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["Jerry W. Shepperd" <shepperd AT austincc.edu>]

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.