On the family farm we own the production per crop has increased incredibly since the 80's I am told, so I am not sure I see the food problem like you do. It is everything else that is the true problem. Besides if you remember everybody was told to have a garden in their back yard during WWII, they also began keeping chickens and rabbits in their yards also.
Over all food has been a very strong point for America.
According to the USDA, we import about as much food as we export. This is the first time we've approached equilibrium in over 50 years. (Prior to now, we've always exported more food than we imported).
What has happened to change that?
NAFTA, GATT, globalization, greedy corporations, shareholders, and politicians.
We are supposed to have enough food stored in reserve to feed this country for a long time in case of war, has that changed also and if so who did it?
I've never heard of that, and doubt it exists.
On the family farm we own the production per crop has increased incredibly since the 80's I am told, so I am not sure I see the food problem like you do
One reason for that is oil based products, such as fertilizer and fuel for more efficient machines. When foreigners cut off our oil supply (or Peak Oil hits), those efficiency rates will come crashing down.
Over all food has been a very strong point for America.
This isn't the same country it was 100 years ago, or even 10 years ago.
snips from http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/food-cn.htm
Dawkins said in 1994-95, 10 cents out of every food dollar spent in the United States went to Philip Morris and another 6 cents went to CongAgra. Four companies - IBP, ConAgra, Cargill and Beef America - sold 87% of all slaughtered beef. Two companies - Kelloggs and General Mills - sold two-thirds of all ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. Campbells sold 73% of all canned soups. Frito-Lay sold 85% of all corn chips and 40% of all potato chips. Kraft is owned by General Foods, (the latter is owned by Philip Morris) sold more than half of all sliced processed cheese.
Small farmers are paying the price for this corporatisation. They have been seen as dispensable in the US and the dispensability of the small farmer is now being globalised through trade liberalisation.
The main argument used for the industrialisation of food and corporatisation of agriculture is the low productivity of the small farmer. However, even the World Development Report has accepted that small farms are more productive than large ones.
In spite of all evidence pointing to the high diversity, productivity and sustainability of small family farms, globalisation is wiping out these efficient systems and replacing them with inefficient and unhealthy industrialised food systems under corporate control.
The myth of low productivity of diversity-based small farms is also being used to promote genetic engineering. In her paper on 'Biodiversity and Biotechnology', Beth Burrows called genetic engineering a form of Structural Adjustment but directed by Ciba-Geigy and Monsanto rather than by the World Bank and IMF.
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How many family farmers/ranchers do you know who do not have either the wife or the husband working in town at another 'cash' job today? I don't know a single one and I know a bunch of these folks.
40 years ago the big shots decided that they needed these people as part of the labor force where their wages were taxable.
More family farms have been sold out to the top four or five ag corps in the last 25 years than you can imagine. In many instances the farmer still lives on the land but the crop belongs to Monsanto or some other world wide corporation.