Record corn prices raise other food costs (DiceFood.com)

June 29, 2008 | By glarr00 In Secret Recipes |

Record corn prices raise other food costs

Filed under: Grains, Dairy, Beef, Poultry, Cheese, Pork, Eggs, Meat

The floods in the Mid-West are causing a nationwide increase in food prices across the board. Corn and soy prices are increasing dramatically which means other foods that depend upon them are increasing as well. Expect to see many grocery items like meats, cheese, eggs, milk, oil, etc. increase in price.

I spent summers as a child in the corn fields of Iowa, many of which have become lakes, with the gently hills small islands. Now many of these farmers are calling it quits, selling off the farms and getting out of the business. Animals are being sold off, which means a short term meat glut, but a long term shortage. Don’t expect prices to go down from the quick influx of meat, because the long term shortage is so visible that prices have to start reacting now.

This is going to have such long term effects that you can expect your Holiday turkeys and hams to cost quite a bit more than last year, and possibly even more the year after that.

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Barbecuing, On the Blogs, Lists, How To, Grilling, Meat, Summer

grill AOL Food has a whole slew of green tips. Try using a chimney starter rather than lighter fluid to get your briquettes going - it puts off way less CO2.

The Green Daily suggests buying a hybrid grill, so you can use the more efficient electric or gas element for the main source of heat and burn just a bit of wood for that charred aroma.

Char your burgers with environmentally-friendly charcoal: Nature’s Grilling all-natural charcoal has no added chemicals or fillers, just pure carbonized wood. Their briquettes, they say, burn hotter and longer with less ash and no acrid aftertaste. Plus, they’re made from wood harvested from region’s that meet strict “resource management practices” and the company claims to plant 1,000,000 trees a year to lower their carbon footprint. Cowboy Charcoal also promises all-natural charcoal with no petroleum taste.

The Sierra Club lists their favorite environmentally-friendly grills. Consider a solar grill, like the Sport Solar Oven. At just ten pounds, you can carry it on picnics, on your boat and to the beach. On a sunny day, it can reach temperatures up to 260 degrees in the United States, up to 300 degrees in equatorial regions.

Lastly, use a non-toxic cleaner, like SoyClean BBQ Grill Cleaner, a soy-based product which is biodegradable, easy on your hands, and doesn’t emit caustic fumes. Orange Plus cleanser is phosphate free and biodegradable, but promises to get the touch greasy bits off the grill.

You can even buy completely biodegradable disposable plates made of sugar cane and cornstarch, from Simply Biodegradable. Throw it all away in their compostable eco garbage bags, and Al Gore will come paste a gold star on your forehead.

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On the Blogs, Eggs

the Wooster Collective reported back in May about the project that’s located in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.

Each egg is about 100 feet wide, and they were spread out in one of the largest squares in Leeuwarden, called Zaailand, where they’ll be walked on and photographed for six months.

Diana Eid of Inventor Spot said that this art project was just made for Google Earth, which tickled me to no end. I wouldn’t have thought that, but I think it’s great that someone did. New and creative ways to view food and art are always welcome in my book.

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