Ethanol, Food Shortage, China, and more. What do you think?

The US farm subsidy system is also to blame. Government payment for fallow land beyond the natural cycles needed to maintain its viability decreases output. Subsidy of corporate farms to the detriment of smaller farmers does not cycle the crops we need.

CBS 60 Minutes recently did a piece on the demise of rice farming in Texas -- the land for it bought up to collect subsidies rather than growing rice.

We need to use non-food agricultural product for fuel (and compost) and save the food product for eating.

There is a lot of corn, wheat, potatoes, etc that can be used for bio-fuel that is now being dumped because it is unfit for food use by virtue of mold, insects, sprout, spoilage, etc. Also, what Debra said - millions of acres in Crop Reduction Programs that are subsidized by the Federal Government. The fact that the prices for commodities has taken a jump this last year is seen as "FINALLY!" by farmers who have enjoyed the same low, low prices on their product for decades. Why should the farmer still get $3 a bushel for wheat that costs 10X more to produce now than it did 40 years ago? Even the $10 - 15 price this last fall is only a 3X to 5X increase...

People who aren't farmers, can't appreciate the problems involved. On program 'Idependent Lens' called 'King Corn', they implied that the changes by former Sectary of Agriculture Butz was wrong to lift the controls on agriculture land use. It put things out of balance and drove down the price of corn and grains. I wonder how farmers feel about it now. I also wonder if farmer's make more profit than what the government gives them in subsidies.

Good article. I have most noticed about the seeds in okra. For the past 3 to 4 years the seeds definitely have been inferior. Last year we couldn't buy them. I spoke with a couple in Home Depot and a woman in Kroger and then some friends and no one could get okra. Had it not been for a small hardware store we do business with, we wouldn't have gotten any seeds, but the owner saves his seeds each year, and they are not good quality. I wondered then was this a result of the manipulation of the seeds. It just makes me go back to we can't grow our own food as a nation. We can't supply our own fuel, we can't manufacture goods necessary to our own country. Everything must come from somewhere else. And then when it does we must worry whether the food is tainted. Now it has come out some of the prescription drugs are tainted. Why is our government not protecting America and demanding self-sufficiency. It seems to me our government is doing everything it can on everything to make us totally dependent and incapable of taking care of ourselves. I wonder why.

Corporations that make $2.5m a year in income do not qualify for government payments...Period Not from FSA or NRCS are they allocated funds. It is in the rules. If you want to read the rules go on line and look up FSA and find a local office--call them they will explain the rules. What we have in this country like it or not is a cheap food and energy policy. Well relative to what is going on it does not seem cheap at all. The cheap policy needs some fine tuning. The reason for subsidy payments is to ensure that this country the USA has enough agriculture production to sustain this country. If you go back in history he who controls the water and food for their own people win. Simple as that. Now it is going to be he who owns the oil, water and food will prevail. By keeping food cost down to 15-18% of your domestic income on food cost you have had more money to spend on other things, ipods, iphones, computers etc. that is what makes this country so great. The poverty stricken countries of this world spend between 75-100% of their income on food. Yes you will spend in the not too near distant future 25% of your disposable income on food stuffs and it will continue to go higher. Therefore not having more free money to buy other things--ie recssuin. Think about it with 25% of you income going to food can you afford a bigger home more toys and and more things to finance???? Not trying to drag everything down but get ready world it is going to be a bumpy ride. The US for many many years has feed the world--it is starting to change in a big way we cannot take care of our needs with ethanol at the helm. Another subject for debate. I am involved in agriculture---make sure you check your facts before you blow steam.

The facts are you dont need to tap into food related sources to create ethanol. its not necessary as there are so many non food related ways to make it. And its only a part of a solution to energy supplies not the holy grail .

Corporations that make $2.5m a year in income do not qualify for government payments.

scott b,
Here is a Wiki link that describes the subsidies received by the agribusiness behemoth,
ADM . Among other things, it says that a large portion of its multibillion dollar annual earnings comes from crops with federal subsidies.

