General

Hello everyone,

I've noticed a significant increase in the price of food over the past year, and I believe this is a concern for many of us. Living in LA, I've seen some food prices nearly double, which can be quite challenging for our community, especially those of us who enjoy exploring different culinary experiences and sharing them with others.

I'm eager to understand the reasons behind this price hike and work towards finding solutions. If you are also interested in addressing this issue and want to collaborate, please reach out. Whether you're a fellow food enthusiast or a friend from church, together we can make a difference and ensure that our love for food remains accessible and enjoyable.

Looking forward to connecting with like-minded individuals!

It would be interesting if this website got the Nobel Prize for this. I know there are many causes, but I also know there are many solutions to each problem. My hope is to bring back low-cost food, so I’m starting with the man in the mirror.

god bless you all. live long and prosper.

It's just price gouging at this point.

As all commodities, food is priced by business owners, because those are the people who in our current economic system have the power to do that! In other words, business owners are responsible for the prices that you see, because it is them who decide either how much you will be charged for a commodity, or what is the way in which this decision is handled (or both). Something to note, in the USA, business owners constitute roughly 3%.

So, why do business owners increase their prices? That is pretty simple! They will do that if and when this is the best way to increase or protect their profits. The other side of this is the ever-increasing cost of living that everyone other than the business owners experience! Here you can notice a dichotomy between business owners and non-business owners (with the majority of the second group being workers / employees)

Then there is the market issue. Markets can be seen as mechanism with which shortages are handled. When there is a shortage of a commodity, people start to bid up the price of it, indirectly (the business owner does this directly, following the demand vs the supply that they see). As the prices go up, the people that are poor start to drop out because they can no longer afford it. Because of this, less people are interested in that commodity, so at some point the remaining people become few enough to be able to be satisfied by the supply of that commodity.

The above are two key chatacteristics of a capitalist system. Food simply does not get a pass, so long as its production and distribution is done in the context of the private sector. (Theoretically it can be done in the context of state, or public, sector with the most notable example of this being the Soviet Union).

The conversation of how all the above can be fixed is much of the essense of socialism.

A key takeaway of this is while prices might be fixed to deal with high prices, supply will necessarily go down. Why produce a good if you're not going to be paid for doing so?

The supply will go down if the cost of production goes up, while prices remain fixed. If the cost of production (what needs to be done for one unit of out put) remains more or less the same, then the supply of food will remain more or less the same. A solution for this, is a price & wage freeze will stop any inflation the moment it is implemented. Nixon did this and it was sucesfull! It did have side-effects but it immedientaly stopped the inflation, and economic activity remained pretty stable.

But your point is of concern only in a market economy. If the production and distribution of food were to be planned by the state, based on the total needs for food of the population that it governs (plus some extra to be safe) meaning, state enterprises that have the priority of output (and not profits from sales) then the issue youre proposing simply does not exist.
There are other issues in that case, notably that the state will have a lot of power in its hands and may decide to use it to coerse people to do all short of things, but thats a completely seperate issue.

To deal with it, nontheless, i want to begin by saying that there is no easy solution for this. All solutions are beyond the comfort zone of the people, so they will simply not vote for them. They are more likely to even self destruct that way. Either they will have to be brave and at least try to learn what theory is beyond neoliberalism (and i dont care if it carries the tag "progressive" or "concervative" because either of them is neoliberalism) or the solution will have to be enacted without popular consent (which limits how much they can be scaled up).

The solution i would prefer requires basically a complete overhall of the political economy (which is what makes it hard). I think that the production of goods and services should happen within worker cooperatives (that is to abolish the dychotomy of employers vs employees) and those cooperatives should operate in the context of a bottom-up planned economy. Decision making should happen through debates that will follow the Hegelian dialectic, not majority voting. And the primary principle should be the "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

This is possible and we know because it is already done! Here is a good video that explains this: [img]https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/IcK7rkajHKE/default.jpg' alt='' oncontextmenu='alert("This image is copyright © protected"); return false;'>[/img]

There are lots of false arguments against it, but i want you to understand that all the people who say "this is impossible" or "it can never be done in a large scale" are people who also think that free will is a reality. And our entier political system has been based on this hypothesis, which has never been proved to be true. In fact psychology exists because the oposite is true. Peoples' wills are explainable, to some heavy degree, therefore deterministic. If someone chooses to believe whatever is more comfortable to accept, rather than first analyze whats actually going and then conclude, then that person is delusional.

To conclude, most people who would opose the proposal i made, not on the basis that its difficult but on the basis that its impossible, that we should not even attempt to get to it, are either delusional or try to delude you.


Sorry if i sound harsh but this topic is handled by people based on what they believe, which are fantasies and lies, not reality. And we need, as in any other science, to examine reality. Not to decide based on a fantasy.

I intend to plant potatoes or something to make food. I also intend to get a more fuel-efficient car. Less money on gas, more money to feed people with. Waste not, want not. It's a start.

