One man’s meat: Are you bothering my sheep? (or if I had the money I’d build a mega-farm)

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:30:13 +0000

The English countryside has not been in full-on production mode for decades. Farmers have been bummed by supermarkets and international competition is intense. Wholesale prices had gotten so cheap. However, if I had a spare couple of hundred grand, I would be speculatively buying arable farming land. I strongly suspect farming is going to become profitable again. In line with world consumption of meat and livestock products. There are less barriers to buying farming land than many other land types provided the intended usage of the land is made explicit. There’s likely people who want to sell too. Do you know what percentage of grain in, for instance, the United States, goes to feed livestock? It’s more than half. Way more than half. Animals require a fuck-load of feeding. In the next decade more people than ever are going to be able to buy meat.

So, blah blah, meat - value of arable land already bottomed - hard up farmers: buy-outs, mega farms, profit, blah blah blah, mega profit during droughts elsewhere, England uniquely exploitable for profit. Etc.

Another example of BBC treating audiences like they’re school children: PS - Richard Scott grow-up

admin — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:31:16 +0000

Oil prices are rising because of speculation. The current supply, believe it or not (I don’t care), exceeds demand, even taking into account China. The speculation is a result of uncertainty and people moving into commodities (rather than equities).
The rise in wheat prices are partially the result of increased demand for meat in China. Not a ‘western style diet’. More meat requires more food for livestock. But it’s not the principle factor. Last year there were several droughts. Not least in Australia. Similar things happened to major rice producing countries last year. Blaming China is wrong and misleading.
There is not a linear relationship between inflation in China and the prices of Chinese exports. That would be overly simplistic in the extreme. China is going to suffer from inflation, but as a side effect of increased prosperity and modernisation. Rather than a simplistic relationship between food and oil prices.
There is a weak causal relationship between biofuels and the price of food.
Chinese imports are one of the factors that has helped control inflation in the UK. A minor factor given the percentage of Chinese goods as proportions of inflation indices.
The Government measures of inflation are reliant on indices. So to say prices “on average have risen 3%” is an unwarranted generalisation based on an index. Real inflation may differ. A better phrase would be that prices tracked by X index have risen. Anything else is lazy.

With that in mind please watch the following:

What keeps inflation rising?

And ask yourself whether it did a good job. I think it is misleading and does a poor job of explaining things. One gets the impression that Richard Scott thinks the increased wheat prices are because of Chinese people eating vast quantities of toast.

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One man’s meat: Are you bothering my sheep? (or if I had the money I’d build a mega-farm)

Another example of BBC treating audiences like they’re school children: PS - Richard Scott grow-up