Posted on 12/27/2009 3:28:50 PM PST by blam
Land and sea shipping business is dying rapidly in the background. When they go under, the fleets are mothballed and unable to be re-activated easily.
All US grain is effectively transported on 2 rail lines.
A failed harvest is the least of our problems (and that is likely given the solar minimum we're in).
Get fat while you can.
The US CAN grow more food than we eat, but we choose to ferment and burn it instead. The US is now a net importer of food.
If you don’t believe me, go to the produce aisle and check the labels.
We are culling out the dairy herds out here in California. Too much milk. Agriculture in the US is still operating in the realms of weak markets and over production.
Luckily, we’ll all be enslaved by the Goa’uld before the food crisis hits...
Yup. He posted this on MarketSkeptics a few days ago.
I stocked up with abt 20lbs of dried goods, and a bunch more canned stuff today.
Had a yummy lunch (of the type I might eat if the SHTF) of pan fried egg noodles, with home grown Oregano, covered with beef gravy and peppercorns.
So I stock up on food and then the SHTF and all the yokels who spent their money on HDTV and Ipods come up the hill...
Life ain’t fair, I tell ya!!
That's a steaming pile.
The American Farmer produces FAR more food than we can eat, and has done so for more than 50 years.
We can waste our food production resources growing 'natural' foods, we can burn our food sources to heat our homes and power our cars, and STILL have mountains and mountains of surplus.
See my tagline.
Pork is a good example. Due to a surplus of corn and other feedstuffs, for the past 6 months the surplus of pork has grown to a unbearable level, driving many pork producers into bankruptcy
Brazil gets theirs from sugar, which is apparently several times for efficient an ethonol source than corn.
Regardless, it still diverts land usage for crops that feed people to produce fuel.
If he does the people will serve him up on a platter with an apple in his mouth.
I stand corrected. Last year the US exported $96 billion in agricultural goods while we only imported $73 billion.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/fatus/monthlysummary.htm
And that’s with a hard throttle placed on the American farmer.
Every farmer I know could ramp up production 10%, and do it for the 2010 crop.
Give him a serious financial incentive, and 15% for 2010 isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
By 2015 we could have some serious increase in production.
by 2020, it could nearly double from what is produced today.
The blessing of capitalism is alive and well in the American farmer
Thanks, a good visual of the self induced scourge of the average farmer.
The government uses, and fine tunes, that huge production to hang over the head of the farmer, limiting his downside risk, but keeping him captive to a limited profit margin.
That’s why most farmers have a family member who has an off-the-farm job.
*bookmark*
And that is not counting the CRP contracts that are ending. Piles and piles of corn and milo on the ground because the bins are full....If one wants to know what the weather is sometimes it is best to step into the real world.
I’ve been stockpiling cannes goods and also making sure I have lots of flour onhand. Looks like I might want to get busy and make sure I have more than I do now.
Thanks Balding Eagle.
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