Another News item of interest

[belgareth]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080430/wl_nm/food_korea_north_dc

How is this related to fuel prices and

to biofuels? There is an obvious relationship (IMO) but how great is it and what should be done?

[koolking1]

"SEOUL (Reuters) -

Soaring global food prices and reluctant donors are pushing North Korea back towards famine, which could see the

secretive government turn even more repressive to keep control, a paper released on Wednesday said."

Well,

food prices are soaring, 5% annually in the USA compared to wage increases, just over 3%. I suspect the increase in

food prices is mainly due to gas price increases, it just costs more to produce and transport the food now.



I really don't know much about North Korea and it's relationship to soaring food prices. I guess the

poorer one is already, the harder it is to adjust to price increases. The article goes on to say that the cost of

2.2 pounds of rice is equal to 1/3 of the average workers monthly income. Ok, well, I buy and eat rice. I just

bought a 25 pound sack of the highest grade of Thai rice for $20, that's .80 per pound. I'm friendly with my

local Cambodian grocer and we talked about the price of rice. He's telling me that due to the supply chain we are

paying less for Thai rice at the moment than the Thais are paying. He's not short of rice. So, in North Korea, we

can deduce sort of that the average worker there earns 6.6 pounds of rice X .80 per month = US $5.28. Assuming he

has no non-working wife and no children, he can feed himself for about two weeks I would reckon. He can't rebel,

he's too physically weak.

If lil Kim were smart he'd abandon his militaristic stance, his nuclear

weapons program, open his border, and ask the world for help.

[koolking1]

I think in the USA the

average worker is about able to meet the costs of rising food prices by toning down what he eats, more hamburger and

less steak I guess. But, the cost of fuel to get back and forth to work is a harder thing for him to manage,

there's not a lot of ways to cut back on that expense without incurring even more expense (buying a hybrid). Since

the government in the USA has taken food and fuel out of the inflation definition, Bush is right, there is no

inflation. But, tell that to my next door neighbor who's elderly and on a fixed-income. She used to drive to the

beach every day and find money with her coin detector, she donated every cent to charity and now she can't go cause

she can't afford the gas it takes to get there.

If anything, biofuels should be decreasing the cost of

gas. The price is up cause the current regime has devalued our currency dramatically.

[belgareth]

Biofuels are not produced in

great enough quantity or at low enough prices yet to have any significant impact on fuel costs. However, the amount

of corn harvested for use as biofuels has caused a rise in the price of corn, a world-wide staple for millions of

impoverished people. The impact is being felt by the poorest and hungry-est first, as is always the case.

A

(simple) solution is to find alternative crops that can be harvested for fuel to take the pressure off corn.



Like every regime, Bush is hiding what he finds inconvienent to address or control. In all fairness, he is only

part of the problem, congress and the senate also share blame in allowing things to spiral so far out of control.

Perhaps we only have limited control over OPEC but every company based in or doing business in the US can be subject

to widfall profit regulation. Yes, it is a big can of worms but something must be done to address the issue soon.

[koolking1]

4 page Washington

Post article about

it:

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042903092.html?hpid=topnews[/u

rl]