Food Costs Will Continue to Rise While Food Production Depends on Petroleum Products

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Stability in the oil-producing countries across North Africa and the Middle East, presently undergoing the upheaval of movements for democracy, will not be restored for a though yet.

Libya's conflict is still not resolved and now Sudan's split into two adds to the uncertainty about the reliability of future oil supplies.

This is possibly why there have been recent predictions in the financial press that commodity prices, particularly oil, will pick up and trade at much greater costs in the second half of 2011, assuming that demand will rise as the global economic recovery gathers pace.

Those who are concerned about the environmental impact of a food production system so heavily dependent on oil merchandise right through its supply chain will welcome this as an opportunity to push harder for development of far more sustainable farming, food processing and distribution.

Oil and gas are applied as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of conventional fertilisers and pesticides. Industrial scale farming is a pretty heavy user of petroleum merchandise, no matter whether it is for operating the farming machinery, such as tractors and harvesters, lorries for transport of the generate or animals to the food processors and at the processing plant itself, all lengthy ahead of food arrives in the shops for consumers to buy.

Governments are already removing a large number of of the older generation of fertilisers and pesticides from use considering that of concerns about the residues they leave in the land, in water courses and in the food itself and the adverse effects on the wellness of the environment and on buyers.

Even if the world did not have a finite supply of fossil fuels maybe the concern over trustworthy supply of what there is and consequent expected cost increases will present the kick begin required to speed up testing and regulation of more environmentally friendly alternatives.

The investigation is already progressing via the biopesticides researchers that are developing alot more natural, low-chem agricultural merchandise. A couple of biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers have been licensed already.

The procedure is expensive, on the other hand, as well as lengthy and by no indicates standardised with various Governments imposing various criteria for tests, trials and eventual licensing. It can take between 5 and seven years to total the method.

Meanwhile farmers, especially the world's smaller farmers, are being asked to improve the yields of their land in response to global population growth. Nowadays also customers are extra concerned about the high quality of the food they acquire and no matter whether it is healthy, natural and safe.

Far more frequent, extreme weather events make the have to have to protect and preserve the available land even much more very important. This is possibly a especially favourable time to concentrate on even more sustainable farming and the reduction of the generate lost since of plant pests deterioration in the good quality of the land.

Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers