As you can see, I have not been abducted by aliens…so I’m still able to write on my blog :-)
So this week I read two articles on 7Speaking. One was about the high prices and the other one about Leonardo Da Vinci. The Da Vinci-article wasn’t very interesting so I will concentrate on the price issue.
Everyone noticed that the prices jumped to a level we’ve never seen before. The article I read, pointed out two reasons why prices are so high: speculation and bad harvests because of flooding. These are both true. Excessive speculation is certainly a reason why we now have to pay so much for gasoline or food products. Also the climate change, resulting in flooding and other disasters, is responsible for the increasing prices.
But these aren’t the only reasons I think. I’m working on a thesis about high food prices and I divided all the reasons into three groups: demand-factors, supply-factors and intermediary factors.
The demand-factors are:
- Increase of the world population
- Growing wealth and demand for meat in the BRIC-countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
The supply-factors are:
- Bad harvests (due to climate change)
- Biofuel production
- The high price of petroleum
The intermediary factor is speculation
Which of these factors is the most responsible for the food crisis? I don’t know yet, I haven’t finished my thesis. But I guess it will be a combination of (in order of importance) biofuel regulations, climate change and the developing BRIC-countries.
I don’t want to go too much in detail, maybe I’ll bore you with this subject but I’m really interested in this matter. After all, this crisis reaches every one of us. Next week, during our English class, I'm gonna give a presentation about the high prices. Everybody is invited.
See you guys next week
ST
1 commentaire:
Hi Stefaan,
In this entry "the" is sometimes over used. You say the high prices many times when simply high prices would suffice as you have already specified which kinds of prices you are talking about. Also in the paragraph you explain a bit about your three factors you say:"Which of these factors are the most responsible for the food crisis?" Remember when you use a superlative (most, biggest, tallest, etc.) you are speaking about a single thing - in this case the single most responsible factor, and therefore must make an agreement with the verb: Which of these factors is the most responsible for the food crisis?
Good job and I look forward to hearing your comments in your presentation!
Cheers,
Darlene
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