To me, visits to the grocery store have always felt a bit like running the gauntlet—and as many of you know, that gauntlet has now becoming an increasingly pricey experience. Yesterday, while waiting for the cashier to ring up my purchases, I heard an elderly lady exclaim in surprise as her bill was totaled up. When she asked the grocery store clerk why her “same old purchases” were suddenly much more expensive, he gave her what I thought was a pretty well-informed answer: rising fuel costs, increased demand for biofuels, and a series of crop-killing freezes that have decreased supply and triggered price increases for many pantry staples.
What he forgot to mention was the importance of water in that equation.
We all know that you cannot discuss the cost of food without also discussing imbedded water. And those of you who’ve been following our coverage of water footprints—and perhaps already downloaded are free water footprint app, Waterprint—are already aware of the imbedded water costs in various products and services.
In a special report for CNN about our nation’s vulnerability to food and oil prices, Patrick Doherty lays out the scheme of things, going over international developments and what they mean to our own food, water, and fuel costs and supplies.
Some highlights from Doherty’s report:
* Growth spurts in China, India, and Brazil (more than 7.5% growth for all three countries in 2010) have led to increased urbanization and domestic consumption.
* According to recent studies from the McKinsey Global Institute, over the next 20 years both China and India will need to build residences, workplaces, and infrastructure for 750 million new city dwellers.
* Those massive construction projects will inevitably increase demand for energy, food, water, and building materials.
* “The U.N. Development Program found that two-thirds of the world's critical ecosystem services, such as fresh water, fresh air, fisheries, and flood control, are being depleted faster than they are replenished.”
In the face of these facts, Doherty opines that “combined with the deeply intertwined challenge of ecological sustainability, the coming decades are looking grim if America stays on its current course.” The bottom line is that, for at least the present and near future, many of your monthly costs—for food, fuel, and transportation—are going to increase, and a significant portion of that increase is due not only to factors relating to both our water and energy infrastructure, but to increasing demand on an international scale.
So what do you think? Is the US, in Doherty’s words, “dramatically ill-prepared” to deal with the economic and infrastructure crisis looming in our future? Is it true that we have focused too long on a national security strategy that focuses on outside threats instead of some of the menaces that lurk within our own borders—rickety bridges, crumbling roads, outdated grids, and a water conveyance system on the verge of collapse? And do we still have the time, the political will, and the resources to turn things around before it’s too late?