:(
I have heard from many sources that Popcorn prices are on the rise, sometimes to the tune of 100% price increases...due, to the attention to the alternative fuels movement. Such a shame as this is an artificially inflated price increase. Corn is so prevalent in much, if not nearly all of, our food production. Look for increases all across the food chain. :(

Look for increases all across the food chain.
The owner over at efoodsdirect.com said the same thing a few months ago on the radio to expect food prices to rise come 2008. Here are some new articles about the situation.

Fastest rise in food prices for 14 years (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=LCXXJLMSVQAJPQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/11/13/ncosts113.xml)

Food prices are increasing at their highest rate for more than a decade, official figures showed yesterday.

Increased wheat, dairy, meat and vegetable prices mean food factories are having to pay six per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the highest annual rate since 1993, said the Office of National Statistics (ONS).


After a decade of low prices in supermarkets, vegetables, milk, bread and meat are all expected to show substantial rises


The surging costs will be passed on to consumers, who are experiencing the highest food bills for years and could end up paying almost £1,000 extra on their annual food bill than a year ago.

Families are already struggling to cope with the effects of the credit crunch. Petrol prices exceed £1 for a litre of unleaded fuel, while mortgage payments and credit card fees are also rising.

Now the price of groceries is increasing as weekly staples shoot up in price in supermarkets. The cost of a pint of milk has reached an all-time high of 33½p and sliced bread costs a record £1.20 in big stores, a far cry from the 9p loaf that was available 15 years ago.

The company that makes Hovis said yesterday that it was raising prices by a further 4p a loaf, on top of the 12p by which they had risen in recent months, as it attempts to recover soaring wheat costs.

Last week it emerged that the first ever £100 Christmas turkey had gone on sale.

A survey by the website mysupermarket.com, which compares prices across online supermarket chains, found that the three biggest - Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's - are charging their shoppers 12 per cent more on average for a basket of 25 staple goods compared with last year.

This is despite high-profile price cutting campaigns.

That equates to an annual increase for most families of about £750, but is expected to climb further as world fuel prices cause inflation up again. A barrel of oil came close to $100 on the markets last week

Andrew Saunders, a leading food analyst at the City firm Panmure Gordon, said: "I've never seen food inflation like it. What we're seeing is pretty much all the manufacturing cost increases being off-loaded straight to the retailers, who in turn are passing it immediately on to the consumer. Shoppers are picking up the tab right across the board."

Today, consumer inflation figures from the ONS are expected to show that grocery prices are rising, confirming economists' warnings that the era of cheap food is at an end.

After a decade of very low prices for most products in supermarkets, vegetables, milk, bread and meat are all expected to show substantial rises.

Prices on the global commodity markets have been in turmoil for 18 months as a series of poor harvests - especially in Australia - has led to lower supplies of wheat.

This has been combined with surging demand from India and China.

The combination of falling supply and rising demand has led to soaring grain prices, which in turn increases the cost of meat and dairy products as farmers seek to recoup the money they have had to pay for more expensive feed.

Butter prices in Britain rose by 18 per cent last month, while milk leapt by 12 per cent as dairy farmers were finally able to pass on some of their crippling costs to consumers.

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, said: "Consumers have been surprisingly accepting of price increases, which suggests retailers will continue to push manufacturers' prices through."

In recent months food inflation has calmed a little, but the soaring cost of fuel is expected to stoke prices again.

Many basic foods are more influenced by the cost of oil than the actual ingredients. Wheat, for instance, makes up only about 7p of the cost of a loaf. This is completely outweighed by its baking, packaging and distribution costs, all of which are determined by the price of fuel.

Mr Saunders said: "There is only one way prices are going - and that's up. Higher food prices are here to stay for some time."

The surging costs have prompted Gordon Brown to launch a wide-ranging investigation into the security of the nation's food supply, asking the Cabinet Office's strategy unit to examine how weather patterns are affecting global crops.

The higher weekly food bill is affecting families at the same time as rising council taxes and mortgage rates that have moved to a nine-year high.

Various staples have been subjected to higher prices over the past 12 months.

A kilo of peas has gone up from £1.19 to £1.79 at Tesco, a dozen eggs at Sainsbury's has leapt from £1.62 to £2.35, while Asda has increased the price of its orange juice from 73p a litre to 88p.


Inflation may prompt food price controls: UN food chief (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/308352/1/.html)

LONDON : Some countries may have to implement retail price controls on food in the near future because of rising prices for consumers, the UN's food chief said in an interview published Monday.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Jacques Diouf also said that he would not be surprised if the rising food prices sparked riots in parts of the world, adding that food price inflation had become an "even more serious problem" in recent weeks as the rises have started to hit consumers.

