I've read that the index is low due to too many ships, not lack of demand.
Posted on 02/19/2011 6:13:52 AM PST by HangnJudge
Forget stocks, the real crisis is coming… and it’s coming fast.
Indeed, it first hit in 2008 though it was almost entirely off the radar of the American public. While all eyes were glued to the carnage in the stock market and brokerage account balances, a far more serious crisis began to unfold rocking 30 countries around the globe.
I’m talking about food shortages.
Aside from a few rice shortages that were induced by export restrictions in Asia, food received little or no coverage from the financial media in 2008. Yet, food shortages started riots in over 30 countries worldwide. In Egypt people were actually stabbing each other while standing in line for bread. We’re now seeing the second round of this disaster occurring in Egypt and other Arab countries today. Thanks to the Fed’s funny money policies, food prices have hit records. And even the Fed’s phony measures show that vegetable prices are up 13%! The developed world, most notably the US, has been relatively immune to these developments… so far. But for much of the developing world, in which food and basic expenses consumer 50% of incomes, any rise in food prices can have catastrophic consequences. And that’s not to say that food shortages can’t hit the developed world either. According to Mark McLoran of Agro-Terra, the Earth’s population is currently growing by 70-80 million people per year. Between 2000 and 2012, the earth’s population will jump from six billion to seven billion. We’re expected to add another billion people by 2024. So demanding for food is growing… and it’s growing fast.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
But if I was a teenager, I would be studying
farming techniques
Small animal husbandry
Frontier medicine
—
Making and using hand tools...
With the Baltic Dry Index trading near its lows, that is simply not the case.
Yes, any product has to get to market and that adds a lot, especially wheat, cotton, corn and those products that have to be further processed and every step costs more because of the price of oil.
so what is the solution??? if you are fubo, you shut off the water to the central california valley to save some damn litte snail darter kind of fish....have you tried to buy celery lately??? I give you one guess as to why it is fast becoming a rare commodity...
Think Darfur, Zimbabwe, North Korea
Haiti?
It was, at one time, independently sustaining in rice production
It is now a basket case, some say due to "transport"
http://www1.american.edu/TED/haitirice.htm
I still have to pay 25 cents a can for premium vegetables at my local discount store. Of course, those canned vegetables only stay good for 5-10 years, depending on what temperature you store them at.
I am lucky to have these discount stores in the Yuma area. It decreases my cost of living considerably. I think most of them come from California stores, where if they have a slight dent or are overstocked.
I still have the rice & beans I bought for the 2008 famine.
Should have been: “where if they have a slight dent or are overstocked, they ship them to us for ridiculously low prices.”
The Californian policy makers are psychotic and sadistic
And the first thing they will do is ban exports and make sure that more farmers go out of business and soon the Feds will take over and then we’ll really be in a world of hurt. Remember the USSR? There are 3 million farmers in the US and their average age is 57.
The work is hard, the risk is huge, the inputs are astronomical and growing. Nowadays you have to have the skills of an accountant, mechanic, computer techie, government regulation watcher, and environmental expert and that is before you even get into the field.
I’ve heard people say that there is land out there to be farmed, and there is, but where do you get the farmers? Where do you get the people who won’t go broke the first year? Where do you get the people who can get financed to start from scratch with land, tractors, various implements and seed, fertilizer, chemicals and supplies and who know how to use them?
With all due respect, the fact that you appear to know very little about the matter should not be confused with:
“Whenever some blogger trying to pimp his website and/or book and/or newsletter claims there’s “reduced production” and “decade low inventories” without any proof, it becomes accepted as fact (?)”
It will take some time, and frankly I have little desire to look up all the articles for you, but will see what I can do in the next few minutes. However, I will enlighten you with a few points.
A) Corn raised for ethanol and HFCS is NOT the same as traditional corn as it has been bred/engineered for high carbohydrate and low protein, and is often not fit as a human food, as ethanol corn while “corn” is engineered to become a fuel, not food. However, before the newfound genetic manipulation began, the main source of corn for ethanol was feed corn, not food corn. Ie Motor oil is not vegetable oil.
B) Last year despite claiming we were going to have a bumper crop of soybeans, the USDA also reported that a large number (I believe more than half) of the counties that produce food for our country suffered a loss of over 25% of their crops, and many suffered a loss of more than 40%.
