THE END OF CHEAP OIL: EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE
(Posted 2005-09-16 13:42:31 by Ray Lopez)
Most Americans nowadays are far removed from the realities of food
production. We here in the states enjoy cheap food for two primary
reasons: 1) cheap labor, mostly in the form of Mexican immigrants, and 2)
cheap oil, which pretty much affects every single aspect of food
production, from the creation of fertilizers and other chemicals to the
diesel needed to harvest and ship food to the local supermarkets. This
party is slowly coming to an end.
September is a busy time of the year for farmers, for it is when major
crops such as wheat and corn are harvested, and when preparations begin for
the next round of planting new crops. All of this work requires a massive
amount of energy in the form of gas, diesel, natural gas, and all the other
bi-products of the oil age. Well, at the moment about 50 percent of the
oil-producting capacity in the Gulf of Mexico is offline, due to hurricane
Katrina, and the resulting higher energy costs cannot come at a worse time
for farmers and, ultimately, consumers.
There are some reports out of the Southwest Livestock Exchange in Uvalde,
Texas, that some cattlemen are having difficulty procuring trucks to ship
their head of cattle out to slaughter. There are fewer trucks available,
because of the high cost of diesel fuel.
All of this is another illustration of the way in which higher energy costs
are trickling through the economy. At the moment we Americans only see
these costs in higher gas prices, because the oil companies are being
allowed to gouge consumers at will, and immediately pounce upon
fluctuations in crude oil prices. But, slowly and surely, the effects of
more expensive energy will sneak their way through the supply chain,
ultimately hitting us in many more places than just the gas pump.
And there is more of this to come. We're running out of oil, and we can
only expect to see situations like this time and time again, each cycle
worse than the previous one.
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