Technocrat has the story:

“The push is on now in earnest. The 20th century saw the rise of heavy mechanized farming and a lot of technological advances, leading to some huge surpluses in the major ag producing nations and a lot of cheap exports, all the way to subsidized sales and guaranteed price supports. For some nations this has been a curse, as the larger producers could even undersell the local production, leading to the collapse of even semi profitable farming. Now, global demand for food because of population increases plus biofuel production is making all governments look a little bit closer towards agricultural food protectionism and expansion, because demand is now going to start outstripping supply, and the cost of shipping is making large scale transfers not be worth as much. In short, no matter where you are, food is going to be getting more expensive.”

None of this is unexpected. Increasing energy costs are going to mean that large-scale agribusiness is less and less economical. Perhaps we’ll see a return of the small farmer and family farm again. It was a growing trend in eastern PA when I was there. (The small farms were specializing in organic produce and selling it directly to the restaurants in Philly and Manhattan. Apparently they were able to make enough money to easily stay in business at the same time that larger truck farms are struggling to stay afloat.)

Read the rest here: No More Cheap Food

(Via Technocrat.)