C) To address the “decade low inventories,” it’s apparent that you are also unaware that the company which manages our wheat reserves for the U.S. Government (I believe it transferred from public to private hands some decades ago, IIRC), sold off the last of the grain they had 2 years ago in their attempts to keep grain prices low.
Like I said, don’t blame the blogger for not citing info, and call it blog pimping. Just like people who talk on threads don’t source everything that is common knowledge from historical fact to current events. Your opinion that someone should source information is idealistic, to be sure, and your desire to verify fact is commendable, but while an honest desire for knowledge and inquiry is great, spouting off your contempt is not. Remember that the U.S. Government has been massaging numbers for decades, lest you be caught unaware.
I’ll give you some references. As I recently stopped using Google, finding info is harder and I don’t keep links to every article (dozens to hundreds) I read everyday. But this will give you info that you can start factchecking if you so choose.
On the selling off of the reserves:
http://www.barternews.com/us_government_wheat_stocks_collapse.htm
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread487766/pg1
The differences in corn (Which thanks to you, I just learned is a growing concern for corn growers and the food industry, thanks!):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/business/12corn.html?_r=1
http://www.ehow.com/about_6331420_type-corn-goes-animal-feed.html
(To Note, tis last article explains: “Corn used for livestock feed is typically grown as silage. Corn intended for silage is planted very close together and harvested before it is ripe. At the time the corn is harvested, it is still a little green on top. The whole plant is put through silage cutters, a rough cutting machine, to produce the feed. This is fit for cows and pigs. Chickens eat only the corn kernels. In this preparation, the cob is removed using specialized machines. Pigs can also eat the kernels of corn.” The author notes that feed corn can be eaten by humans, however that which is already planted is planted differently (very close together), and would not necessarily be nutrient dense enough to be used as humans until the next planting, and a revision of it’s processing—my interjection, not in the article).
The bottom line is that there is a problem, like it or not. And it would be wise for everyone to get their houses in order. I personally have been telling people to keep things in perspective, and maybe it’s the same mentality that keeps you from thinking there is a problem. What I tell people is this: “There will ALWAYS be food, the problem is at what cost?” While the price of rice/wheat etc. DOUBLING from let’s say $1/lb. to $2/lb. doesn’t seem to be a lot to the U.S., it is for many people around the world. Once it doubles a few times, it starts becoming a problem for more and more people.”
I personally believe the bible to be literal. A measure of wheat for a whole day’s wages. And I think it’s coming upon faster than not. I’m grateful for the time people have left to prepare, but I have pity for those that will, as in the days of Noah, eat and drink until it’s too late, rather than prepare. My two cents.
They are cheap, at least for now, and keep almost indefinately
I've read that the index is low due to too many ships, not lack of demand.
Picking up a tiller on Monday. I’ve always known that it’s more expensive to grow a garden than buying at the local farmers’ market. But not when the farmers’ market has nothing to sell!
Yup. I added to my stash since 2008. So....
Now get back to work and get that bull semen back into the cooler.
On many small farms, especially dairy farms, you are correct. Most surviving farms now have adapted by becoming bigger and hiring specialists to do many of the jobs that you describe. In many areas, farmers have become, and are, becoming very well off.
Another tier of farmers are those who farm on a small scale because they love to do it. Farming brings in a little income and they are able to raise most of their own food and trade with others. They have another job that they rely on to provide most of the income for the family, an old tractor and not enough land to be commercially viable, but more than enough to provide food for several families. These are known as hobby farmers, and there are a lot of them.
Your comment made me think of a line from the “V” series (the premise is aliens coming to Earth and offering humans technology, etc. but are using them.)
To paraphrase:
One news anchor: “But look at all the changes we’re getting like healing centers and jobs to make life better.”
The second anchor: “And I’m sure the (american) indians were warm in their blankets before they started dying (of smal pox).
Make a deal with the devil and he’ll always turn on you. Monsanto may be doubling crops (increasing “security”), but at the cost of both literal freedom (see: their pollen crossing with local food and them suing you into oblivion) and metaphorical freedom (terminator seeds, and their now line that will only germinate if you spray Roundup on them. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THAT GETS INTO OUR FOOD SUPPLY?).
Interesting. Thanks for your reply.
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