Driving home tonight and tuned into the BBC World Service, I heard a report that pasta prices are expected to go up twenty percent until at least November. Why? Global warming.
Seriously. Seems a very hot spring in Europe has had a negative effect on the supplies of durum semolina wheat, which is used to make spaghetti and fettucini. Italian pasta makers say the two main countries from which they import the rest of what they need have problems of their own. Syria, facing a food shortage at home, has banned all wheat exports; while the Canadian Wheat Board says Canadian and US pasta manufacturers have claimed just about all there is available on contract and we can't export any more until at least November.
With the shortage, some pasta makers are going on the cheap and using less ideal varieties of wheat which in turn mean a pinch on the stuff used to make cereals and bread. And their prices are going up too.
I don't think a lot of people have really thought about the long term impact of a much longer growing season in Canada. Sure, it would be nice to have Thanksgiving in November and a four day weekend. But a shorter winter would also mean less ground water and even greater tensions between Big Oil on the one side, and farmers and Aboriginals on the other. Food, which has remained relatively stable in price over the years, is starting to skyrocket and long-term that is not good for the lower and middle classes.
If grains go up in price, expect meats and dairy products to come next. I don't think we'll ever get a food strike, but I fully expect Harper to tell us to eat cake when we finally do get around to complaining in record numbers.
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