I somehow missed your post:
Its been said the human population of the world didn't explode, until the vast number of uses of crude oil were discovered. Prior to this, the technology didn't exist to grow enough food to support a larger human population.
Fuel for transportation is one use. Fertilizer and pesticides are another. Gasoline, crop fertilizer and pesticides are all synthesized from crude oil.
Fertilizer is made using gas, methane to provide hydrogen (lol!:) for the Haber process, so the current cost are not because of the oil price but because of natural gas shortage and the fact that Germany and Poland are the main producers in Europe and they are in a mess of their own where instead of using gas for this they need it now for electricity, winter is coming and they will burn more for heating too....
I would encourage everyone to begin searching for alternatives to anything oil based. Thanks to modern science, there are many alternatives available.
The alternative is so expensive it will never be sustainable unless we double the price of food.
Of course, we could go fully natural but it's not like all the birds in the world will poop enough guano for the agricultural needs at these levels.
!
I see, haven't realized that it's not that simple. As I've mentioned on another post, it's a vicious cycle. It's just astonishing that I've been looking for some specific parts since the start of the pandemic and I still cannot find them. From what I've read, manufacturers are rushing into producing parts that are to be placed on bicycles, and aren't aimed to be sold in retail, which is aiming in the satisfaction of the increased demand in bicycles, rather than its parts.
Could potentially explain why I'm having trouble finding specific parts, some of which are on bicycles currently being sold, but not in any kind of store I've searched.
Highly possible, it's an economic decision probably.
If you're a manufacturer and you lack all the materials to produce everything you can you focus on things that have a better margin of profit and those for which you deal with large producers, security of long terms contracts is the main key in this. If I would produce different things let's say aluminum I would for sure stick with producing cans for a large beverage company rather than selling aluminum sheets or tubes to random retail sellers with low volume each.
As I said before, we're in the same situation, we're waiting for months for two pieces for the forced steering system on one of our tractors, the other is already patched with parts from compatible non OEM and even some second-hand ones, hope it doesn't break till the end of November at least.