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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Welcome to the Permanent Recession – Food and Transportation Prices Rising

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Welcome to the Permanent Recession – Food and Transportation Prices Rising
  • Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:29:08 -0500


How long that can go on is uncertain. Because Canadian and U.S. governments
are already heavily in debt and running deficits, any additional subsidies
are added to the national debt and increase the deficit. That is clearly
unsustainable, and eventually real food prices will have to be paid. The
longer the subsidies remain in place, the greater the ultimate pain.
Questions? Disagreements? ~Paul

More and more I'm seeing the stratospheric levels of debt (both public and private) as the key to the developing crisis and its consequences. In this case, the staggering debt of this country will limit the ability of the government to continue heavily subsidizing agriculture, despite the fact that sharply rising food costs are politically unpalatable. Higher food costs as the article notes will necessarily bring big changes in how we do agriculture. But as it also notes, it's not all bad news--changes to more people-intensive agriculture could go a long way toward relieving the unemployment crisis.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

Industrial agriculture is good for the father but bad for the sons.




  • Re: [Livingontheland] Welcome to the Permanent Recession – Food and Transportation Prices Rising, Harvey Ussery, 03/12/2010

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