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.

 

[charlz]

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.

Well, the cities seem to go broke no matter what.... I haven't quite figured that out yet.... more homes would mean more income in the way of taxes .... and more expenses in the way of services, roads to maintain etc. I'd be real curious to 'see the numbers' on whether or not subdivisions end up making or costing a city more money than leaving it as farm land. They all seem so eager to grow when the best move might be to really limit growth.

 

[SPIKER]

I think it is sad that we only have a limited export vs the amount of import, I think we should be getting pound for pound oil for food if they don't like it then too bad. let them eat their oil. we can eat our corn wheat soybeans ect. We are are really good at growing food as well as have a good amount of un-tapped oil reserves right now. Our farms are geared towards the planting harvesting and maintaining them of the major grains. we also have enough nat. gas reserves to keep making fertilizer and can use OTHER crops for bio-fuel besides corn. in fact I'm not sure WHY we don't have MORE cars like the little VW diesels that run on the bio-fuels getting the 60+ MPG that is quite common else where (read Europe) You can go to local VW dealer and order one and have it come but why is there no good US equivalent?? Something I can't understand that the big 3 haven't put more effort into them. maybe a smaller market but still would be a very strong one in light of the gas costs now. I know there is one guy who took a china 3 cyl diesel tractor engine and put into his older compact pickup getting 50+ mpg. need more people like him here and at the big 3 car dealers

Mark M