Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Chapter 1

Growing wheat scarcity may send prices skyrocketing


In this article, it talks about the price of wheat increasing because of droughts in Australia, Ukraine, and the US. The price of wheat increased up to fifty percent this year. The countries most affected by this crisis are China and India. this is bad for China and India because they spend more money on products produced by wheat more than we do. The expenses for Canadian bread has gone up thirty five percent, the highest in a decade. Many people suspect that new records are going to be broken in two to three years because of global shortages. World inventories would decrease in June by forty three percent to 119.3 million tons. The US department of agriculture said earlier this month that this has been the lowest since 1982.
(Here is the link to the article)
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=3513088


This article is connected to chapter 1 because the supply for wheat can't meet the consumers high demand. A dramatic drop in the production of wheat puts a very negative effect on products that contain wheat because wheat is a raw material. Farmers will have to buy more land in order to keep the production of wheat balanced. This has a positive effect and a negative effect for society. On the positive side there will be a higher demand for labour. More people will be hired to work on the fields because more land will be bought. On the negative side if too much land is taken up then sooner or later when the weather conditions are ideal for growing wheat, the company will have too much wheat. Therefore the supply will be high and the demand will be constant which will lead to decreases in prices for wheat products. The shortage of wheat and high prices will also effect the capital because as people continuously come to restaurants the company must buy more expensive bread which will lead to a decrease in their revenue and profits. It would be a good idea for companies to come up with direct costs and opportunity costs for alternative products instead of wheat, especially restaurants because it can greatly change their profits.

in conclusion, i think that many small countries and cities are going to be more affected than us because our economy is high and we have a high standard of living. I feel that people are still going to buy wheat products even though are will be an increase in price. Lucky for me i dont eat alot of bread so it wont effect me very much. i believe that global warming is causing the droughts in Australia, Ukraine, and the US. Now we should put in a greater effort in trying to be environmentally friendly.

1 Comments:

Blogger tobylee-- said...

Looking at the scarcity of wheat, the shortage of wheat would definately lead to an increase in the price. Wheat is a very daily need item for some people, cause many things are made out wheat. I agree that we should grow more wheat and meet the demand but also try and control the supply and not oversupply the market

11:02 PM  

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