them stop they starve again, so I am not sure you're right.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#77

Post by Glawen »

a_bonobo wrote: post #36
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

"thanks to a combination of poor weather, increased demand and virus-mangled global supply chains." Seems like a lost opportunity to create so much anxiety with a long piece like this, to then only have this single line to hint at a reason for the rise. Can anybody more economically minded clarify if this is just post-covid rebound supply chain prices or is this food prices adjusting closer to their 'real' cost? Also…

Here in Australia, some food prizes are up because the farming industry relies on cheap backpacker labor. Borders are shut so no backpackers come in, so a lot of fruit died on the field. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/world/australia/agricultu... It should be noted that the entire industry is notorious for doing every dodgy thing they can get away with, wage theft, rent theft, extreme conditions, so local workers…

I knew backpacking was a thing, but I thought it was quite confidential. I didn't know that the farmers heavily relied on them to harvest

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#78

Post by blazespin »

nelsonmandela wrote: post #37

Closed borders, no students/backpackers, farmers unprepared to pay minimum wages to Australians is resulting in a lot of produce being plowed back into the ground. I just don't know how this economy keeps rolling. How can farmers meet the payments on their loans? Reading 'The great depression: A diary' and looking at the world today just shocks the hell out of me. We are following it step for step and the crash is go…

"We are following it step for step".

Really? Top voted comment on Hacker News? Yikes. Things have really gone downhill around here. Stick to tech, folks.

"During the early 1920s, for example, prices dropped a total of 20%. And during the worst years of the Great Depression, from 1930 to 1933, prices fell a total of 25%"

I mean, the title of the article was even : "Food Prices Soar Globally"

If you want to be a doomer, than at least compare it to the stagflation of the 70s, but honestly, that's probably not accurate either.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#79

Post by boomboomsubban »

imtringued wrote: post #59
baybal2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year we had: 1. Biblical scale locust infestation in much of Africa, and Asia 2. Floods in East Asia 3. Early winter in Russia, Ukraine, and North China 4. Failed, and missed sowing of grains in much of above regions 5. Shipping disruptions, and resulting food spoilage, and waste 6. Granaries busted, and people burning through many months worth of grain, and flour in much of third world due to initial COVID pani…

That aljazeera link doesn't sit right with me. I mean, just look at that first picture. It's a small child sitting in a sandy place with a stainless steel bowl with porridge like food inside. There is no civilization in sight. Maybe some village houses, which represent the bare minimum shelter needed. So now you get to ask yourself, should I feel pity or should I recognize that this child is not living in an environm…

Have you ever left a city? Even in some suburbs it's possible to take a picture of someone with only a few houses behind them. In my smallish town, only tens of thousands of people, I live next to the busiest road and I could find an equally barren background about three blocks away.

Not living in an urban environment is not devoid of civilization.

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