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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] ethanol, land, food prices

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] ethanol, land, food prices
  • Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:47:30 -0500


Glad that sparked some debate. Naturally I can't agree 100% myself with
everything I need to pass on. That said, animal prices are rising, and feed
prices are a direct cause. As you said, "The amount of land is not as
important as what corn growing DOES TO the land", and I'd agree. However,
land that grew other food crops is being diverted to corn and that cuts the
quantity and raises the price of those other crops.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Sorry I forgot to edit the subject line before...oops.

Yes, the diversion of land to corn is a problem, but the price is not, I guess, is one of my points. Cheap food has encouraged people to devalue the land as though it doesn't require as much direct input as it gets from natural systems, and cheap food diverts money away from our land husbandry system into manufactured junk and fiscally irresponsible entertainment programs.
The poor people in our country probably spend half their income on food. That isn't because they should get cheaper food, but because the people are of so little value to our System of Systems. Meanwhile, people who already have money get even more money not because those people have anything more to offer as human beings, but because their money is more valuable than they are (and Mr Ben a.k.a. 'Helicopter' Bernanke has just kicked our savings in the teeth, making human beings even less valued).
The value of people to the land has been almost completely forgotten as petroleum has provided the Instant Gratification of pesticides, power, and cheap ignorance (ignorance used to be expensive to a frontier person, now it's a suburban psychological asset).

"The most effective fertilizer is the farmer's footsteps." - Chinese proverb

Dan





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