Posted on 02/01/2011 5:02:55 AM PST by Puzzleman
--snip--
Today there is a global food shortage and skyrocketing prices. This has become the underlying factor in the riots in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, where up to 56% of a person's income is dedicated to the acquisition of food. These riots are now leading to the upheaval of governments and the very real possibility of the ascendancy of the radical elements into control...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
But wait. We need more ethanol! Let’s keep the federal ethanol MANDATE! Let’s keep subsidizing ethanol!
LET’S KEEP BURNING OUR CROPS!
Didn’t our masters in the EPA just rule that gasoline now has to contain 15% ethanol instead of “just” 10%?
let them eat ethanol!
It’s good for the climate!
Now would be a good time to fix the price of our grain to the price of their oil.
Say, for instance, one bushel of grain for one barrel of oil?
*ping*
The price of oil from the Middle East has tripled in the last 10 years, shaking economies worldwide. Yet nobody in London or New York or Tokyo rioted because energy costs were crushing their budgets.
But when an American farmer begins to make a sustainable profit on the food he grows, the world rises up in outrage. So everyone else in the world (including our enemies) is supposed to make a profit except the people who supply the world’s food???
By the way, a large reason for increased food costs comes from increased petrochemical costs. Farming demands a lot of oil byproducts besides just fuel. And those products have gone through the roof.
Feed America. Let the Middle East eat their crude.
No, not “amateurs”. Someone wants the Islamic radicals to gain more power.
Great stuff IronJack. Feed America indeed...eventually they’ll realize that the global division of labor is a two-way street (crude for food). Better yet, lift the absurd barriers to tapping OUR OWN resources and kiss them off altogether.
Actually, I thought we were now a net IMPORTER of food.
That’s ok, grassely told me, what’s important is those corn subsidies, the rest of the world can burn, you corn belt, welfare people, are the blame for this screw up.
That’s ok, grassely told me, what’s important is those corn subsidies, the rest of the world can burn, you corn belt, welfare people, are the blame for this screw up.
We may be a major supplier of grain, but for the last ten years America has operated with a negative balance of trade in food for human consumption.
Excellent idea.
The globalists who put the ‘Obama amateurs ‘ and the Bush Clinton Bush administrations in power are responsible.
No coincidence that Egypt blows up while the globalists are in Davos creating more economic chaos in the name of globalism.
If indeed we are net importers of finished foodstuffs, then demand should drive grain prices even higher than they currently are. Grain is one of the few American commodities we can use to offset the huge trade imbalances we’re experiencing in every other sector.
And I’m having trouble understanding what foodstuffs we would be importing in sufficient quantities to outpace our grain exports. Coffee? Sugar maybe?
I’ve always believed in food for crude. The Middle East is largely desert. They can’t grow much there. Their strength is their oil; ours is our agriculture. Every market trades on its strengths.
They don’t care if we freeze. Why should we care if they starve? Using our own resources, we would do neither.
Winter vegetables from Central and South America are a biggie. So in recent years has been "unfinished" meat. A lot of our fish comes from offshore, particularly aquaculture. The fresh fruit market is so distorted that the Chinese even export apples to Washington! Toss in the luxury foods, snack foods (such as dried fruit), and local foods such as nuts, bananas, etc. and there you are.
More concerning really, is that the total inventory of stores for human consumption is sufficient to last about twelve weeks. Methinks that JIT in food constitutes a very serious socialized risk.
Coming soon to a street corner near you, compliments of the 110th Congress and the Senate in the "lame duck" session. The Passage of HR2749/S.510/HR2751 FDA Food Takeover Bill.
S.510 passed the Senate in late evening by voice vote and then back to the House as HR2751 (renamed bill). They did not want you to know which members actually voted for this monstrocity. They sold this to combat terrorist threats against our food supply. (valid threat, but the way to solve the problem is not by sending the control to DC). We will regret bill passing, if you are hungry in the next few years, don't blame a farmer, blame lying POLs who sold out to the highest bidders (Global Ag).
Do you have any good sites you’d recommend for more research on that 12 weeks figure?
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