Growing populations, rising affluence in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and crop failures caused by extreme weather have pushed up the prices of wheat, sugar, cotton and many other household staples.
So far, bread, breakfast cereals and clothing have become more expensive – but the full effects of the cost of raw materials have not yet filtered through to shops, meaning they are likely to rise sharply in the coming months. Wheat, for instance, is up by 69 per cent this year, while many other commodities have risen sharply on an annual basis. Coffee is up by 48 per cent, potatoes by 47 per cent, cocoa powder by 32 per cent and sugar by 23 per cent, according to the commodities and raw-materials company Mintec.
Aside from cotton – which has doubled in price after decades in the doldrums – the biggest single rise has been in orange juice, which has jumped by 70 per cent, sending the supermarket price of a litre of Princes up by 54 per cent from 92p to £1.42.
via The Independent.
Twixtmas is a brilliant opportunity. A significant part of the population is on holiday and has free quality time to do something.
Twixtmas.
Here’s some fun data from the NEF to play with. We should just move to Norway, Switzerland, or Ireland, really. It just goes to show that mountains and space (not lebensraum) are what a body needs.
A rather lovely looking place called Old Hall Community which is looking for residents and volunteers, and a sustainability centre based at Llanfyllin Workhouse.
A few interesting things in citizen reporting and community action:
The Good Samaritan paradox via the Politics of Wellbeing. The video in part 2 is particularly good.
If you’re feeling like you’re doing your bit to make things better, be humbled by Sandra Antonovic who the 10:10 campaign have named their Top Human of the Previous 365 Days. After much deliberation and chocolate biscuits, the committee comprising Franny and Lizzie were unanimous in their decision and issued the following statement: “Frankly we don’t believe that Sandra can be just the one person, as it is impossible to comprehend how anyone could have pulled off this lot in one year:
- Started 10:10 campaigns in 24 countries from Russia to Greece.
- Organised 5,000 schools to plant 50,000 trees.
- Signed up cities including Zagreb, Krapina, Nicosia and Pula (eg the town of Krapina in Croatia is modernising their street lighting and the City of Pula in Croatia are turning on/off city lights 15 minutes later/earlier each day and providing citizens with free coloured garbage bags to increase recycling levels).
- Produced the first 10:10 checklists in braille.
- Persuaded a board game manufacturer to produce a 10:10 board game.
- Persuaded a regional TV company to produce the pilot of a 10:10 TV show which will feature 10 families competing to cut their emissions.”
Systems analyst and designer, strategist, writer, campaigner, provocateur, permaculturist, web developer, and occasional TV farmer and sheep wrangler. 