by Mike Miller

Created on: June 22, 2008   Last Updated: December 07, 2011

This Bud's for you! ...or it used to be...now, it's for them!

The recent purchase of Anheuser-Busch breweries for 46 billion dollars by INBEV brweries of Europe and Brazil is a real loss to all Americans.

Financial analysts would say that the surge in foreign takeovers is due to the low rating of the American dollar vs. other currencies. Certainly that is true to some degree. But why buy into the United States in the first place? As far as beer is concerned it involves access to the commodity that is most essential in brewing beer, hops.

Budweiser is a prime target for takeover because it has a secure "grandfathered" access to American hops. In Newark, NJ, where Budwieser has a major plant, Budweiser has a "grandfathered" contract with the city of Newark that it can access 10 million gallons of water DAILY! regardless of municipal restrictions due to drought. That's the kind of access INBEV has bought into, and it is a crying shame that America is willing to auction off access to its own precious resources.

INBEV is a ravenous worldwide conglomerate that is just barely four years old. It was formed in 2004, when INTERBREW of Belguim took over AMBEV of Brazil and gained access to soda bottling plants and cheap labor in that South American country. INTERBREW dates back to the first brewers' unions of Europe in the 1300's....and now they are faced with a crisis: the essential ingredient is becoming very difficult to get!

The latest figures supplied by the Hop Growers of America date from the year 2000 and show that the United States is the world's largest producer of hops with 32% of the world's hop supply. Germany produces about 30% also, while Belgium produces only about .02% of the world's hop supply. The Belgians are being squeezed out of access! Our hops are produced in only three states: Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and hops production has fallen in recent years. It's not the slump of the dollar that is driving the Beer Wars - it's a slump in the HOPS!

If greedy financiers have their way we might as well sell the whole country to the Europeans, open a can of Stella Artois and sit back and watch the World Series televised from Japan. The Chrysler building was just sold to a Dubai company. The NYC landmark Flatiron building - the first skyscraper - has been purchased by an Italian company. Now it's our beer!

Missouri Governor Dobbs opposed the INBEV takeover, and rightly so, as he says: "essential American resources ought not to be in foreign control," and what is more essential than beer!? The employees of Budweiser fear losing their jobs to overseas breweries. However, that will not happen as the IMMEDIATE result of an INBEV takeover. Carlos Prieto of INBEV assures us Budweiser will stay the same. What will change, I am certain, is that the AMOUNT of Bud brewed in the US will decrease, due to the increased EXPORT of hops to European and Brazilian breweries. The price of US beer will therefore rise sharply, as demand of diminished supply drives market value higher.

Americans may well be faced with a double whammy: soaring fuel prices AND soaring beer prices! In the not too distant future, we may become unable to either drink OR drive. Skol!

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