I recently complained to my boss about the plastic forks he keeps in his desk drawer. I regularly steal them when I forget cutlery for my microwave lunches. But Charlie was getting those really crappy, flimsy forks. Totally unacceptable for eating microwave lunches.
Yesterday, I noticed that he had gotten some of those beefy, sturdy picnic models.
Never let it be said that my boss does not take care of his people.
As prices rise, the demand for meat in Korea is dropping, according to Bloomberg:
“Korea’s corn demand cannot help but fall down the road because feed demand is falling,” said Nicholas Chung, senior manager of the commodity derivatives team at Korea Development Bank. “Cheaper imported beef is coming into the market and overall meat consumption is waning as the economy slows down.”
This is one of those knock-on effects. Rising affluence in Asia drives up meat consumption, which drives up feed consumption, which significantly drives up food costs. Weakening economies mean people have less money for meat. Knocks back in the other direction.
Food prices this week stable, according to the Economist Food Price Index.
A giant scissors sighting on Albuquerque’s west side.
Previous giant stuff coverage on Inkstain:
I like this story mainly because it’s about a company named “Sara Lee” that makes sausage named “Jimmy Dean.” I mean, how can you not love companies with such cheerfully personified identities, even if they are about to raise their prices dramatically:
Sara Lee, maker of meat products such as Jimmy Dean sausages, said costs would compel it to push up prices on meat lines by up to a fifth later this year.
“We will be taking price increases on the vast majority of the protein products in this calendar year,” said C.J. Fraleigh, Sara Lee’s chief operating officer for North America, in a recent interview.
“Meat products” and “protein lines”. Doncha just love the way these people talk?
While we’ve all been watching gasoline go through the roof (easy to spot – sign on every street corner), natural gas has been quietly doubling in price as well. My colleague Win Quigley has a story in this morning’s paper, and Al Zelicoff, who’s been helping the paper with consumer energy saving tips, put together a bunch of information for us about how to reduce your natural gas consumption. Al gets frustrated – with good reason – because so much of this is easy to do, low-hanging fruit. Save energy. Save money. No-brainer. One problem is simply information. People just don’t know. In that regard, I’m trying to help using the pulpit offered by the newspaper’s audience.
On the drive over to the Lavender Festival Saturday, my sister, Lisa, was explaining how she uses vanilla in baking. It’s like salt, she said – a little helps the other flavors.
The Lavender Festival is an annual affair down at Los Poblanos Farms in Albuquerque’s valley – an old farmstead turned inn and organic farm. They had music, and lavender, and more music, and more lavender.
I could not begin to imagine how one might incorporate lavender in baked treats, but my sister is good. She’s been a pro – literally – for years, baking treats. And she has this deep intuitive grasp of how to put things together that will taste really yummy.
This year, that skill made her the top prize winner in the Festival’s bake-yummy-treats-with-lavender-in-them contest. We are proud, and also lucky to have regular access to her treats.
$2.00 gas: “Get off the road, you fucking faggot!”
$4.00 gas: “Dude! Awesome bike!”
(h/t Nora)
Some stuff I wrote elsewhere about a potentially huge New Mexico water law court decision:
A state court this week threw out New Mexicans’ longstanding legal right to drill a domestic water well without having to worry about whether it would leave less water for their neighbors.
The ruling is a victory for activists who say that uncontrolled domestic well drilling poses a long-term threat to New Mexico’s ability to manage its dwindling water supples. But the details of how the ruling will affect developers who rely on domestic wells to supply the homes they build is unclear, experts said Friday.
Much more to come on this, I suspect.
