Check this link for up to date analysis of global grain movements. There's plenty of opinion mixed in there but the charts speak for themselves.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=234818

Yesterday, I easily spent $78  for 3 bags of bread flour (non-organic and enriched).   That's $28 for a bag of bread flour 50 lbs (22 k).  Last month...that same bag of flour was $19.  Puhhh.  I would hate to think how much a bag of oragnic bread flour costs.

occured when money was made fiat. The time was 1971 when the scam was made legit, but by now it should be clear that the extent is really global. What we see now is the continuation of the fraud with disaster looming larger. The objective monetary measure is telling the true tale of debasement of our money; a transfer of our wealth to the perpetrators of the scam.  Producers, savers, and labour til now have been cliped here and there. But they have been readied for a massive shearing that's going to be painful with no one able to escaspe.

 

There's no reliable way to predict how or when the fiat money unraveling will unfold, but unravel it surely will. That much is in the maths. Global debt, and derivative expopsure are a symbiotic pair, they grow in concert. There are only two alternatives left for the debt and derivative exposure to be dealt with, the third (paying it down) is no longer possible. The the two alternatives are 1. currency debasement (inflation and or hyperinflation), 2. default (deflation). Both will shake off the debt incubus in different ways but the end result is the same, the tower will come down.

The purpose of posting the chart was not to predict ".....the end of the world as we know it", but to show that real goods and services - meal, grain, bread, etc. - has been and will continue to rise in price, not because they are becoming 'more expensive' but because our money is being debased.

So while global grain inventories are low they don't explain the 50% increase in grain prices over the last three months, especially since there have been 'up-limits' placed regularly over that time on major American commodity exchanges. Something else is having a profound impact. The up movement of gold, which is the same as saying, the down movement of paper money, over the last seven years tells the real tale. More specifically, last nights chart shows that every paper currency is losing its purchasing power.

Globalisation means consolidation and extension of the scam, dollar hegemony if you like. Globalisation has provided the dollar with a new market; had globalisation not been allowed the dollar scam would have been wiped out earlier. But there is plenty more sinsiter going on, the scam is really a trap! Time is running out for the dollar scam, now before the end governments allow private hands (read transnational corporations) to exchange their worthless paper and electronic dollars for real public assets all over the world at the expense of those communities who own them. Privatise the asset and the ongoing value while leaving the liability to the public.

In short, globalisation is globalising the massive transfer of wealth into fewer powerful private hands.

To say "globalisation" is a mistake depends on your perspective; I'm sure the perpetrators of the scam wouldn't have it any other way.

Too fast, slow down? The speed isn't the problem, its the paradigm. But it's too late for this one, the transfer has largely occured and the liability is about to be handed down.

Interesting thing just happened to me.  Before the new year my flour salesman called me to warn me that the organic flour that I use would be going up to $45/20kg bag, from $23 per bag.  I shopped around and found the same flour for $38.50/20 kg: same flour under a different brand name.  I called the regional manager and told him the little known competitor's price and he said that there was no way because the price to him was higher than the $38.50.  I just received a new batch of flour from the more expensive supplier (I was stuck and needed some in a pinch) and it's dropped to $39.50 from the quoted $45.00.  The point being, that in these times of scarcity, people will try and take advantage if we let them.

Tony

the reasons are not scarcity; debasement is the culprit.

My emphasis

Tony, I was referring to this statement quoted above.

I can appreciate what you're saying, and the warning you are passing on to others to beware is valid.

Yes inventories have moved lower but it's not "scaricity" but any stretch of the imagination. However, it's clear that lower inventories haven't impacted on grain prices nearly as much as currency debasement. If you want to test my assertion just cast an eye over the CRB Index, an indicator of all commodities, and you'll find it has been steadily rising and it's up year on year. It's not just grain, but all commodities.

However, the most tell tale indicator is the movement of gold. When it rises in terms of the USD that's one thing, but when it is rising in terms of every major currency that is entirely another matter, it couldn't be more conclusive.

is born and bred for scam! But you're correct , Jeremy, the USD is in deep do do.

When I get the time, I'll post to this thread some details of exactly how the scam works in practice so it'll be plain to see how we are being fleeced. Those in debt especially, but even those not in debt need to pay attention because you're being tapped by vampires whether you're aware of it or not.

How can this be? I must go and refresh my knowledge of Econs having left it for more than 10 years back with my previous life.

it aint just us greedy Westerners any more although we might have wished it. Look to India and China producing cheap cars, maybe $2000 equivalent. Think what that'll do to fuel prices/availability/chain-store fast food outlets. Buy McDonalds shares, we could guarantee our seat onto the next rocket out of here. Maybe Mars will produce better harvests.