Enas has good points and government can do a lot to help, but the danger with that is communist control. A wicked malignant narcissist may come into power and say, "You insulted me, you starve." This has also happened a lot. For example, North Korea. I'm not putting this on the government to fix as much as I am putting it on myself to fix. Maybe I make food cheaper and prices have to come down to match me.
we all have some power

I got this list of possible causes:

Supply Chain Disruptions: Events like the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and geopolitical tensions can disrupt the supply chain, leading to shortages and higher prices for food items.
Inflation: General inflation increases the cost of goods and services, including food. When the overall price level rises, the cost of producing, transporting, and selling food also goes up.
Increased Demand: Higher demand for certain food items, whether due to population growth, changes in dietary preferences, or increased consumption, can drive up prices.
Labor Costs: Rising labor costs, due to minimum wage increases or labor shortages, can lead to higher food prices as producers pass on these costs to consumers.
Transportation Costs: Increases in fuel prices can make transporting food more expensive, leading to higher prices on store shelves.
Climate Change: Adverse weather conditions, such as droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures, can impact crop yields and livestock production, reducing supply and increasing prices.
Government Policies: Tariffs, subsidies, and other government policies can affect food prices. For example, tariffs on imported goods can make certain foods more expensive.
Commodity Prices: Fluctuations in the prices of key commodities, like wheat, corn, and soy, can influence food prices. When commodity prices rise, the cost of producing food items that depend on these commodities also increases.
Energy Costs: Higher energy costs affect the entire food production process, from farming to processing to distribution, leading to increased prices.
Global Events: International events, such as conflicts or trade disputes, can disrupt global food supply chains and affect prices.
Agricultural Input Costs: Rising costs of fertilizers, pesticides, and other inputs required for farming can increase the overall cost of food production.
Currency Fluctuations: Changes in exchange rates can affect the cost of imported food products. A weaker local currency can make imports more expensive.
Food Waste: High levels of food waste can reduce the overall supply of food available for consumption, driving up prices.
Technological Changes: While technological advancements can increase efficiency, they can also lead to higher initial costs that might be passed on to consumers.
Monopoly Power: Large corporations with significant market power can influence food prices by controlling supply chains and pricing strategies.
Speculation: Speculative trading in commodity markets can lead to price volatility and increase food prices.
Health and Safety Regulations: Stricter health and safety regulations can increase production costs, which might be reflected in higher food prices.
The first step in fixing a problem is knowing what it is.

This thread is fine so far and interesting points all around, but if it turns into fighting or personal attacks against other users based on political or economic viewpoints (or any other kind of personal attacks), I’m going to moderate it.

Moderator power!!!

Exactly

The website seems to have a big problem with trying to at least show the link of the video (please search on Youtube for “David GRAEBER: We are already communists”). Which is unfortunate because it does kind of explain in directly what communism is about (in short, its not what you think)



State power is not communism. In fact communism, as a theoretical concept, has nothing to do with goverment per se. This can be easily illustarted by the existence of anarchocommunism, again as a theoretical concept (which brings the question, if communism is about state ownership and anarchism is about abolishing permanent relationships of unequal power, the state being the biggest example of this, then what could an anarcho-communist system possibly be? A state, which has been abolished, to own the means of production? Of course thats not what it is!)

There is an understandable reason why people confuse communism to mean, favoring state power over private power, and that has mostly to do with the cold war. In the context of which, the 2 largest propaganda machines in the world (that of the United States and that of the Soviet Union) were trying to portray the USSR as a communist country for oposite reasons. And then, of course people would use that word in order to identify countries with similar countries. I think this meaning of the word should be discarded, since not only it is not particularly useful, but its actually discouraging people from exploring what this seemingly scary thing is about. In fact, there are videos on Youtube where some communists in discuise go around in a Trump rally and ask Trump supporters if they agree with a number of points, without telling them that these are communist points (which they were!). The irony is that most people there agreed with it! Thats to illustrate the confusion around this topic.

Mind you, im an anarcho-communist myself, im familiar with all that.

Anyways, i wanted to say a few things about your points which i find interesting.
You say you want to plant stuff. I assume you live in a house in the typical american suburbia, do correct me if im wrong. This means you propably have a fair amount of ground-room in your property. But furthermore, your Neighbors propably also do! I would encourage you then to try your best to organized them all in some sort of community and turn whoever-is-ins' gardens into farms of all short.

If i were in your position i would love to do this kind of thing. Unfortunately though i live with my parents, and although we have a balcony, they refuse to do anything good with it. Its just emtpy..

If you can do this, it might be a good idea to get a bicycle (and modify it so it can carry some stuff, a basket on the front, maybe two baskets left and right of the back weel). If the roads are safe enough, and the distances you usually go, within reach, you will save, possibly a thousand dolars a year! The negative side of this is that in order for it to work, it requires a level of fitness that might make you struggle at first, but with exercise you will overcome it fairly quickly!

And i mostly agree with you, that the goverment isnt really the answer. Although for seperate reasons, propably.

I think the causes you listed in your reply do boil down to the corporations' profit motif and the general dependence on markets to which the population is subject.

I would like to drive one of your points further too! We all have some power. And if this power is combined into collective power, miracles can happen! A lot of grassroots organizations exist already, although it might be extremely hard to find them if you start from skratch. Usually they can be found through ansrchist cycles. If you connect with some local ones, they will definetely be a great boost to your efforts.

Lastly i want to mention permaculture. It is extremely useful when it comes to anything like farming and gardening, and everything in between! There is a large Youtube channel about permaculture called “Andrew Millison”, i strongly recomend to you, and anyone else who is interested in gardening and/or self-sufficiency! 🙂