Remember the malt panic of '07? Remember how prices of craft beer had to go up to meet the cost of raw materials? Well, at least one part of that equation has dropped:

The malt barley outlook this month is down 45 cents a bushel for 2-row and 41 cents for 6-row. Above average yields in Europe have pressured international malt barley prices, narrowing the spread between malt and feed barley, especially 6-row. Timely rains have fallen in key areas of Australia, maintaining expectations for a large barley crop. Harvest weather in the coming month will be key to determining supplies of Canadian malt barley. The farm gate Saskatchewan price for 2-row malt barley is 3.44 a bushel, and for 6-row, its 3.05.

I make that a 13% price drop for 2-row, though I am not sure over what time span. We looked at this last in March when the Canadian Wheat Board was calling for a drop in 2-row from $320 to $263 a metric tonne. At last report, 2-row is now at $244 a tonne or $4.88 a bushel delivered to the dock. Which seems to imply that between the Prairie farm gate and the dock in Vancouver there is 41% increase for transportation. Which in itself make for a reason to consider movements like LocAle - especially if it were based on true carbon footprint.