ABC-DEFinitely Gross: Things parents don’t tell their kids about the environment

It’s official: There are four things causing an increase in the cost and demand for food grains and for people who have been out of town for awhile I’ve listed them below:

1. Drought caused extensive damage to crop yields in some areas of the world.

2. The world’s appetite for meat is increasing as economies grow and those chickens, cows and pigs have to be fed a lot of grain in order to get them ready for slaughter.

3. Some grain crops are being converted to fuels.

4. Traders or speculators in the stock market are pushing prices of grain commodities higher.


The average North American parent is much at fault. The size of their children, family van or pickup truck has never been greater.

But you won’t often hear Dad or Mom say that everybody in the family is going to have to cut back a wee bit as they drive across town to soccer practice or down the highway to visit Grandma’s house with a big bag of Bucky’s burgers on their lap.

Though many parents are silent I have a few questions:

Would prices or demand for grain (and food stuffs) stabilize or decrease if we ate 50 per cent less meat than we do now and left the car in the lane way 50 per cent more often?

And before we actually try the experiment ourselves will we be forced to do so because of even higher prices?

And what will we say to the kids when soccer has to be crossed off the list?