Nick Fickling
July 16, 2008

Recently, while visiting my family in Scotland, I read a headline which had Gordon Brown, Tony Blair’s successor as British prime minister, lecturing on all the waste in society, especially in food, with British families reportedly throwing away 4.1 million tons of food every year, worth some $800 for each family.

For telling the Brits to cut out waste, Brown attracted some choice insults such as “arrogant prat” and “nasty, patronizing little git.” Poor Gordon was only trying to explain supply and demand, economics 101, by pointing out that “unnecessary” food purchases cause shortages, and thus price increases, resulting in poor folks being unable to fill their bellies. Unfortunately he was speaking on a flight to the G8 conference in Japan, where more sushi was probably wasted in a day than the average Japanese person eats in a lifetime. Good point, Gordon, but lousy timing and poor choice of words. Nobody likes to be told to cut back on stuff, least of all by a fat politician on his way to a political junket.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Democrat/Republican political food fight over gas prices continues. They have a variety of solutions to the gas price situation. Removing the federal tax on gas would ease pressure on consumers, but also lead to greater usage and eventually even higher gas prices. Drilling in ANWR might increase supply and so reduce pump prices. Unfortunately deciding to drill in ANWR today will still leave us waiting until 2015 for the first drop of oil. No great relief in sight there, although the promise of drilling would reduce future prices and have some effect. Increasing refining capacity would help, though it takes time to commission a new refinery and, with demand for gas dropping, we are unlikely to see investment in new refineries unless the hurricane season forces such a move.

Tax breaks for more fuel-efficient vehicles and subsidies for alternative energy solutions will have more effect on the car industry in the short term than on gas prices. Biogas is a minor alternative and will not be a major influence for a while. Reduced tension in the Middle East would help, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon. Increased drilling by OPEC would cause oil “futures” to drop, but would be unlikely to affect gas prices significantly in the short-term. So what are we left with?

Reduced demand is the one thing that is guaranteed to make gas prices drop. We cannot do much to increase supply in the short term, but demand is something we can certainly influence. Sadly, no politician will want to start lecturing us on sensible gas usage as the solution—Prime Minister Brown is the only one brave or silly enough to take the risk. There are, however, many things we all can do to reduce our personal usage of gas and oil, with the incentive that cutting back saves us money immediately and also works to reduce pump prices.

Now I could ramble on about ways to save gas but you can easily find those on the Internet, and can probably think of several mountain-specific ones as well. Suffice to say that if we all adopted gas-saving measures enthusiastically, the price would drop relatively quickly.

As for Gordon Brown and his food waste, I would point to my wee grandson Angus as the model 2-year old gourmand who leaves nary a speck of grub on his plate and always has room in his gut for the leftovers of others. Now there’s a thought: You order too much food at Splendidos and I lend you Angus to eat your leftovers. You feel good about your excess, Angus grows up big and strong, and my daughter's food bills are slashed at a stroke. We could set up a government agency to keep track of it and call it calorie trading. Brilliant!


Nick Fickling is retired from the British military and lives in the Vail Valley. E-mail him at fickling@vail.net or editor@vailtrail.com.