Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] food cost/ was Livingontheland Digest, Vol 134, Issue 4

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] food cost/ was Livingontheland Digest, Vol 134, Issue 4
  • Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:39:35 -0500

I've been waiting for an opportunity to inject this: Grain is not something anyone (or any of our food animals) NEEDS to eat.  It has gained its prominence in the food chain because it is concentrated nutrition that is relatively easy to grow, store, and transport in volume.  In other words, it's a socioeconomic tool, rather than a nutritional necessity.  Grain (and oil and other commodities) in the food system is a major contributor to our current pickle.  Grow and eat your own vegetables.
 
And I agree, the best course for most apartment dwellers is to support their local commercial growers.  However, I still would like to see more people grow whatever they can.  Just try to make good decisions about what you try.
 
E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 3:04 PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] food cost/ was Livingontheland Digest, Vol 134,Issue 4


Absolutely, Dan, the hidden cost of food is much higher than what we pay.
But that's not what people are thinking when they try to grow something to
cut their food bill. My concern is they're spending too much on potting
soil, containers, gadgets, and so forth to save anything by growing. What
else can you do but buy that stuff when all your have is an apartment
balcony or backyard patio? Then they get discouraged and blow it off.
There's an amusing book about how not to do it, called The $64 Tomato. My
constant effort is to show how to make it pay and save doing it. Having an
acre of your own is a good start. My suggestion for the balcony people is
go to the farmers market and get it from those who do have a little land
and know how to grow.

Now let's take another look at the food proportion of our budget. I don't
question your numbers. But the Devil is in the details. To lower that food
proportion, has our food spending declined, or has our income increased?
I'm figuring in real dollars here, inflation adjusted. Probably our real
average income has increased several times over while our spending on food
remained constant in real dollars. In other words, if our income dropped to
pre-WW II levels, then we'd likely be spending 40% of our income on food
again. My own guess is food is actually no cheaper today than back then,
and some of it may be even more expensive (again, adjusting for inflation
and not counting processed value added items or eating out). Certain food
crops however are actually cheaper for us in the USA because of starvation
wages in the exporting countries. Like coffee and tea.

In that website http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2007/021707.htm
they think the "green revolution" has made grains cheaper, but of course
the real numbers show that's a scam. It's ruined much of the land and
hundreds of thousands of third world farmers who can't afford the high
inputs in fertilizer, pesticides, and water those hybrids require. Even in
that chart they show the cost in gold of soybeans, wheat, and corn are
almost unchanged since pre-WW II.

When we no longer control the price and access to oil worldwide through our
trillion-dollar military (full spectrum dominance in the Pentagon's words),
and oil is no longer bought in U.S. dollars and the dollar collapses, we'll
start paying the real price for everything. This could happen months from
now or next week.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page