Kale's Butter Shortage In Canada

Have you ever wondered how human behaviour affects the economy? Some might say that human behaviour has everything to do with the Economy. For a moment, let’s talk about Kale. The green leafy product that looks a little likes lettuce. It was virtually unheard of in the everyday diet of Canadians. Then, because of recent health trends and discoveries about kale’s health benefits, it suddenly became a hot commodity. Demand rose and prices aligned accordingly.

When real life examples like this one are examined closely, an economics student is better able to grasp concepts like scarcity, supply and demand, and competitive advantage. Along with our textbook, Cocktail Economics, I will illustrate these concepts in the Dairy Industry by sighting two CBC News articles. One is “Butter Shortage in Canada due to consumer Shift
In Cocktail Party Economics, the term is expressed by the relationship between the number of rocks available and the number of people wanting the rocks. (pg. 9 in the textbook) If more people want rocks then the number of rocks available, this is said to be scarcity. Scarcity is illustrated in the first article referenced in relation to the fact that there is a shortage of butter. This is also a great example of human behaviour. A few years ago, everyone thought butter wasn’t good for you so we chose margarine. Now, margarine is bad for you and we want butter. The result is scarcity.

Not only does the example about butter explain scarcity, but it also illustrates supply and demand. Let’s first look at how the textbook explains these terms. The best example of this in the book is the illustration about chocolate (pg.76). When a deal on chocolate is announced over the loudspeaker in a store, everyone runs over wanting to buy the chocolate. Demand refers to how much a consumer is willing to pay. At first, the consumer was willing to pay a higher price for the chocolate but after eating several pieces, the demand goes