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We have a farmer support program here which is extraordinary, formidable. Occasionally we run afoul of the WTO. This is the nature of agriculture – people want to protect their farmers, their food supply. A couple of years ago, the Brazilians took on the EU regarding sugar. They won and basically the whole battleship of EU export sugar subsidies came down. It was determined that they were unfairly competing with Brazil. The entire industry of sugar production, refining, trading was transformed.
The amazing thing is that a natural agricultural producer like Argentina has NO support system whatsoever. Nothing. The only real export from that country is food and the dingbat in charge there decided to impose a 40% tax on the farmers. The farmers took to the streets and it was ugly and in the end, thanks to that and price controls, they had nothing on the shelves in the supermarkets. There is some middle ground between what we have and throwing farmers to the dogs like they do there.
“And especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
DIBS, it is incentives and distribution, not supply, that is the issue for society in terms of making sure there is enough to eat. There is oversupply in many areas that can’t be distributed to where it is needed. More supply in oversupplied areas won’t help. The organic issue is irrelevant. Even here, the crappy food is cheaper because it is subsidized. Remove or adjust subsidies and a healthy home cooked meal won’t cost more than Mc Donald’s.
OMG. Dont’ get me started on corn bcs it makes me so NUTS, but I need to say the hybrid seeds aren’t nec. genetically engineered. Hybrid seeds have been used for probably thousands of years. But hey, how about stacked gene corn? Ten years ago, in 2000 (!) less than 1% of all corn was stacked gene corn. Today? MOST of the corn coming out of the corn belt is stacked gene or multi-gene stacked corn. I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine that the seen is eight-gene corn. Right? RIGHT? Dow Chemical knows what they’re doing I’m sure.
quote:
Rob- have you read Pimp, by Iceberg Slim? It`s really great and authentic. Remember, one man`s (or 14 year old girl`s) trash is another man`s treasure
!!!!OMG i have that book! i started reading it and got about of the 1/4 of the way through (actually it was a pretty tough read because it was a lot of urban slang from the 70s, it reminded me of trying to read a clockwork orange)… i might try to pick it back up!!! i bought that book at a stoop sale this past summer.. were you selling it? hahah
We have a farmer support program here which is extraordinary, formidable. Occasionally we run afoul of the WTO. This is the nature of agriculture – people want to protect their farmers, their food supply. A couple of years ago, the Brazilians took on the EU regarding sugar. They won and basically the whole battleship of EU export sugar subsidies came down. It was determined that they were unfairly competing with Brazil. The entire industry of sugar production, refining, trading was transformed.
The amazing thing is that a natural agricultural producer like Argentina has NO support system whatsoever. Nothing. The only real export from that country is food and the dingbat in charge there decided to impose a 40% tax on the farmers. The farmers took to the streets and it was ugly and in the end, thanks to that and price controls, they had nothing on the shelves in the supermarkets. There is some middle ground between what we have and throwing farmers to the dogs like they do there.
like selling Moby-Dick.
Posted by: sally at March 3, 2010 12:16 PM
“And especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
Rob- no it wasn`t my stoop. I would never part with such a gem. It would be like selling Moby-Dick.
DIBS, it is incentives and distribution, not supply, that is the issue for society in terms of making sure there is enough to eat. There is oversupply in many areas that can’t be distributed to where it is needed. More supply in oversupplied areas won’t help. The organic issue is irrelevant. Even here, the crappy food is cheaper because it is subsidized. Remove or adjust subsidies and a healthy home cooked meal won’t cost more than Mc Donald’s.
On rare occasions, donatella
“Ringo, I just threw it out there to get people riled up. it did.” DIBS
You DO THAT, Dibs????
Anyway, what was the point of the post? I did indeed miss it.
Posted by: Ringo at March 3, 2010 11:30 AM
That any farmer who grows organic produces a MUCH LOWER YIELD than if he grew with fertilizer. This is not good for society as a whole.
OMG. Dont’ get me started on corn bcs it makes me so NUTS, but I need to say the hybrid seeds aren’t nec. genetically engineered. Hybrid seeds have been used for probably thousands of years. But hey, how about stacked gene corn? Ten years ago, in 2000 (!) less than 1% of all corn was stacked gene corn. Today? MOST of the corn coming out of the corn belt is stacked gene or multi-gene stacked corn. I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine that the seen is eight-gene corn. Right? RIGHT? Dow Chemical knows what they’re doing I’m sure.
quote:
Rob- have you read Pimp, by Iceberg Slim? It`s really great and authentic. Remember, one man`s (or 14 year old girl`s) trash is another man`s treasure
!!!!OMG i have that book! i started reading it and got about of the 1/4 of the way through (actually it was a pretty tough read because it was a lot of urban slang from the 70s, it reminded me of trying to read a clockwork orange)… i might try to pick it back up!!! i bought that book at a stoop sale this past summer.. were you selling it? hahah
*rob*