Re: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America?
Steve Moran wrote: gee, and we're still paying farmers to leave thier feilds sit? snip This is such a complicated issue, I'm sorry if I get angry when i read stuff along these lines. Folks come down on holders of potentially workable land if they go 'big ag', if they sell and go residential, but if they let the land more or less alone, folks really go nuts about it. There are higher and better uses of open land than tract mansions or fields of fertilizer, nitrates and toxins. The only way anyone has figured out to get people to leave stuff the hell alone, is to pay them to leave it the hell alone. yes, that's a grotesque oversimplification, and there is a much wider range of rationalizations for 'the government' to 'pay' folks for leaving land be, the kind of rationalizations that congresscritters and their ilk like, like price controls and such. Not all Ag is ADM and Cargill just like not all forestry science is pulp and paper and to blame folks sitting on 'unworked' land for the near perfect storm created by folks who have bought into the idea that fuel loads don't matter, that industrial methods of growing food where the cheapest land and labor can be had, and shipping it via air freight so folks in Wash DC can have fresh grapes from Argentina in the grocery store aisle in Feburary, in my mind at least, is a bit of a stretch. Yes, it seems totally insane for folks to be watering down their baby formula because the 3 bottle per family they used to get has dropped to 1; (this is happening in the US, in case folks didn't know) due to the radical increase in the 'cost' of food, because of a drop in supply against a steadily rising demand, when money is being spent to keep land out of production. Sure, that looks really crazy. But the problem is not there. And turning off that money won't fix the problem, nor will even help. What turning off the money will do, is maybe bring the land back into production, or get the land sold off for development. And raising more biotech corn for Cargill/ADM isn't going to make any difference. another gross oversimplification, so gross, I shouldn't even say it, but I'm going to anyway. Of that stuff that folks call corn, a lot of it is feedlot corn, which goes to high density western-style feedlots for beef production, and of that beef, a great deal of it goes into institutional meat food products, like fast food hamburgers and the like. a lot of 'real' beef, (in the US) is more often grown on eastern pastures, on grass, not in dirt floored cages out in the desert. In short, it's very arguable that all that effort doesn't really translate into actual nutrition. believe it or not, fast food hamburgers are not exactly high quality food. Or worse, it goes into industrial hog farms or even more disgusting, into industrial chicken factories, (you can't even call them farms). Okay, I should stop now, I'll be flying off the rails if I don't. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America?
Jason Mier wrote: i dont know about rice, but flour i can speak for. Cattails. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html - snip all paranoia aside, its some pretty interesting stuff-- canning, hunting, recycling/repurposing, etc. Lol! Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who enjoys backwoodshome, (and has for years). Their rhetoric gives me a few laughs from time to time, irritates me other times, but the information contained in their periodical belies a certain rational, common sense take on what works, and what doesn't. Editorial content aside, it's a great wealth of information, i can recommend it to anyone, and I've found it to be much more useful than mother earth news. As for the editorial content, it's interesting to see what the folks who collate and publish this very useful periodical actually think. very interesting. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Food Rationing in America?
http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994 Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World By JOSH GERSTEIN http://www2.nysun.com/authors/Josh+Gerstein Staff Reporter of the Sun April 21, 2008 MOUNTAIN VIEW http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Mountain+View, Calif. http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=California -- Many parts of America http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=United+States, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+England+States, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks. At a Costco http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Costco+Wholesale+Corporation Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif. http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Mountain+View+%28California%29, yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. Where's the rice? an engineer from Palo Alto http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Palo+Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous. The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99. You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy, a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it, the elder man said. The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap. Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history, a sign above the dwindling supply said. Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday. An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled. The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come. It's sporadic. It's not every store, but it's becoming more commonplace, the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. The number of reports I've been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I'd say in the last three to five weeks. Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales. I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export controls on wheat, Mr. Rawles said. The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat. Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product. There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short, Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out. At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to increase prices locally. Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast. He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam's Club warehouses, which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company, Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits. An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10
Re: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America?
i dont know about rice, but flour i can speak for. Cattails. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/duffyk43.html you can use cattail pollen, tubers, sprouts, and seed heads for foods of all kinds. there is more about living comfortably in the boonies throughout the website, but there are some articles that could possibly be considered survivalist in the right context. all paranoia aside, its some pretty interesting stuff-- canning, hunting, recycling/repurposing, etc. Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:18:46 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America? _ In a rush? Get real-time answers with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_realtime_042008 ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America?
gee, and we're still paying farmers to leave thier feilds sit? I live in colorado, and I have freinds that bought farms solely because the government pays them to not grow. Great investment, getting paid to sit on your butt. seems to me that if the shortage was really that bad, we'd stop wasting tax dollars on this sort of thing. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of robert and benita Sent: Tue 4/22/2008 6:18 PM To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: [Biofuel] Food Rationing in America? http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994 Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World By JOSH GERSTEIN http://www2.nysun.com/authors/Josh+Gerstein Staff Reporter of the Sun April 21, 2008 MOUNTAIN VIEW http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Mountain+View, Calif. http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=California -- Many parts of America http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=United+States, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+England+States, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks. At a Costco http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Costco+Wholesale+Corporation Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif. http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Mountain+View+%28California%29, yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. Where's the rice? an engineer from Palo Alto http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Palo+Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous. The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99. You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy, a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it, the elder man said. The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap. Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history, a sign above the dwindling supply said. Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday. An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled. The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come. It's sporadic. It's not every store, but it's becoming more commonplace, the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. The number of reports I've been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I'd say in the last three to five weeks. Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales. I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export controls on wheat, Mr. Rawles said. The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat. Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product. There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short, Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out. At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger
