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  • From: "Andeanfx" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] "Get Ready For Higher Food Prices" GoesMainstream
  • Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:34:53 -0700

The "farmers" is very correct. All of the governments from city's except the tiny ones that have not been incorporated up through the federal are corporations and own everything. (Actually "own" is probably a misnomer since they are bankrupt themselves. All of the collateral including we the chattel have been pledged to the national debt owed by the corp. US (not the people living on the land)) Land by warranty deed, vehicles by certificate of title, marriages by marriage license, offspring by birth certificate and on and on. As a corporation the owners can hire the person of their choosing and establish sub corporations of their choosing, Monsanto etc.



*******************************************************************************
The republic of the united States never died, it simply went dormant
when the southern states walked out of congress leaving a lack of
a majority to set a date to reconvene.

There has not been a lawful uS congress since.

Lincoln was assassinated while trying to reconvene congress allowing
the de-facto corpocracy to gradually and insidiously take control.

The republic has been re-established, is being re-inhabited
and needs your support.

www.republicfortheunitedstates.org
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 11:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] "Get Ready For Higher Food Prices" GoesMainstream



Yep, if farmers get a higher margin then the middlemen suppliers will just raise their prices to what the market will bear. Which is why I'm not caught in the old cost-price stranglehold; I retail with no middlemen and very low cost. BTW the vast majority of "farmers" are said to be sharecroppers or custodians for corporations that own the land.

The best way to rob a bank is to own one.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 2/15/2011 at 7:58 PM Pete Vukovich wrote:

Actually the problem here is there's nothing in the article claiming that
farmers will be better off. It just doesn't seem well researched, and
doesn't track what I've heard about margins on crop prices from the
producers themselves. The fact that they are buying more land and
equipment is probably indicative of the fact (or so I'm told locally) ,
that their margins are further eroding not ballooning as suggested by the
article. Whether they are paying down debt or accruing new debt is as
questionable as ever.

Of course its a good time to be an ag banker, it always has been, you take
no risk and do no work, just like its always been great to be a banker of
any sort. You take peoples money and keep some for yourself, when that
fails to work you get a whole bunch of people's money and you take an even
bigger pile of that. What's not to like?

What's stranger for me was the way all this was interpreted. Prices going
up is a clear indication that economy of scale is failing, at the same
time the article seems to point out that scaling up production is what
will succeed, since its currently failing both the farmer, and now the
consumer. Nothing was said about the increase in both fertilizer and fuel
prices which dramatically reduce margins in so many other instances - it
was almost as though expenses didn't really exist. Which is not strange
from a bankers point of view (or an agronomist), but certainly something
I've never heard a farmer suggest. Maybe they are all celebrating in
Omaha, but its news I'd rather see first hand.

Certainly I'd like it to mean small farms move into a competitive pricing
position - but I think its crazy to think that's possible as long as the
distribution mechanisms of today still own the majority of the market. Yes
people should grow for themselves, and yes communities are going to have
to think of this as a serious problem in a seemingly short amount of time.
I'm not the culture they have could lead to solutions where populations
are densest. The examples I've seen locally suggest the opposite is
occuring at an accelerated rate. Its almost as though the view of land as
something to be destroyed has been sanctified to even greater levels - at
least where I am these days.




--- On Mon, 2/14/11, Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net> wrote:

From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] "Get Ready For Higher Food Prices"
GoesMainstream
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Monday, February 14, 2011, 6:15 PM


Besides unpredictable climates the main reason for increasing shortages is
increasing populations which raises demand. Countries such as China with a
growing middle class want more meat which puts even more pressure on grain
prices. None of this can work in reverse, barring an extinction event. I
didn't say that.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 2/14/2011 at 9:42 PM John D'hondt wrote:

Hi Liz,
Timing of price increases is all good and well. The main reason is that
many
of the biggest grain producers in the world have seen disastrous crop
failures in the recent past and thus grain prices are going up.
I do think though that we could very well see that next seasons crops
will
do no better and thus that prices will keep going up and up. My reason
for
thinking this is that the reasons for crop failures will not likely
abate,
like extreme weather caused by climate change and SDS or sudden death
syndrome caused by gm and glyphosate spraying. It should get worse if
anything.
Whether that will save family farms I sincerely don't know.
But I think you are right in your conclusion that we all better start
growing more of our own.
john


Interesting info about the timing of price increases. I hadn't thought
about a chicken's lifespan entering into that, for example. I'm also
glad
if farmers are better able to pay down their loans. That by itself may
slow the invasion of corporate agriculture into family farms. On the
other
hand, any time a profit appears on the horizon, you can be certain
people
with no interest in the work itself, but looking only to get rich out
of
it, will come sniffing around. We don't need any more agribusiness
driven
only by the bottom line.

Take-home message? Get out there and grow more of your own. And in
addition to that, make an effort to find more local growers where you
can
buy things you aren't able or ready yet to grow yourself. Not everyone
has
to grow everything. I buy blueberries every year from a friend rather
than
grow my own. Helps to support him, and frees up my land to grow other
things. He buys my blackberries in return.

Liz

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