"Many (countries) will have to take hard decisions because of the impact of food prices," Diouf told the business daily.

"In some countries there will be price controls, some will scrap import tariffs on food to minimise the impact of rising costs and others will increase food subsidies."

Diouf added that if "prices continue to rise, I would not be surprised if we began to see food riots."

The UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food sought to drum up support Friday for his proposal for a five-year UN moratorium on converting arable land for food to the production of biofuels.

The International Monetary Fund last week warned that an increasing global reliance on grain as a source of fuel could drive up food prices in poor countries with "serious implications". - AFP/ch

Food prices rising at highest rate for 14 years (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/11/nprices111.xml)

Food prices are accelerating at their highest rate for 14 years - and running at more than three times the rate of inflation, official figures show.

Increasing wheat and dairy prices mean food factories are having to pay 6.6 per cent more for their raw ingredients than a year ago - the highest annual rise since 1993, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).


Figures showed milk prices hitting their highest level for 11 years


These increases will inevitably be passed to consumers, and economists warned that families would have to face even higher prices next year while having to cope with other rising living costs as the credit crisis starts to bite.

Ruth Lea, a leading economist and adviser to the Arbuthnot banking group, said: "All sorts of things are hitting people next year, from higher mortgage payments - despite last week's cut - to council taxes, which are likely to be much higher. Then look what is happening at the petrol pumps.

"Now you have pressure on food prices. They are all conspiring to undermine people's disposable income."

The data from the ONS came as separate figures showed milk prices hitting their highest level for 11 years.

The statistics, from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, showed that farmers received 26.53p a litre for their milk in October - a 51 per cent increase over the last six months.

A pint of milk now costs 40 pence, compared to 35 pence a year ago. A loaf of Hovis bread has climbed from under £1 earlier this year to £1.12.


Media Propaganda Campaign Says Lack Of Illegals Inflating Food Prices
Ridiculous theory ignores weak dollar, rise in energy prices. (http://www.infowars.com/articles/immigration/media_propaganda_campaign_lack_of_illegals_inflating_food_pr ices.htm)

A sustained corporate media propaganda campaign has been initiated in order to bolster attempts by the Bush administration to further ease restrictions on how foreign laborers can be brought into the country in the wake of the collapse of the recent amnesty legislation.

Numerous reports in the mainstream media are connecting a rise in food prices to a lack of illegal immigration:

Farmers in and around Northern California are starting to feel the pinch from tighter border security and visa requirements, NBC11's Daniel Garza reported Monday.

Some farmers told Garza they expect some of their fields to remain unpicked.

Some said they believe their fields will end up filled with rotting produce.

The Bush administration has learned of the possible loss of millions of dollars for thousands of farmers throughout the country, and is attempting to loosen visa requirements for workers.

The president has blamed Congress for failing to come up with acceptable new immigration laws.

According to reports producers are warning that food prices are consequently set to rise dramatically as supply dwindles and demand grows.

As the LA Times , among others has reported, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers legally can be brought into the country, using food shortages and the threat of higher food prices as justification:

The push to speedily rewrite the regulations is also the Bush administration's attempt to step into the breach left when Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul in June that could have addressed the reality of American farms, where almost three-quarters of the workers are thought to be illegal immigrants.

The report suggests that officials at the three federal agencies are considering multiple changes, including "lengthening the time workers can stay, expanding the types of work they can do, simplifying how their applications are processed and even redefining terms such as 'temporary.'"

As ever the federal government is offering ludicrous solutions to a problem they have created. How is bringing more immigrants into the country going to ease the demand and raise the supply of food?

One real reason the demand is outweighing supply is the fact that the latest studies show there are now up to 38 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. With only around 30, 000 arrested and deported in a so called "crackdown".

38 million is a lack of illegal immigrants? How many more does the government want? By offering up restrictions on immigration, the government is providing a contributing factor to the problem as the solution!

Any rise in food prices is sure to be facilitated by the declining dollar and a hike in energy prices not by a lack of illegal immigrants.

As the AP reports today:

This morning, your bowl of cereal and milk probably cost you 49 cents. Last year, it was 44 cents. By next year, it could be 56 cents. It's enough to make you cry in your cornflakes.

The forces behind the rise in food prices � China's economic boom, a growing biofuels industry and a weak U.S. dollar � are global and not letting up anytime soon. Grocery receipts are bulging because the raw ingredients, packaging and fuel that go into the price of foodstuffs cost more than they have in decades.

Oil prices have almost doubled in the last three years, hitting all time highs last month. This a continuing trend we have tirelessly shown has been engineered in part by the corporate elite representatives of the large energy companies who are hyping an artificially scarcity, cashing in on concerns over global warming and, in tandem with the military industrial complex, restricting the flow of oil from the middle east.

Crude oil dictates the price of gasoline, plastic packaging and pesticides and fertilizers, all contributors to food prices. As the price of oil rises the relative increase is passed on all the way down the line to the consumer.

We have also highlighted the move, on behalf of the privately owned central banks, toward a controlled devaluation of the dollar and slow decline of the U.S. economy in order to facilitate a period of consolidation, increased social control, increased regionalization and a market they can more easily manipulate.

Flooding an already inundated U.S. with more low skilled immigrants and reducing the standard of living is not the solution to an ailing economy and rising cost of living, anyone in their right mind can tell you that, so why is the government telling us the opposite?

A strong and competitive American economy relies upon a highly skilled, well educated labor pool along with a healthy and competitive free market, but that represents the antithesis of the neo-mercantilist elite's desire to consolidate and increase their own monopolist wealth and power at the expense of everyone else on the globe.

Yes, we've seen some increases from suppliers recently but have not heard anything about 100% increases. I think the increases seen to date have made sense and been justified based on the rise of fuel and with more farmers growing corn for alternative fuels, but 100% is crazy. I'm sure more increases are on the way soon.

Popcorn. Theater Popcorn. :(

Yes, I was just talking about popcorn. I'm just not sure why growing corn for alternative fuels increases it's cost? :confused: Anyway, I hope prices on home theater popcorn don't go too high. I like it tooooooo much! :D

From Aboutmyplanet.com

The amount of corn used for ethanol, estimated at 2.15 billion bushels this year, would amount to about 20 percent of the nation's crop...Ethanol production in the United States is growing so quickly that, for the first time, farmers expect to sell as much corn this year to ethanol plants as they do overseas...The amount of corn used for ethanol, estimated at 2.15 billion bushels this year, would amount to about 20 percent of the nation's crop, according to department projections....Even as ethanol devours corn and pushes prices higher, the president and Congress are calling for even greater ethanol use...In Iowa alone, three new ethanol plants opened last month. The industry likely will outpace a mandate from Congress to pump out 7.5 billion gallons a year by 2012, according to Collins.

sad...(for popcorn lovers)

It's a supply and demand issue. If farmers make more on corn for ethanol, and therefore choose to grow corn for ethanol, then there's less corn grown for popcorn, which raises the price. I think the types of corn are different and if they sell to a fuel company there's less left for popcorn manufacturers. It's funny how things trickle down in unexpected ways but it makes sense and something I've seen for at least a year now. From the sounds of that excerpt you pasted, the prices are going to get a lot higher, though.

I just hope the Movie Theaters don't double their prices if this 100% increase comes to fruition. Can you imagine paying $20.00 for a large bucket?

The owner over at efoodsdirect.com said the same thing a few months ago on the radio to expect food prices to rise come 2008. Here are some new articles about the situation.

Fastest rise in food prices for 14 years (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=LCXXJLMSVQAJPQFIQMFSFFOAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/11/13/ncosts113.xml)




Inflation may prompt food price controls: UN food chief (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/308352/1/.html)

I guess I do not understand how a couple of articles about prices in England are representative of what prices are here in the US?

Perhaps there is some sort of relationship, but I would guess that US articles are more accurate in talking about US prices.

Reedl

"Can you imagine paying $20.00 for a large bucket?"

Isn't that what it costs now? :cool:

I don't even approach the concession counter with less than a 50 spot. :cool:

kidding...

However, I wouldn't expect a double in the price of raw corn to be that crazy. Shoot, the gasoline has doubled in a year, hasn't it? :eek: :(:(

Good thing I have a 50lb bag from Sams :) Anybody wanna buy a dime bag of corn? :)

Iowa or Nebraska corn....?:cool:

Got any still on the cob? :D

It's Ohio Gold... :)

Corn is over-subsidized in the US to the point where we haven't been paying enough for it for years. So the increase in demand is going to hit extra-hard.

I say that at the first "real" election debate we find out which candidate is going to do something about the price of popcorn and put our votes on that candidate.

I didn't come this far to spend 90 cents on a microwave bag when I'm used to spending 45. I'm already into projector bulbs at the rate of $1hr. I just might need to get a job if this keeps up.