Series - Emptying the Breadbasket

[riptides]

A local newspaper is running some articles on farming.
So far this has been an interesting read. Very informative and troubling.
Covers a lot of what TBN members say and do.

The link is here Emptying the Breadbasket

 

[4720 OWNER]

Agreed, very troubling.

After the oil wars go away, the stage is already being set for the food wars. Go from blaming humungous corporations to farmers for excessive profits and price gouging.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Those @#$@ greedy farmers! Always wanting to feed their families and buy used tractors at auction...

I was chatting with the farmer who did our hay last year. Just like the better news reports are saying, he said his profits wouldn't be any higher this year because of the increase in fertilizer and chemical costs. Fuel costs don't help, but it wasn't his biggest concern. I was reading a different story today that the price of potash has gone up in the last 8 months by something like 500%.

 

[meadowlarkponds]

That's interesting reading. Thanks for posting. We certainly live in interesting times. Burning food (corn) in our cars just won't work over the long term. That approach causes more problems for us and worldwide than it solves.

On personal levels, in the future, those who can raise their own food including vegetables and meat, may find themselves in better positions than most in the world.

 

[dooleysm]

If any of the staples I depend on has to be expensive, I'd much rather it was US wheat vs. Middle East oil.

 

[riptides]

dooleysm

But the article is saying we are getting out of the wheat business ever so slowly.

Yikes.

 

[dooleysm]

Only because there is more money in corn and soybeans, which is a good thing in my opinion too. If demand for wheat drives the price up, you can bet we will be getting back in the wheat business very quick. And agriculture is not like manufacturing, where it can take years to shift production. Say the price of wheat quadruples. Next year you're going to see millions of acres of bean and corn fields turned into wheat fields.

I see a worldwide food shortage as a very good thing for the US, economically speaking.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Only if they stop building foreclosed homes on farm land.

 

[dooleysm]

I don't think anybody is building homes now, on farmland or anywhere.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Up here they put them all up last year, sold some, most foreclosed on. Funny thing is that the cities all put up the $ to pay for the roads and sewer and support services in hopes of getting more tax $, now the cities are broke and still paying. Some of the developers may go to jail but the land is still just raising human habitat not crops or other edibles. What a waste. NIce black loam dirt as well.