Forum Post: Why Grocery store prices are so high.
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 7, 2011, 12:51 p.m. EST by mynameisfred
(115)
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You wont like the answer. GLOBAL WARMING crap. I live in the mid-west. Lots of farms, owned by humans, not corporations. If you have spent any time in farming area you will notice one thing, MORE CORN AND SOYBEAN FIELDS, where you have never seen them before. Corn? Yes, but not the corn you eat. NO SIR. This corn is raised to create that loveable new fuel called Ethanol. You libs hate oil and your pal Al Gore said Ethanol is your new power god. So the corn that has been bred for the best Ethanol, is being planted and planted and planted. There is BIG money in growing Ethanol grade corn. Farmers are now planting in areas where the good eating type of corn WAS planted. There you go global warming fruit cakes, you got your Ethanol and you should be happy with your grocery store prices.
Great post-Ethanol is POLITICAL GAS. all progressive love ethanol-hate farming because they believe all farms are corporate. Selective truth seeking.
Being from the midwest you should know a lot of the corn is field corn met to feed livestock. Nothing wrong with that even though I tend to buy grass fed cattle (beef) if I have the choice.
Ethanol is making some people wealthy but it's not exactly mother earth friendly either if you understand how they produce it.
I grow a good bit of corn every year (really big garden) and the trend the last several years is making really really really sweet corn. I like sweet corn, but you even try some of the new varieties? It's like corn flavored sugar.
Ethanol works good in race cars. I like it.
I thought it was because the value of the dollar was so low foreign countries like China can afford to buy our food. Which drives up demand. Which drives up costs.
This is a fact based post, so the hostility toward environmentally concerned people actually distracts and detracts from your basic message.
This is a really unfortunate outcome that was not predicted, but there are ways to resolve it. One is to use roadsides to grow the corn for ethanol. It has several benefits. First, the pollutants from cars make the plants on a roadside unsafe for consumption, but plants actually absorb pollutants which would help protect water ways and aquifers. Next, the roadsides are kept mown, anyway, so the cost of maintaining them would be offset by growing plants that could be sold for profit. Third, hiring the job of doing this out to small farmers would help keep them financially sound with an additional source of income.
One of the big reasons that roadsides are kept mown is so that you have greater visibility of the shoulders and can react to an imminent event, like a wreck around a corner or an animal, like a deer, jumping out onto the highway.
Corn is roughly 7' high when mature. To grow corn in the area that would typically be mown basically puts up a 7' wall 2-3 feet from the pavement. Drivers would have greatly reduced reaction time to any obstacles--like deer, that eat corn--thus this would reduce driver safety and probably result in more accidents.
Had another thought: Dont know about you, but with budget crunch the only regular mowing getting done here is close to the county seat and the rich neighborhoods. The other shoulders are left to grow to heights that affect visibility anyway. And since they have no problem genetically modifying just about everything, they could come up with a shorter corn, couldnt they?
Understood, but a couple of rows of corn over many miles would still free up regular farmland for food crops, no? How many miles of rural highways are crisscrossing the US in regions that would support a crop? I think we are wasting an existing resource in our roadways... I can also imagine using them for miles and miles of micro wind power generators, or even solar collection.
The answer to global warming is not ethanol. It's simple common sense and a bit of sacrifice. Burn less fossil fuel. Plant more trees.
Those of you who intend to deny man made global warming will have a debate on your hands if you try to feed me that 'man is innocent' crap. In fact, I will expect you to answer two very specific questions. Go ahead. Make my day.
I'm waiting. Someone tell me that man made global warming is a myth. Be prepared. I intend to ask two very specific questions.
C'mon. Somebody step up. Make my day.
Yes, the earth's climate is changing. Why is that such a terrible event? The Russian northlands will welcome it. Their lands will turn into an agricultural bonanza.
I can't wait for two chicken breasts to be $25.00 or a gallon of gas to be $7.00, a quart of milk to be $7.50. Think of the yelling and screaming that will be going on then. It will be your fault, but you will blame everybody else. The thought of you morons standing in the street begging for food makes me smile, you get what you deserve.
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You're right.
The Farm/Corn lobby was responsible for the first gulf crisis. You can look it up. Congress wanted to NOT send any grain to Iraq as a measure to punish them for not allowing inspectors in to look for WMD. The Corn Lobby would stand for it because their corporate farms would lose a little cash.
Ethanol is expected to use 30% of our annual corn crop in 2012.
True. What kind of idiots came up with the idea to burn food?
Liberal/democrats/progressives, thats who.
What kind of idiots came up with the idea to build gated communities and shopping malls on farmland?
Developers/entrepreneurs/die-hard capitalists, that's who.
Where I come from people can make WAY more money selling their land (per acre) they they would growing crops for a very long time. That and their kids ain't really interested in farming, cause you know, it's work. Been there, done that.
That's because of our screwed up system. If you're an actor on TV, pretending to be a farmer, you get paid millions. If you're a real farmer (small time), you work your ass off 14 hours a day and barely make ends meet. We should be paying much less for fuel, much less for healthcare, much less in bank fees, less for cable, less for electronics, and MORE for food. Some people are over-paid. Farmers are underpaid.
Well, I'm sure some farmers work 14 hours a day, but I never did and don't know anybody personally that has, but I'm sure it's possible. Most of the ones I know work full time jobs elsewhere and farm in season. Unless they have a dairy or something that requires being tended to on a daily basis.
I don't know any poor farmers, don't know many rich ones either. Poor farmers tend not to do it long. As long as you don't get in over your head you'll do OK at it. When people decide they need 100K tractors they can't afford and a nice 50K pickup is when the problems start, and I've seen plenty of people do that.
I used to live next-door to one. They were out there all day until dark every spring and summer. Not much in the winter. They did have a nice truck and I know what you mean about the high end equipment. But small time farmers work very hard during the growing season.
so?
We should not burn food and we should not develop farmland.
Of course we should not burn food. But where would you like people to live and shop for their needs?