Jared Levy, Editor, Smart Investing Daily  

When we think of food in general, especially prepared foods, most of us don't realize the effort, enormity, complexity and cost that go into a bag of potato chips or Doritos, a fresh glass of orange juice, or the prepared cuts of poultry or meat that might be sitting prepackaged in your fridge at the moment.

Companies like Tyson Foods, Hormel, Sanderson Farms and Pilgrim's Pride, to name a few, actually grow or raise their own crops and livestock in addition to preparing and packaging and finally selling to distributors like Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other stores. They produce immense quantities of food! Tyson Foods alone produced 41.4 million chickens, 139,400 head of beef and 393,300 head of pork, per WEEK on average last year. Their profits can come under attack from higher input costs and reduced consumer spending.

Antioquia Gold and Colombia

While in Phoenix recently for the Cambridge House Resource Symposium, I presented the case for Colombia as one of the world’s newest “hotspots” for mineral exploration – specifically gold. While the country also boasts world class oil and coal assets, it is the hard rock mineral potential of the country that is exciting. In an interview with bloomberg.com Natalia Agudelo, a Medellin-based analyst at Celfin Capital SA, said:

“Investors see there is greater safety, The government also has made the rules of the game very clear.” The recent take-over of Ventana Gold Corp. by Brazilian billionaire and resource investor Eike Bautista for $434/oz Au (or 8.3 times Ventana’s assets) lends substantial credence to Ms. Agudelo’s statement and our belief as well.

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]

The US Dollar

We are here in snowy, March-cold Toronto, Ontario. Winter has not yet released her icy grip on this Canadian city. I always wonder why, or perhaps more appropriately how, Toronto in March can draw 30,000 mining people from all over the world as host to the PDAC conference. It would have been apropos for Canada’s Gordon Ligfhtfoot, a Canadian folk-hero from my earlier life at Waterloo, to write a song about the March winds that blow off Lake Ontario and chill Toronto. Nevertheless here we are and the world’s mining discovery oppportunities are almost all arrayed here in Toronto at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]

The Oil Game

Energy related commodities are the most important of all the commodities we have discussed in the past few years. While food costs, years of oppression and inflation have upset the apple cart in the Middle East, there is now a growing fear of higher energy costs. No matter your thinking on deficits at local, state and federal levels, global energy costs sit at the bottom of the Quality of Life Chain and perpetuate every aspect of lifestyle for better or worse. In short we live on petroleum energy access. Coal makes up 50% of US electricity, 70% in China and oil drives the world’s transportation system and will for the next few decades at a minimum.

Written by Michael A. Berry, Ph.D. - [ Discovery Investing Web Site ]