The news was peppered with small victories for the food industry this week, although reporters were hesitant to actually call it "good news".
Global food prices dropped in April (for the first time in 15 months), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a report stating:
Agricultural commodity prices should ease from their recent record peaks but over the next 10 years they are expected to average well above their mean levels of the past decade.
"Coherent action is urgently needed by the international community to deal with the impact of higher prices on the hungry and poor,” Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO.
You can read the entire press release and learn more about the information in the report here.
In the US, the media focused on the good and bad news about corn. Market Watch reported that corn fell 0.9% a bushel after the USDA announced that it would open land for authorized certain acreage enrolled under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to be available for hay and forage after the primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds.
"It will significantly increase the amount of feed available to the livestock industry while still maintaining CRP's environmental benefits," said Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer.
Not all news outlets were even reporting the change in prices. MSNBC chose instead to run a contrasting story about the slow start to this year's US corn crop, sighting poor weather for putting things behind schedule. The second paragraph of the article also reminded consumers of the news we have all been hearing for months: things might get worse:
And depending on the right mix of sun, heat, rain and cool, it could drive prices up even further. That may mean consumers will be spending even more for groceries like soda, cookies, cake or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup and for any meat that relies on corn as animal feed.
Are some of the costs of food being driven up by actual changes in the crop cycle, or are they products of fear and the continuous bad news in the media? Are food prices skyrocketing because of oil?
Hopefully we will get some answers soon; on Thursday the The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced:
...a number of initiatives to increase transparency of the energy futures markets. The measures will expand the amount and quality of information received from energy traders to further the integrity and oversight of our nation’s futures markets. The recent dramatic increases in the price of crude oil traded on futures exchanges make these efforts paramount. The implementation of today’s measures will improve oversight of the energy futures markets to ensure they reflect fundamental economic forces of supply and demand, free of manipulation and fraud.
Here's hoping this is the beginning of positive change after months of bad news. And speaking of news, do you feel the major media outlets are too slow to announce any good news about food and gas costs, or are they being rightfully cautious?
