My rant this week is about "going green" and how much it is costing. I think on a whole we as a nation are "going green" much too quickly and without any plan or leadership.
On whole, this countries response to high fuel prices, to our dependency on Middle Eastern oil, is causing a raise in demand for ethanol, a fuel that is made from corn. When not being used for ethanol, this corn is typically used as animal feed, specifically feed cows. So beef prices are up, so is the price of milk (some say it will be at $5 a gallon by the end of summer), and cheese prices are way up as well. Since beef is getting expensive the demand for alternatives like chicken and pork is on the rise and high demand + low supply = high prices for those proteins as well.
Where else does this hit us in places that we don't think about? Well if cheese prices are up, then the prices of pizza and other foods dependant on it are up. My local paper claims that Pizza Hut and Pappa Johns have already raised their prices in response. Milk is in a lot of chocolate, so those prices will soar. Along with that milk, your corn based cereals price will rise and corn is used to make high fructose corn syrup, whoops there goes the prices for a bottle of cola, or our favorite cookies…
But the really hidden costs? Soap prices will go up. What am I talking about, how is corn related to soap? Well "as The Wall Street Journal notes, soap makers are getting hit particularly hard, as prices are up for beef tallow, a kind of fat that is an important ingredient in soap. Also, there's a new subsidy for companies turning animal fat directly into fuel, which will further shorten supplies of this ingredient. (Pasted from Techdirt.com)." Now I don't use beef tallow in my soaps, but I do use soybean and "the heightened demand for corn has decreased the supply of other grains, including soybeans, because farmers are shifting fields to make room for corn. Soybeans are a key ingredient in trans-fat-free cooking oils now in high demand as cities and counties ban fatty oils in restaurants and bakeries." (Pasted from The Philadelphia Inquirer)." So there is another ingredient with a rising price.
I know this sounds terrible but just give me high gas prices. I will know how much gas costs and can budget accordingly. But instead, gas prices will remain more stable, but I will pay through the nose for just about everything else in my life.. No thank you…
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