More on rising food prices

This comes from my grocery co-op:

...

Maybe not as dynamic as fuel, but just as important as it relates to overall product costs, is the impact
US and global commodity and ingredient costs are having on what we all must pay for finished goods.
As an example, grain prices are up significantly and in some cases are nearly double what they were just
last summer. Sugars, sweeteners, and proteins are all up as the result of diminishing supply and
speculation. Film and plastics will be moving up as resins (crude oil is basis of cost) increase. And of
course we all know that it takes fuel and power to produce and move all of these products, even in their
raw form....

•Tighter capacity. In December, the government began publicizing the safety ratings of trucking firms

under tougher inspections that took effect about a year ago. As a result, many businesses have shied

away from using carriers that got warnings, even though they operate safely, says Tom Sanderson,

CEO of Transplace, which manages freight delivery for businesses.

Sanderson says the new ratings will drive some carriers out of business and reduce fleets 5% to 10%

in the next couple of years. That would worsen a 15% drop in trucking capacity the past four years,

Hartford says, after thousands of carriers shut down in the recession.

•Higher equipment costs. Truck prices have jumped 25% the past five years, Hartford says. Like
many carriers, Mike Card, president of Combined Transport in Central Point, Ore., put off replacing
aging vehicles in the downturn, but bought 60 trucks this year, up from 20 in 2010.
•Restrictions on driver hours. Proposed new rules would limit the number of hours drivers can work,
forcing carriers to hire more drivers and buy more trucks even amid a looming driver shortage.
For retailers, rising freight costs "obviously put a strain on things," says Jon Gold, vice president of the
National Retail Federation. Gold says "it's too early to say" if retailers would pass the increased
delivery costs to customers.
Hartford says consumers eventually would feel the effects. Delivery costs are a small portion of the
retail price for most products.
Yet, higher costs for commodities such as food and cotton are lifting wholesale prices, and some
retailers say they'll be passed to consumers. Many economists predict a 2.5% inflation rate in 2011,
the highest since 2008. 

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh Hard times come again no more.
Chorus:

Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)

Stephen Foster

Or maybe we all need to learn this one again: