Our little falafel place has had his price per lb of garbanzo beans go up nearly double. Our pizza place has had flour nearly triple over the last few months. Cheese was also out of sight.

The oil deal is a killer. It all stems from 2003.

Until very recently i worked in the family restaurant.Some of the things that are killing restauranteurs are:
Produce (everything from fruits and veggies to the parsley and kale used for garnish)
flour
Eggs and milk.

These issues are especially hard for the shop owners who arent part of big chains and don't have the ability to get raw materials cheap for buying in bulk.

At the supermarkets at least, I'm seeing locally unseasonal produce go way up in price, but the seasonal stuff staying very reasonable. It's also had an effect on our local Saturday market, as people are willing to pay reasonable money now for locally-produced fruit & veg, so the fresh produce stalls have really improved.

We're also growing more ourselves, although partly for fun, but this seems to be a trend here at the moment. We've got some Eden Project seeds growing into some unusual veg, and a seemingly unending supply of salad leaves. If the tomatoes and peppers are anything like last year, I can't wait!

I'll be interested to see how this gap progresses. Personally, I barely use any oil in cooking, so haven't really seen much of an increase there. Sadly, a lot of the fields near us now are being used for biofuel crops, which is the same, as it's a great spot for organic, arable farming. Can't blame the farmers for that, but I remain solidly unconvinced of the merits of biofuels.

That's an interesting point - oil prices doubling and affecting the cost of imported/transported 'out of season' produce (is that code for African or more likely, non-EU?).

If locally-grown produce is available and fairly priced, it is up to consumers to buy it up and demand more, if they want local farmers to produce more food crops and less biodiesel.

Here's a challenge: compare product & prices at your local fruit shop / growers market vs. your oligopolist grocery chain.
- Is there a noticeable price difference due to local v imported/distance-transported/out-of-season 'stored' produce?

'Out of season' isn't really code, and there's differing degrees of local. You can get a lot of decent food sourced from within 50 miles of where I live, even more if you expand this to the whole of Britain, more for the EU still, more for the world. Much of the really out-of-season stuff we get here is from New Zealand or Argentina - many of the foodstuffs from Africa and the Caribbean aren't exactly available for growing in these colder climes...

Apart from fuel costs (in all senses), you've also got the problem of taste. Strawberries picked halfway across the world and freighted over here, ripening in containers are never going to taste remotely as good as those picked just up the road yesterday.

The easy way to judge, though, is on price and special offer. Our local supermarkets stock local produce a lot of the time, and it's easy to tell when something is in season: it's marked as half-price or BOGOF. This isn't a loss-leader, it's not a special deal with a farming group (their margins are already pared to the bone as it is), it's just that they're easy to get hold of cheaply.

Cheaper, fresher, more sustainable... What more do you want?

(The debate now goes to the impact on countries in the developing world who have made a good living selling food to the West...)

Another aspect is the continually shrinking package. I was grocery shopping last week and noticed the snack cracker aisle was featuring Wheat Thins and Triscuits. They were featured at 2 for $6 bucks, which didn't seem particularly special, and on closer inspection, the box was a new 9oz.

Breyer's ice cream has gone on a similar slimming down in packaging.

I went to get some Edy's No Sugar Added Reduced Fat Vanilla, and it was TINY! 1.5qt!

I looked at Breyer's and it was 1.75 but 2x more expensive, but until tomorrow buy one get one free......

The mere fact that we are discussing fuel costs as the reason for increased food costs is telling. Our culture has gotten so accustomed to having all sorts of food products from faraway lands available at our fingertips 24/7/365. Spoiled rotten, we are. No one is forcing you to eat foods out of season or that could not possibly be grown/raised/caught in your climate. So quit .....ing when you have to pay what the market dictates those foods will cost.

Interestingly, the head of one of the major supermarket chains here (Sainsbury's, who position themselves towards the top end of the market - although price differences these days are marginal) made a statement saying as much - basically that if you eat fresh, seasonal goods, then your shopping bill won't have gone up.

We're also spoiled with indoor plumbing and all kinds of electrical devices. Now don't complain when they go out. After all, you should be walking to the river to get your water and going outside to use the restroom. Anything else is contrived.;)

The key difference being that many of these features vastly increase, rather then decrease efficiency in our use of resources. And often easy to make yet more efficient.

I don't disagree with this to a point but its not like everything you buy in the store can be found locally.And i don't mean exotic produce either - if you don't live in an area where there is a lot of farming, you are forced to buy products like milk, eggs, cheese, flour etc. all from places far enough away that they need to be trucked in. and in winter unless you want to get scurvy, and such, you need to buy produce thats trucked in, even if its just from Florida or Cali.

I'm all for buying locally when you can.Just this week i bought NJ asparagus for 1.59/lb, and it was nice thin stalks, not the huge wood like ones you often see. But the fact is, there are certain things that are a necessity that can only be trucked in.

Well yes, obviously it depends on where you live, too. For example, you can't grow an awful lot of citrus on this island (UK), so much comes from abroad.

And of course, there's differing degrees of local. Spain? Not too bad. South Africa? Quite a lot further...

Just because you have to get your orange juice from slightly further afield doesn't mean you have to insist on strawberries from half the world away in winter - it's not all or nothing...

Minor differences
 

[QUOTE=rhiannonwales;9762870]I don't disagree with this to a point but its not like everything you buy in the store can be found locally.And i don't mean exotic produce either - if you don't live in an area where there is a lot of farming, you are forced to buy products like milk, eggs, cheese, flour etc. all from places far enough away that they need to be trucked in. and in winter unless you want to get scurvy, and such, you need to buy produce thats trucked in, even if its just from Florida or Cali.[QUOTE]

I met with Rep. Pat Williams (D-MT) a number of years ago. A tale from him. He was trying to get another Rep. from NY to vote for the farm bill in the late 1980's. The Rep. from NY asked him "Why should I vote for the farm bill? Everybody I know buys food from the grocery store." I realize that the farm bill in the US is one of the most pork-filled (food stamp ads) and wasteful (ethanol subsidies) bills passed by the Congress but it does provide some good things (Country of origin labeling on food). Do I believe the story, no but I can believe that a person from NY would have this attitude. NY/NJ have always had higher food prices over other areas because of the congestion and lack of local farms. However, NY/NJ incomes are often much higher than the rest of the country as well.

But it's called the Garden State!???