Have you guys seen hard drive prices lately? Flooding in Thailand shut down the factories that make parts for just about every hard drive out there, and prices have doubled on Newegg over the last couple of weeks.

How can GMO nuts be labeled as 'natural'?

As someone who is deathly allergic to peanut and peanut products, I'm just fine with this.

AbbeySomeone: How can GMO nuts be labeled as 'natural'?

So any hybrid, no matter how it came to be, is "unnatural" ?
Simply forcing the issue a bit by intentional cross-breeding suddenly makes something bad?
Cross pollination begs to differ. So do a couple hundred years of hybridization of flowers and plants that have
made the world a more pretty and well fed place.


/kinda tired of the, "OMGZ genetic modified is da debil!?!?" crap
// Mendel rolls over in his grave...

AbbeySomeone: How can GMO nuts be labeled as 'natural'?

Every common cereal grain would like a word with you.

/GMO does not imply the incorporation of extraspecies genetic material, only that the breeding was done in a lab instead the field.

It's getting so bad that Farkers will soon have to spread caviar on their cock'nballs next time they play with Fido...

GAT_00: Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from just $450 per ton a year ago. Overall, the USDA projects that American peanut production will hit 3.6 billion pounds this year, down 13% from last year.

Supply drops 13%, cost jumps by nearly a factor of 3. That totally makes sense.

And after it goes back to $450, you think that jar of peanut butter is going to drop in price?

NewportBarGuy: I can't stand these price increases! That's it! I'm cancelling Netflix!

Nutflix. You are cancelling Nutflix.

"It's not cheating if it's *your* dog!"

ChubbyTiger: AbbeySomeone: How can GMO nuts be labeled as 'natural'?

Every common cereal grain would like a word with you.

/GMO does not imply the incorporation of extraspecies genetic material, only that the breeding was done in a lab instead the field.



Fluorescing pigs, I'd like to see the average farmer do that in the field.

Soybeans immune to RoundUp, like grandpa used to grow.

GAT_00: Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from just $450 per ton a year ago. Overall, the USDA projects that American peanut production will hit 3.6 billion pounds this year, down 13% from last year.

Supply drops 13%, cost jumps by nearly a factor of 3. That totally makes sense.

You need product x to make your widgets, I also need product x to make my widgets. Currently you and I represent the sole consumers of product x.

Product x decreases in supply by 10%. Demand for our widgets remains the same. I need 100% of my previous quantities of product x. You need 100% as well.

So when you go to market, bid 10% more for product x. I'll bid 40% more for my share and 50% of your share.

I now own 75% of the original supply and you are left with 30% of your original need.

Your customers come to me and you lose market share. Next time the supply drops will you only bid 10% more?

You will, or else I'll probably just acquire the entire supply and you will go under. Of course I may not be able to produce enough widgets with my capacity. So I'll offer to sell you my excess of product x. 300% original price.

So can you see how a small supply decrease can have a large impact on price?

Obviously Obama is paying off Jimmy Carter at the expense of elementary schoolkids across this great land.

GAT_00: Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from just $450 per ton a year ago. Overall, the USDA projects that American peanut production will hit 3.6 billion pounds this year, down 13% from last year.

Supply drops 13%, cost jumps by nearly a factor of 3. That totally makes sense.

Demand is probably up as well, what with so many people looking for more inexpensive food.

It's only the crappy "real" peanut butter that will get expensive, right? I've been assured that Skippy, Jif and the rest are just peanut-flavored animal entrails mixed with the tears of Chinese sweatshop workers, so the price of peanuts shouldn't make any difference

Bah, we'll just start growing them on Mars.

Mentat: Where the hell is Beeks?

No more swedish meatballs there, toots.

Dang it I eat a jar of this a week

No one gives a shiat about the drought in flyover land until they get hit in the pocketbook. Bill is due, biatches.

I went grocery shopping with my mom maybe two weekends ago(?). We went to... sigh.. Now way to avoid "your mom" jokes on this one. We went to BJ's specifically so she could buy bags of peanuts for the blue jays this winter. Then we went to another grocery store to buy every single big jar of peanut butter in stock. My mom was in panic mode.

Poor peanut crop. It happens.

nbrfwhoooo: I went grocery shopping with my mom maybe two weekends ago(?). We went to... BJ's specifically so she could buy bags of peanuts for the blue jays this winter. Then we went to another grocery store to buy every single big jar of peanut butter in stock. My mom was in panic mode.

I originally saw something about this a couple of weeks ago, and went ahead and stocked up before news spread. I haven't seen the prices go up yet, but I hope to have a good enough stock for when they do. I didn't go crazy or anything, but I was running low anyway, and was just sure to get a little more than usual.

The problem of course is that the resulting panic buying/hoarding makes for a nice self-fulfilling prophesy, a fact that I am certain the retailers and processors are exploiting to the max. However, supply and demand can be a biatch... if people try to gouge too much, the market will hit max price before they have hit the perfect curve of profit versus 'back off', and then the retailers run the risk of pricing themselves out of a market, at which time the sudden surplus will drive the prices back down with competition for sales; the question is, how long will that balancing act take?

