HI all I was listening to the radio on the way home and the news had a story about how the rise in gas prices is affecting LOL the bird seed industry! 1.) more and more famers are growing corn for ethanol so less farmers are growing sunflower seeds. Also less soybeans are grown so the price of soybean oil goes up. Soybean oil is used to coat the sunflower seeds to keep dust off during transport and make the seeds look nice. Also the cost of gas makes transportation more exspensive. One seed farmer explained that each truck load cost him and extra $500 per load to transport.

So all of this trickles down to the consumer. Believe it or not Bird watching is the #2 hobby in the US which makes it a very large industry. So the rise in cost of bird seeds affects distributors and retailers of bird seed in potential sales loss.

Also can't go to some other type of bird seed since most grains and seeds used in bird seed are also declining in the amount of crops grown.

So our feathery friends may be out of luck this winter.