Gas prices are now averaging more than $3.50 a gallon and will most likely hit and exceed $4 a gallon come summer, the height of the driving year. This means it will cost all of you who have love affairs with SUVs about $80 to fill your tank — and there’s no end in sight. These continuing increases in the price of gas are already hurting the car industry at a time when the Big Three manufacturers can hardly afford any more losses.
But a far greater impact on every American will be on the price of goods we buy. Almost everything in this country is trucked — some short distances, others much longer — which means that the manufacturers and producers of those goods are not going to eat those extra costs paid to the trucking companies they use. It will be passed on to the you and I who are already feeling the heat.
The most important of those goods is food, a necessity no matter what your financial status is. We have already seen the prices jump dramatically in foods made from grain, like bread and pasta, and anything dairy — both staples of our diet. The price of corn has soared as the demand for corn-based ethanol fuel increases.
But not all increases are the result of the rise in gas prices. For instance, there have been crop failures in rice-producing countries, causing a shortage that cannot meet the demand for rice. In Thailand, the world’s largest rice producer, armed guards surround warehouses as rice soars to $1,000 a ton.
And it is not only in America that we are feeling the pinch and the threat of a situation that could get far worse. Japan, the world’s biggest net importer of food, is demanding trade rules to prevent countries from limiting exports of food staples so they can feed its citizens. That is a scary scenario, but one that is taking place in other countries as food riots have already taken place in Haiti and Egypt, to name a few. Add to this the increasing demand for food and other products from two of the most populated countries in the world — China and India — as they experience economic growth.
Even relief agencies are saying that they won’t be able to feed as many people this year as in the past because of rising costs. This means that more children will die from lack of food as will parents who will die trying to get food for them.
Unless some answers are found quickly to stop and hopefully turn back this tide of rising food prices, the world, including the United States, is going to witness social problems not seen since the Great Depression.