Remember a few years ago when the bad almond crops drove almond prices through the ceiling? Almond butter went for anywhere from $12 to $16 for the same size as a $3 jar of Jiff. I wrote on the store tags "It will rot on the shelf at this price", and I was right; only the die-hard peanut sensitive people were crazy enough to get it for that amount, and eventually the prices have come down to as low as $7 a jar, which is still awful, but close to the original pre-crisis prices.

The problem is that said market adjustment took close to six years to go full circle.

I guess praying for rain does not work.

Don't you love climate fluctuations?

One might also ask why supplies are 13% lower than last year. Part of it is the drought in the southern states and part of it is the reduction in peanut acres caused by better prices for other commodities, such as corn and beans. At the time of planting this spring, the futures price of corn at a national average yield would have produced gross income per acre of over $1000. Similar calculations on peanuts would have yielded $450/acre. Hypothetical question: You're a farmer. Which would you have planted?

Corn futures are down, peanuts are now significantly up. Next spring farmers may make different decisions.

Get used to stuff like this, next year it might be something else.

Totally predicted this; told the grocery shopper of the house to pick up extra peanut butter last Tuesday.

Warning went unheeded.

/Senior in Econ.
//I feel learned.

TheWizard: GAT_00: Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from just $450 per ton a year ago. Overall, the USDA projects that American peanut production will hit 3.6 billion pounds this year, down 13% from last year.

Supply drops 13%, cost jumps by nearly a factor of 3. That totally makes sense.

You need product x to make your widgets, I also need product x to make my widgets. Currently you and I represent the sole consumers of product x.

Product x decreases in supply by 10%. Demand for our widgets remains the same. I need 100% of my previous quantities of product x. You need 100% as well.

So when you go to market, bid 10% more for product x. I'll bid 40% more for my share and 50% of your share.

I now own 75% of the original supply and you are left with 30% of your original need.

Your customers come to me and you lose market share. Next time the supply drops will you only bid 10% more?

You will, or else I'll probably just acquire the entire supply and you will go under. Of course I may not be able to produce enough widgets with my capacity. So I'll offer to sell you my excess of product x. 300% original price.

Customers stop buying your widget due to a 60% markup, I buy your IP at a firesale and outsource to china...

I like peanut butter and all that, but I'll have my peanuts boiled, thank you.

I don't doubt it. We paid $ 3.57 for this at WalMart:



We like our peanut butter without a side of pesticides.

6M: I like peanut butter and all that, but I'll have my peanuts boiled, thank you.

"Bohld" peanuts = baby shiat. For the life of me I will never understand some of the things these crazy-ass Southerners call food.

Also, Okra = milkweed pods, liver puding/liver mush = zombie vomit, pork brains in scrambled eggs = more zombie vomit, cooked greens boiled until they are grey mush = pure stupidity, and pickled pig's feet = shiat stompers in weak acid.

/Hey, I hate Cream of Wheat too, so just keep that in mind.

Cythraul: Heh, how much ya wanna bet that the prices won't come down after next year's harvest, even if it's a good harvest?

Like I said before, people are only willing to pay just so much for something before they stop using it and switch to alternatives, and then the market self-adjusts when the back-stock starts gathering dust. The problem is the turn-around time.

PsiChi: I don't doubt it. We paid $ 3.57 for this at WalMart:

[hannaford.gsnrecipes.com image 189x300]

We like our peanut butter without a side of pesticides.

You still get insect fragments ground right in, though. Extra protein.

Jake Havechek: Get used to stuff like this, next year it might be something else.

I'm old enough to remember the shortage crazy back in the 70s. It started with the gasoline lines. People became used to shortages and all it took was a whisper somewhere and then a little newspaper article and instantly the hoards were off to the stores to strip the shelves. Antifreeze. Toilet paper. Etc.

dofus: Jake Havechek: Get used to stuff like this, next year it might be something else.

I'm old enough to remember the shortage crazy back in the 70s. It started with the gasoline lines. People became used to shortages and all it took was a whisper somewhere and then a little newspaper article and instantly the hoards were off to the stores to strip the shelves. Antifreeze. Toilet paper. Etc.

Why is it before a blizzard, everybody suddenly needs milk and bread?

Cythraul: Heh, how much ya wanna bet that the prices won't come down after next year's harvest, even if it's a good harvest?

Fifty dollars.

Jake Havechek: PsiChi: I don't doubt it. We paid $ 3.57 for this at WalMart:

[hannaford.gsnrecipes.com image 189x300]

We like our peanut butter without a side of pesticides.

You still get insect fragments ground right in, though. Extra protein.

Who doesn't like insect fragments?

stuhayes2010: Fluorescing pigs, I'd like to see the average farmer do that in the field.

Easy. All it takes is a bottle of wine, romantic music, and a personal ad for the Hulk.