Australian drought pushes up price of beer
A cold glass of beer is about to become more expensive in much of Australia, after prolonged drought wiped out much of the winter barley crop.
The price of other staples such as meat and bread will also rise by as much as 10 percent, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said....MORE
Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems(thanks to Environmental Economics for the Homer Simpson quote)
Update below.
From the New York Times:
For the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeast has reached the most severe category of drought, climatologists said Monday, creating an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water.
...In the Atlanta metropolitan area, which has more than four million people, worst-case analyses show that the city’s main source of water, Lake Lanier, could be drained dry in 90 to 121 days....MOREHT: AG (see also: post below)
Update: From the WSJ's DealJournal blog:
The folks at Anheuser-Busch aren’t having much of an Oktoberfest.
Last week, the King of Beers’ biggest U.S. rivals – Miller and Molson Coors Brewing – were forming a joint venture to try to dethrone Anheuser. Now comes news that Danish brewer Carlsberg and Heineken are in talks to make a joint bid for Scottish & Newcastle.
Scottish & Newcastle, seller of Foster’s and Newcastle Ale, is an obvious target for Anheuser-Busch, whose stock has been flat thanks to sluggish beer consumption in the U.S. As the Wall street Journal noted in this Oct. 10 “Heard on the Street” column, the maker of Budweiser has faltered internationally and it badly needs to expand overseas....MORE
