Soil PricesThe price of soil is and becomes more and more an important component in the build-up of food prices, certainly in case of food production in urban dominated areas where soil prices becomes more and more expensive.
By low oil prices food production can easily done far away from consumption areas. For example: all the iceberg lettuce that is consummated in the East Coast of the US, is produced in the West Coast of the US and is daily transported from West Coast to East Coast by reefer trains.
By rising of oil prices the balance between distance (transport costs) and climate (greenhouse based artificial climate costs) will be re-shuffled, certainly if new greenhouse technology makes artificial environments available with low energy consumption.
Fresh food will be produced more and more in consumption areas, storable and slow (is equal to low energy demanding) transportable food (wheat, fish and meat) will be produced more and more outside consumption areas.
This development will increase soil prices in urban areas even more, unless corporations and governments choose for high-density low-space-demanding (equal to high tech, which is not equal to not-natural) productions methods.
National governments and city counsels must take local food production (in basements under new buildings, new roads and new artificial hills, etc) into there development plans otherwise food prices will drive people out of their cities. This is not bad prophesy, but just adding some/all economical developments into a future image.
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