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  • From: "Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] American manufacturing
  • Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:48:52 -0500

Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, among many other observers, recognized that the first fundamental need is food. Manufacturing, agricultural, service, or tertiary economies are marginal or nonexistent where food supplies are limited. Western Europe and the U.S. have been blessed with farms that have produced enough food for all our citizens, with a surplus to export. That may be changing as we divert crops to biofuels.

The upside to it all may be that the cost of operating monstrous farm equipment on factory farms may become prohibitive and we will see more people returning to a "homestead" lifestyle, which was the only lifestyle with which I had first-hand experience until I went to college. We weren't rich, but we ate well, and had a house that protected us from the vagaries of a sometimes hostile climate.

Jerry S.










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