give us this day our daily bread

As one of the children of the 1950s, us babyboomers in the UK have never had to seriously worry about our bread supply. Through most of my life I have found that praying ‘give us this day our daily bread’ has been an exercise in imagining the plight of others but of little serious personal concern. Maybe all that is about to change.

This week the world news has begun to make the link between oil and food. Most of the world’s oil fields are in decline. We are using much more than we are discovering and more and more countries are industrialising. The inevitable result is what is being called Peak Oil. We are reaching the point where oil demand outstrips supply. At that point oil prices rise considerably. Oil has just reached an oil time high at 106$ a barrel. This may only be the beginning.

At the same time world food prices are rising. Some staples have doubled or trebled over the last few years. The causes are complex.They include the rising world population, the increasing numbers of ‘middle class consumer types’ who eat meat and drive cars , the impact of climate change on world food availability and the use of land for biofuel production instead of food. 

People are saying that this combination of oil and food price rise is certain to produce world recession and political instability in the near future.

It is like a tidal wave which you can just see rising. It is time to change the way that we are living. I suspect that many more people will soon be praying ‘give us this day our daily bread’ … and its accompanying statement ‘do not bring us to the time of trial’…

A 15 gallon tank filled with biofuel contains the equivalent of seven months food for a person.

For a summary of the breaking news see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/03/food.climatechange

For in depth discussion see www.theoildrum.com which is an astonishingly well researched and influential website – especially Stuart Staniford http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3690