food prices Archive

• 

  Warming up Re-Orientation - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  I’m on the road touring New Zealand’s universities for Re-Orientation Week talking to students about the issues facing them. I’m also investigating cold flats in various towns and hosting “flat warming parties” to talk about my warm healthy rental campaign. I love getting out and about talking to people. We’re handing out these neat Green-branded [...] read more
  July 15, 2011 12:18 pm - 6 Comments
• 

  Lester Brown on Failing States: Early sign of decline - by frog

  
  
  
  The following YouTube clip is Part 3 from a recent lecture Lester Brown gave on Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization and will take you into the heart of the Plan B message. The presentation was to the Chemical Society of Washington on May 8, 2008. Lester, who is President of the Earth Policy [...] read more
  March 7, 2009 8:00 am - 9 Comments
• 

  Bread and cereals consume more of the grocery budget - by frog

  
  
  
  Stats New Zealand has just released its monthly Food Price Index and the key stat is that food prices are up 6.8% over the year, still well ahead of inflation. While the Stats New Zealand release focuses on veges it’s important to note that vegetables were starting from a low base and are now returning [...] read more
  June 12, 2008 12:38 pm - 18 Comments
• 

  Greens looking forward to after the election - by frog

  
  
  
  Vernon Small, uses his column in the Dominion Post today to argue that the Greens have no where to go when they get down to negotiations after the election. He notes that the political climate while volatile, looks better for the Greens than last election. So, on balance, the Greens can look forward to a [...] read more
  June 2, 2008 5:07 pm - 78 Comments
• 

  A challenge to Fonterra - by frog

  
  
  
  Shortly after Jeanette gave this speech on Saturday, the Herald reported: Dairy giant Fonterra last night backed away from further price hikes after Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons challenged it to make its products affordable for New Zealanders. read more
  June 2, 2008 4:39 pm - 36 Comments
• 

  More valuable than heroin - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems some combination of the price falling out of the heroin market and rapidly rising world food prices means that Afghan farmer are converting from poppy growing to wheat. Poor old United States with its multi billion dollar ‘war on drugs’ – all it had to do the whole time was raise the price [...] read more
  May 16, 2008 8:07 am - 13 Comments
• 

  The farmers’ share - by frog

  
  
  
  Federated Farmers have just released an interesting report on the share of profit that farmers get from the retail price of food.  [T]he farm price for wheat in 2008 was 16 percent of the cost of a loaf of bread. Of a 20-slice loaf of bread the farm share accounted for around three slices. In [...] read more
  May 15, 2008 4:37 pm - 22 Comments
• 

  Monbiot on meat - by frog

  
  
  
  George Monbiot has just taken a look at the global food crisis: Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession which is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. You have probably seen the figures by now: the price of rice has risen by [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 10:01 am - 88 Comments
• 

  We’re spending less on cars but more on food and credit cards - by frog

  
  
  
  There is some interesting data in the February 2008 Retail Trade Survey results released this morning. The two big industry groups to have a significant impact on the figures were cars and groceries. Our retail sales for February fell $42 million but would have been relatively static except that motor vehicle retailing fell 5.8 percent [...] read more
  April 14, 2008 12:04 pm - 3 Comments
• 

  Aussie farmers think consumers are missing out - by frog

  
  
  
  I mentioned 3 months ago that Australia’s Consumer Commission has launched an inquiry into food prices. The Australian National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has just testified at that inquiry that the prices consumers were paying for food was not reflected by the payments that farmers were receiving for producing food. The NFF said consumers who were [...] read more
  April 11, 2008 2:36 pm - 2 Comments
• 

  UN calls for change in farming practices as food riots continue - by frog

  
  
  
  As food prices around the world continue to soar, a United Nations report released today says that industrial agricultural practices are exhausting land and water resources, destroying diversity and hurting poor people. The report’s authors recommend that agricultural science place greater emphasis on safeguarding natural resources and on ‘agro-ecological’ practices, including the use of natural [...] read more
  April 10, 2008 12:15 pm - 9 Comments
• 

  We need a food security strategy - by frog

  
  
  
  While the rest of the world has faced food riots, plunging world food stocks and out of control prices for basic commodities New Zealand has mostly floated along with our major worry being the rapidly rising price of cheese. So it was good to see the Herald covering Sue Kedgley’s call for a food security [...] read more
  April 9, 2008 4:43 pm - 21 Comments
• 

  The price of bread - by frog

  
  
  
  National Radio had an item on the rising price of bread this morning. Much of the reason given was droughts in Australia and overseas use of crop land for biofuels. Now, bread should be something that we are able to supply relatively easily. After all it’s mostly made from things we should be able to [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 1:56 pm - 7 Comments
• 

  Cheese prices up 59.9% - by frog

  
  
  
  Food prices continue to rise according to Statistics New Zealand, 5.2% in the year to February.  Grocery food prices led that charge, increasing 9.0%. Within that the most significant upward contributions came from higher prices for fresh milk (up 20.9%), cheese (up 59.9%) and butter (up 91.2%). Oils and fats rose 29.4%.  There were also significant rises in bread, cereals, coffee, [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 1:48 pm - 16 Comments
• 

  Aussie supermarket duopoly comes under the spotlight - by frog

  
  
  
  New Zealand is not the only country facing rising food costs. Over in Australia the government has directed its Competition and Consumer Commission to launch an inquiry into food prices. Interestingly there the inquiry is focusing on the perceived lack of competition between Australia’s two major grocery suppliers, Woolworths and Coles, who between them control [...] read more
  January 23, 2008 9:19 am - 3 Comments
• 

  Oily food - by frog

  
  
  
  Pacific Ecologist Magazine’s latest issue covers the link between peak oil and food security. Around the world our farms are guzzling staggering amounts of oil through the use of machinery, transport, processing, chemicals and fertilizers. Caroline Lucas, Andy Jones and Colin Hines point out that our food system consumes roughly ten calories of fossil fuel [...] read more
  December 11, 2007 4:07 pm - 9 Comments