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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Rising Ag Prices: The New Mother of Invention?

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  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Rising Ag Prices: The New Mother of Invention?
  • Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 21:31:29 -0400

At 08:39 AM 5/21/2008, you wrote:

So many clueless columnists, so little time.

I was going to respond in much the same vein, but you said it better.

I did note one thing. The article said that a short term rise in prices wouldn't motivate entrepreneurial activity. That might be true for large scale farms, but it sure isn't true for individuals and small businesses. I stopped to buy tomatoes from the back of a truck parked on the shoulder of the road recently. When I asked the elderly proprietor where he'd gotten such beautiful tomatoes this time of year, he said and his wife had driven to Florida and picked them from the fields. He said they loaded up as much as their pickup would carry, drove back, sold it all (usually within a couple of days), then went back for more. Now this was surely not locally grown, and the transportation cost per tomato was probably more than if a commercial trucker had brought them from Florida. But he was selling a basket of tomatoes for $3.00, and when I weighed them at home, I found I had almost 5 pounds of tomatoes. That's half what the grocery stores are selling them for, and by buying from him, I was supporting local business, if not local farmers. Entrepreneurial activity is alive and well.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com




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