Hi Gul,

Thanks for posting this. Strange how many of us have become sufficiently removed from food production (the word 'production' seems to have taken on a commercial or industrial dimension and never applied to domestic instances which illustrates the point) to instill a lack of confidence or inability to see the possibilities. But to be self sufficient now that the need is on the horizon would deffinately have a positive impact on our daily lives.


From here

Japan's hunger becomes a dire warning for other nations

Food fears: Being a rich nation is no protection for Japan, which faces the fallout of relying too heavily on foreign food to supply domestic needs.

• Justin Norrie, Tokyo
• April 21, 2008

MARIKO Watanabe admits she could have chosen a better time to take up baking. This week, when the Tokyo housewife visited her local Ito-Yokado supermarket to buy butter to make a cake, she found the shelves bare.

"I went to another supermarket, and then another, and there was no butter at those either. Everywhere I went there were notices saying Japan has run out of butter. I couldn't believe it — this is the first time in my life I've wanted to try baking cakes and I can't get any butter," said the frustrated cook.

Japan's acute butter shortage, which has confounded bakeries, restaurants and now families across the country, is the latest unforeseen result of the global agricultural commodities crisis.

A sharp increase in the cost of imported cattle feed and a decline in milk imports, both of which are typically provided in large part by Australia, have prevented dairy farmers from keeping pace with demand.

While soaring food prices have triggered rioting among the starving millions of the third world, in wealthy Japan they have forced a pampered population to contemplate the shocking possibility of a long-term — perhaps permanent — reduction in the quality and quantity of its food.

A 130% rise in the global cost of wheat in the past year, caused partly by surging demand from China and India and a huge injection of speculative funds into wheat futures, has forced the Government to hit flour millers with three rounds of stiff mark-ups. The latest — a 30% increase this month — has given rise to speculation that Japan, which relies on imports for 90% of its annual wheat consumption, is no longer on the brink of a food crisis, but has fallen off the cliff.

According to one government poll, 80% of Japanese are frightened about what the future holds for their food supply.

Last week, as the prices of wheat and barley continued their relentless climb, the Japanese Government discovered it had exhausted its ¥230 billion ($A2.37 billion) budget for the grains with two months remaining. It was forced to call on an emergency ¥55 billion reserve to ensure it could continue feeding the nation.

The rest is here

The Real Reason for Rising Commodity Prices

February 3, 2011 – An article today in The Wall Street Journal highlights the latest rise in the price of wheat. Blaming bad weather, it notes that the “global wheat market is caught between freezing winds and a sirocco.”
The WSJ therefore warns that “investors should beware of whiplash as weather normalizes.” Given that wheat is “up 13% since the start of December”, it is good advice – if weather were to blame.

The reality is that wheat is being driven higher by more than bad weather. The price of wheat has been climbing since June, a fact conveniently ignored in the WSJ article, perhaps because it doesn’t square with its premise that bad weather is causing higher wheat prices. Are we to believe that the market knew seven months ago that weather around the world today would be so bad that it would impact global wheat output? Or has wheat – which has risen $3.50 per bushel, or 70%, since its June low – been climbing steadily higher over these several months for another reason? And more to the point, why are all commodity prices rising?

For example, since June copper has risen $1.70 per pound, or 59%. Is bad weather to blame?

No, of course it isn’t. Something else is at work here. Maybe wheat has risen more than copper over this period because bad weather really has had some impact on wheat production. But obviously, given that commodity prices are rising across the board, we have to look for other factors that are causing this surge in prices. And we do not need to look too hard. Just consider the money printing – a/k/a “quantitative easing” – by central banks going on all around the world. QE is building up tremendous inflationary pressures in the pipeline of goods and services, which for months now has been showing up in the area most sensitive to monetary debasement, namely, commodity prices.

The WSJ article ends by warning that “political storms could provide a tailwind for wheat prices.” That could be, but right now, the gathering monetary storm is far more important, and there is one easy way to seek shelter – buy physical gold. Look at the correlation between gold and the CRB Continuing Commodity Index in the following chart.


The above chart makes one point crystal clear. Rising commodity prices are not short-term phenomena. Except for a brief deflationary blip in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, this CRB Index of 17 essential commodities has been rising steadily all decade – and it is meaningful to note, so too has gold.

So I wouldn’t worry about any shortage of wheat, provided you own physical gold. Farmers will continue to grow produce, and the market in which money is exchanged for food will continue to function as it has since humankind began to interact in commerce thousands of years ago. So regardless what happens to the price of wheat, you will continue to buy bread in the future just like you do today, provided you have physical gold to preserve your purchasing power from the ongoing debasement of national currencies being engineered by governments and central banks.


http://www.fgmr.com/real-reason-for-...ty-prices.html