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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Eating fossil fuels
  • Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:56:13 -0600


Well, the reports we're seeing on food prices linked to oil prices are very
interesting. Months ago we said food was going up, and we pointed out that
chemical farming would get more expensive and organic would become more
competitive. It's happening.

And it's not just the rising cost of fuel and transportation in every step
of food production and processing. Corn is a heavy feeder, and rising
demand for ethanol corn means more pressure on fertilizer prices for all
chemical growers, not to mention pesticides and herbicides. All these are
manufactured from oil and gas. And the use of chemicals on factory farms is
continually increasing just to maintain production levels. Further,
converting acreage to ethanol corn on a vast scale is reducing the acreage
devoted to other food crops. That signals shortages and higher prices. Then
there's dairy, beef, and poultry. Livestock feed goes up when feed corn
goes up. Milk has already doubled in parts of the country. Growers try to
turn to other grains in feed but that pushes up the price of the other
grains.

We talked to a local egg producer at the farmers market who admitted his
prices barely cover the cost of chicken feed. That's hitting pretty close
to home. The link between fossil fuels and food is making it hard on
factory farms and farm families still trying to hold on financially.

Now the upside to all this is food produced without fossil fuel costs and
sold locally is becoming more competitive with supermarkets. Our costs
don't go up when fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide go up. And the gas to
get to market is still a small fraction of what we can take in on an
average day. When a gallon of milk and a box of corn flakes cost more than
an armload of fresh vegetables, we're good to go.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net






  • [Livingontheland] Eating fossil fuels, TradingPostPaul, 07/25/2007

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