To worry about…
Well, actually more than one. Reports are coming out that some number of independent truckers are going to be forced to park their trucks because they cannot afford the diesel to actually deliver product. Of note, a ‘lot’ of the fresh produce from California and the left coast is hauled by independents.
And there is the issue of the loss of wheat and corn crops in Ukraine. They are the ‘breadbasket’ for Europe.
And the US farms that used to raise wheat have converted to corn for ethanol, which is not edible without totally different processing (lye baths).
To add insult to injury we have the fertilizer shortage…
Farmers are seeing a fertilizer shortage. Combined with high water and fuel prices, costs are set to soar as food becomes less available.
Full article HERE from Town Hall with graphics/tweets from farmers.
And inflation continues to take money out of our pockets… Even with the ‘generous’ 5.1% COLA effective 1 Jan.
The latest data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that prices upstream from consumers continue to surge higher at record-setting levels, putting more pressure on American companies and manufacturers.
As the BLS release for February’s data explains, “The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 0.8 percent in February, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This rise followed advances of 1.2 percent in January and 0.4 percent in December 2021. (See table A.) On an unadjusted basis, final demand prices moved up 10.0 percent for the 12 months ended in February.”
Full article, HERE. And if you ever wondered how this compares to the ‘old’ way of computing CPI, HERE is the link for that.
If you haven’t started stocking up on long storage items like flour, rice, and beans, maybe you should at least get a bag or three of each. And look at getting however much meat you can fit in your freezer, or go in with friends and neighbors to get an entire cow or hog worth of meat.
Not just “high price” of water but many farmers in California are being completely cut off for the 2022 growing season from irrigation water because of Delta Smelt and because there is a “plan” to get salmon to migrate up the Sacramento river even though evidence is scanty that they ever did so in significant numbers historically.
Here in Oz, the press is predicting the Ukraine issue will lead to higher wheat prices (duh!), and adding that Aussie wheat farmers face a moral dilemma about whether they should accept more for their crop.
I have no words.
Yep, store up the versatile meats rather than special cuts that sell for twice the price for half the amount. Rice an hamburger meat is a good meal extender.
And if there are some special treats which Life would exist but far less than before, stock up on that and ration judiciously.
You’d think with all the B.S. flowing out of the Beltway, fertilizer wouldn’t be scarce…
I know our water bill just went up about 20 bucks a month. Got a notice in the last bill that said… EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, WATER RATES ARE GOING UP. They jumped from $32.50 to $52.50. I don’t remember my math on figuring percentage, but that looks like at least a 67% increase.
The price of flour in here in Northeast Midwestia doubled in the last two weeks. The price of canned mushrooms has tripled over the last year.
Regarding SSI COLA, well, Congress just voted themselves a 21% or larger pay increase. Nice.
And you know what most modern fertilizers are made from? Petroleum. Which was one of the many things that the Keystone pipeline was going to be feeding, yes, domestic production of fertilizer. So where do we get much of our fertilizer from? Place called… Russia.
Fertilizer and weed/bug control had already doubled way before Russian sanctions. What will happen now is going to really shock people.
The Left Coast loves to hire owner operators, then make them sit and wait so much they can’t make a profit.
It’s been a problem for years and I assume it is only getting worse now.
P.S. Haven’t heard about the ports in a while. Are the Left Coast ports still messed up?
Well, the Left Coast ports are on the Left Coast, so pretty much are messed up by definition.
Apparently, they no longer allow owner/operators to work in CA. They passed a law outlawing the “gig” work system. Supposedly to drive out Uber and Lyft. No more part-time employment, it seems. I’ve heard that they stop them at the CA border, as the trucks are required to post who owns and/or operates them on the cab side. Same thing at the ports, supposedly.
So, about 10 to 20% of big rigs are forbidden to work in CA. Think this has an impact on getting caught up on the backlog at the ports? Another factor is that CA doesn’t allow old diesel trucks to work within the state. Engines are required to be no more than 10 years old. Might be even less, now. Their engine mandates cause lots of problems for trucks of all sizes with diesels. Bit bizarre to see box trucks with gasoline engines, but it’s not practical for the bigger trucks, so far.
CA HATES diesels. Fuel cost at least $1/gal more in CA, so trucks tend to have multiple tanks to limit having to buy it within the state. That lowers the weight they can transport, sometimes.
It just keeps getting better and better.
All part of the plan. The criminals in power create a never ending conga line of emergencies and problems so idiots will beg and plead for them to DO SOMETHING. And their response ALWAYS involves less freedom for us, more taxes ON us and more power and wealth for them. Remember. The left HATES America and Americans. They want us DEAD.
They don’t want us dead. They just want us strong enough to work to provide for their needs and weak enough to not be able to anything else.
In my travels in NE Colorado and the Nebraska Panhandle it seems about 1/4 of the acreage has been planted. My guess is the fertilizer and fuel on hand is all the farmers are willing to “invest”. Current internet info forecasts “robust” farm machinery sales through 2029. My guess is that is wrong. I can’t remember seeing tractor dealers sales lots as full as right now. Not a happy sign.
All- Can’t disagree with anyone. WSF- Noticed that the Deere dealer’s lot here is slap full. Not good.
It’s despicable that with all the deposits found since the “ethanol” response to foreign oil that we even still grow corn for fuel instead of food. At taxpayer expense.
Ed- Subsidies is why… Farmers get paid more than for regular crops.
One of the reasons I consider Ted Cruz a better than average candidate/politician was that he was able to go into Iowa, argue against corn ethanol subsidies, and not get booed or have objects thrown at him. Talk about being able to sell the virtues of abstinence to a teenage boy!
The market for cornahol is so profitable that the Mexicans removed their agave crops (seven year growth cycle, IIRC) to plant corn for fuel. Going to play hell with the tequila supply at some point!
Actually, they are the breadbasket for the Middle East. Egypt and Arabia particularly. The EU can mostly feed itself. Britain can’t but IIRC mostly imports grain from N America.
But yeah. Bet on a global famine this time next year
North America can probably weather it — we have sources in Canada and the U.S. for fertilizer, and plenty of farmland.
Rest of the world is boned though.
What you haven’t considered is that the market price for fertilizer is expected to be 3x-4x higher. (Hmm, that price estimate was given prior to the war) Remember, it is a world commodity. Only the big agro businesses can afford to spend that kind of money. The smaller farmers are looking at using less, changing to crops that don’t require as much, or not planting AT ALL. If you don’t know what sort of price you might get for a crop, hazarding the farm on a guess is more than they can afford.
PRIOR to the Uk/Russian war, the fertilizer producers had announced that customers should expect availability to be about 1/2 of normal. I don’t recall if the reason(s) were stated for that. Now, it will be even less. Biden turned off the spigot that provides the feed stock to make fertilizer, and he is not willing to correct that “mistake”. Nope, we need to double down on going “green”.
BTW, the world’s experts on farming without chemicals get 75% of the output of those who do. Expect the others to get significantly less when they attempt it.
Isn’t it pleasant to think that with tightened supply of fertilizer, corn bound for ethanol production will suck up a goodly portion of fertilizer in the US, because it is mandated for use in over-the-road gas, which is being produced in limited quantity now in the US.
Of course, the fertilizer is mostly made out of petroleum-based hydrocarbons, too, so the ethanol has to be produced from corn planted, tended and harvested by diesel-powered equipment and fertilizer that was made from fuel feedstocks, so the price of EVERYTHING will increase when the price of one thing increases.
From what I understand, the boom in farm equipment sales came from low feedstock costs coupled with increasingly globalized market demand. Now we’ll presumably have high market demand AND high costs, and that sounds expensive.