Your points on cost of oil affecting food is a huge story that is getting very little coverage.

Here's an interesting side note regarding the rising cost of food. When inflation figures are released in the US, they do not include rising cost of food or fuel. That's considered core inflation and is only considered by the federal govt. as anectodel, and rarely reported. Tell a family of four trying to pay all the bills, that the rising cost of food or gas to get to work is anectodel.

But as much as this country is struggling to pay for higher food prices, undeveloped countries are really getting hit hard. We get information about it on websites like this one about peak oil, but it's not covered on TV. Recently the Haitans started eating yellow mud because they can no longer afford rice. The Monks that protested in Burma did so primarily due to higher fuel prices, but that was not reported on TV. In Mexico, people started rioting due to prices of tortillas being increased to twice as much due to higher fuel prices to process them, and the mex. govt. stepped in to subsidize the tortilla industry to keep the old prices. There are dozens of more stories, but let it suffice to say, that as crude oil extractions continue to plateau while demand increases, and farmers can make more from producing food used for fuel, then millions of people will be unable to pay for increased prices of food and either go hungry or starve.

This is the early signs of the big crash, that will last for many years. It won't be a quick disaster, but rather an ongoing downward adjustment of our economy and reduced quality of life.