President Bush: Eat Local Foods

In yesterday's press conference, George W. Bush recommended Americans and the world eat more locally:

One thing I think that would be -- I know would be very creative policy is if we -- is if we would buy food from local farmers as a way to help deal with scarcity, but also as a way to put in place an infrastructure so that nations can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. It's a proposal I put forth that Congress hasn't responded to yet, and I sincerely hope they do.

Wow! I agree with the President. That's a new experience for me.

Cargill profits up 86% over a year ago

If there was any question who benefits from global food price increases, it's Big Ag. Cargill, the largest US agricultural company, this past week announced earnings of $1.03 billion for the most recent quarter. Cargill chairman and chief executive officer Greg Page reported, “Demand for food in developing economies and for energy worldwide is boosting demand for agricultural goods."

Too bad that "demand for food" -- otherwise known as hunger -- is causing riots and deaths in those developing countries. Here's a fascinating map of the food crisis (you may have to register first, but it's free) from the Financial Times of London. Click on the tabs to see where there's been food unrest and what governments in those countries are doing to combat the problem.

NYT on the coming food crisis: Bad policy & bad luck

There's a great Op-Ed in today's New York Times on the reasons behind the coming food crisis.  Paul Krugman talks about bad policy (the focus on using grains to produce biofuels, the war in Iraq), bad luck (a combination of weather-related factors that have conspired to cut the grain supply worldwide), and a complacency about long-term trends (the increasing tendency of third-world countries to prefer a western, meat-based diet) as the causes of restricted global food supplies.

His conclusion? Cheap food may be a thing of the past.