Monday, April 14, 2008

Low carb becoming mandatory?

For the last two months, people who make bread and pizza have been constantly concerned with the price of wheat going up. For some of them, it is making their prices sky rocket to the point they are loosing business.

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/feb/29/0229_wheat/

http://www.barternews.com/pdf/WheatShortage.pdf

Aside from people complaining about price, there is a real issue going on with a virus effecting the production of wheat.

Some say the 'shortage' is a myth, talking about the fact that it is really the falling American dollar that is causing the high price. This may be partially true. But with the wheat disease effecting millions in Asia and the Middle East, I think they are wrong. It isn't long before many people with be on mandatory low carbohydrate diets. And some may very well die from the lack.

Even my own local bakery, which we visited yesterday, had a sign up saying "Due to the rising wheat costs, some of our prices may have gone up. We are sorry for the inconveniences this may cause." Before long, bread could be the most expensive item we pick up at the grocery.

1 comment:

Chell said...

It is a vicious circle. We (as a country) try find alternative to Oil and farmers plant extra corn for biofuel (Which also increases the cost of corn based products) and we end up with a shortage of wheat whioch hurts as much if not more than the rise in gas prices. Add in the very weak dollar right now and it is no wonder our economy is hurting. The wheat shortage is no myth but supposedly there was more winter wheat planted and larger wheat crops planned for the next growing season so we shoudl see and ease in the prices. Lets hope anyway...