Food Costs Soar – Killing Combustion Engines in Favor of ‘Green’ Transportation Won’t Help Lower Them

September 20, 2021

A recent online article bemoaned the fact that food costs across the world are soaring, with year-over-year increases of 30% or more a norm across many countries.  The article posed the question as to why governments aren’t doing more to help lower them.

Here in the United States, our government is trying to make them go even higher. 

Alaskans expect our food costs to be higher than those in what we call the ‘Lower 48’, and the reality certainly meets those expectations.  A gallon of milk in Anchorage historically is $.70 higher than that in Seattle, and fruits and vegetables generally run 20-30% more than what you’d see in your local supermarket across the Continental US.

Part of that increased cost comes from the fact that the only practical way to get those goods to our state is via the Port of Alaska. In fact, over 90% of Alaskans utilize goods from the Port, and 50% of all freight in and out of Alaska comes through the facility.  Huge container ships make runs between Washington state and Alaska numerous times a week.  Those ships run on fossil fuels, and are – along with the cargo planes that frequent the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport – the lifeblood of our state’s logistics and supply chain solutions.

Which brings us back to the federal government, and its push for ‘green’ solutions for everything from energy grids to farming, and yes, to transportation.  If the environmental activists pushing an accelerated transition away from fossil-fuel-powered transportation gets their way, only renewable-powered transportation will be allowed in the next decade or so.

If that requirement includes cargo ships, then Alaska’s supply chain would not only be disrupted – as vessels would need to meet the new standards and there are no ‘green’ energy-driven ships currently – but we’d also see food costs soar, as shippers would inevitably pass along their higher transportation costs to Alaskans.

That lack of overall forethought is what drives Power The Future to continue to educate on the need to move slowly when it comes to affecting Americans – and in this case, Alaskans specifically – away from what currently works to the unknown of a ‘green’ future.