Rising wheat prices (2)

I hate to inform both Patrick Falzon Gough and the General Workers' Union that prices for stable commodities such as butter, flour, bread, animal feed and ever expensive meat as well as nitrogen fertiliser, which is used to grow an abundance of food to feed seven billion people, are rising in price across the planet!

This has nothing to do with the coming Maltese euro, decimalisation or any such nonsense. It has more to do with climate change and fossil fuel depletion. The North American grain belt is producing more and more bio fuels to substitute for a large decline in oil sales from Mexico, one of the world's largest oil producers. Yes, Mexico is in terminal oil decline. The cost of corn flower in Mexico has become so high that there has been major concern over food riots.

Australia's grain belt has turned into a dust bowl wiping out one per cent of Australian GDP and farmers have committed suicide in despair. This phenomenon is playing out all over the world, while this year most of southern Europe sweltered in 100+ degrees Fahrenheit, citrus crops died and harvests have been poor. The UK was hit by severe flooding, crop failure as well as foot and mouth disease.

Global grain reserves have fallen year on year for almost two decades. Food price inflation and oil and gas price inflation will be a normal phenomenon for the rest of Mr Falzon Gough's natural life.

So in the end Malthus was right, there really are too many mouths to feed and soon not enough food to go round.