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Rising food prices

CNN's Maggie Lake looks at how rising food prices are hitting U.S. families hard

Felicia Padley and her youngest daughter Jenny Ella are picking up free helpings of pasta, vegetables and other essentials at a Food Bank in Brooklyn, New York . Padley holds down a fulltime government job but still finds it hard to feed her family of four. She needs the pantry’s help now more than ever as her weekly food bill soars

A year ago it's like about 50 or 60 dollars I would spend at a grocery store and that would include meats, that would include vegetables, fruits, cereals stuff like that. But now I’m spending like a hundred dollars.

Rising food prices are hitting families across the United States hard. Over the past year, egg prices have risen almost 44 percent, fresh milk 21 percent, and poultry and beef more than 6 percent.

Economists say severe weather in the southern US and Australia is partly to blame for the jump in prices at food stores like this one behind me. But many are pointing to another culprit, energy, in particular the rising production of ethanol, a bio-fuel made from corn.

There are some 130 ethanol plants now in operation across the US churning out billions of gallons of this stuff each year. The US hopes ethanol will slash demand for oil, but to make all that ethanol you need a lot of corn that has sent prices soaring 50 percent in the past year and a half. On top of ethanol there’s also the spike in the price of crude oil which makes it more expensive to transport and package foods. Some say demand for food and fuel are on a collision course that could have disastrous consequences.

What we are looking at in a sense is direct competition between the 860 million people in the world who own automobiles and who want to maintain their mobility and the 2 billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. Others say demand may be outpacing supply now but the market will eventually adjust.

We’ll continue to grow and really that’s a good thing. But people will also produce more. There’s an old saying at economics says the solution to high prices is high prices. What’s going to happen is that people are going to be provided an economic incentive to plant more.

That should help solve the increase in prices. For now though, families struggle. 30 new families are walking into this Brooklyn pantry each day in need of help. This upcoming winter could be a bitter one indeed for many across the United States finding it hard to afford the food basics.

Maggie Lake, CNN New York.

Notes:

collision course: A course, such as that of moving objects or opposing philosophies, that will end in impact or conflict if permitted to continue unchanged or unabated

文本参考中文翻译

CNN记者Maggie Lake报道粮食价格上升给美国家庭造成的影响。

Felicia Padley 和她的小女儿Jenny Ella正在领取纽约布鲁克林粮食银行发放的免费批萨，蔬菜和其他必需品。Padley有一份全职的政府工作，但是仍然觉得很难养家糊口。由于每周食物账单迅速增加，她现在比以往任何时候都需要帮助。

一年前，我每周在杂货店花费50或60美元就可以买到肉，蔬菜，水果，粮食等等。但是现在差不多要花100美元。

粮食价格上升沉重打击了美国的许多家庭。在过去的一年，鸡蛋价格上涨了接近44%，鲜奶上涨21%，禽类和牛肉价格上涨了6%。

经济学家表示，这种现象应该部分归咎于美国南部和澳大利亚的恶劣天气，或者由于食品商店价格上涨。但是许多人认为是由于另外一个罪魁祸首，能源，尤其是乙醇的产量增加，而这是一种用玉米制造的生物燃料。

现在，美国境内有大约130种用于生产乙醇的作物，每年大约生产数十亿加仑的乙醇。美国希望乙醇可以缓解对石油的需求，但是，生产乙醇需要耗费大量玉米，导致在过去的一年半时间里，玉米价格上涨了50%。除此之外，原油的上升导致玉米的运输和包装价格上涨。有人说，对粮食和燃料的需求是会产生碰撞效应，会产生灾难性的后果。

我们看到的是，世界上8亿6千万拥有机动车，希望更加机械化的人和20亿仅仅希望生存的人之间的竞争。其他人表示，需求会调动供应，市场最终会进行调整，达到平衡。

我们还会继续种植，这是好事。但是人们也会生产更多。经济学里有句老话叫做，解决高价的方法就是高价。即将发生的是，人们会将会获得继续种植的经济动机。

这会帮助解决粮食价格上涨的问题。但是目前，许多家庭仍然在苦苦挣扎。每天都会有30多个新的家庭走进布鲁克林食品室寻求帮助。对美国许多不能获得充足食物的家庭来说，即将到来的冬天将更加寒冷。