Lynn - Have you tried to buy okra seeds from a seed exchange instead of buying them from the store? It's true that a handful of corporations distribute the bulk of the seeds that are available for purchase and they have often manipulated them and patented the genetically altered seeds so that farmers have to buy fresh seed annually. We're losing a lot of our bio-diversity because fewer and fewer varieties are available now. But, various seed exchange groups do make other varieties available.

Speculation in the commodity markets is nothing new. Just as the commodity traders and speculators are driving up the prices for corn and rice, they also drive up the prices for oil and natural gas and just about every other commodity under the sun. People just don't realize it until there's a huge price spike.

The corporate giants that have selected food production as their area to dominate and fill their coffers have all but destroyed family farms in this country and will continue unless controls are placed on them. Monsanto is the worst of the worst. They are the ones that have mutated seeds so that they do not produce a new seed crop while growing. Ever think what that might do to the crops as food? So now the corn can't be fed to cattle because they die on that diet. But it's ok to pass mutated corn through to humans from a myriad of sources and expect that humans won't die?

Personally, after googling corn dangers and reading some of the articles: corn starch peritonitis from the corn starch in medical gloves to name one; I think we should let ethanol have corn and eliminate it as cattle food or human food.

Laws should be passed against any foreign owned corporation buying up farm land. Our government needs to stop being an advocate for corporations and return to being an advocate of the citizens. While they worry about monopolies and free markets, citizens are losing their rights and their access to the necessities of life such as food and shelter.

Nobody seems to be noticing, citizens are just letting the news programs from more corporations tell them everything is all right-- they just need to go shopping. Stop buying things you can't eat or wear. Hard times are knocking at the door and your great grandparents values: use it up, make it do or do without, would have saved us all.

So many have responded: oh, this is nothing new, it will go down again. Well, how's that working for you on gasoline prices? We had $4.00 gas last year in our little town but nobody cared then, now the whole country is on it's way there. They are just testing the herd to see if they will stand for it. If we accept this without making lifestyle changes then the miliary/industrial complex that Pres. Eisenhower warned about will be set to take over the US government (it's already half there, having succeeded in creating preemptive wars as policy.)

About this: "Alteration of seeds to make them not germinate so that farmer's will have to buy seeds every year contributes to hunger in the world." & Lynn's comment:

Heritage/Heirloom seeds are the way to go. You can find companies that offer them online - Baker Creek, for example, says: "We only offer open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural and non-GMO! We offer heirloom seeds from 66 countries, including many that we collected ourselves."

This is also an interesting link: Heirloom and Heritage Seeds. He talks briefly about a major seed company and "suicide" and "zombie" seeds.

Yes ,I've heard the arguments associated with the topics..despicable what big bio seed companies like DuPont doing to bankrupt the third world farmer..and our own farmers to keep their seeds front runnners in the available to plant market..effectively cuts out those that try to keep the heritage crops ..

The big myth was that ethanol was ever a viable alternative fuel. Ethanol was always a marketing job done by the corporate farmers. We will all have to live with the reality that the quickest way to energy independence is nuclear.

Nathan - I sure hope not with nuclear. Maybe there is some viability in ethanol if it is made from bioproducts not in the food chain. But than again, most so-called waste products usually are not wasted, and an new use would interupt the manufacture of something else.
It is ludicrous that we have an energy problem when this living planet is made up mostly of a molten substance that is geothermal energy. The part of the earth that sustains life is much less than its molten core. But I don't really know much about that. Maybe it is nuclear energy.

Lune - Thank you for the information about Heritage seeds. I'll copy your information into my journal and look into it.

Sandy - Gas here hit $3.97 this week. It is making a difference in MY life. I still saw motor homes pulling trailers loaded with ORVs headed out to the Dunes in Imperial Valley today.

Sandy - This morning the president of Oxfam said that China is contemplating buying up farm land in America as they have done in Africa. It would be to feed their own people. It was suggested that we should help the Africans grow more food for themselves.
Does anyone know what is driving up the price of rice other than monsoon damage like that in Bangladesh?

Ethanol, I believe is a "fad" that will pass rather quickly.
We are all quite aware that it actually requires an enormous amount of fossil fuels to create ethanol, so much that it cannot be offset by the amount of energy that can be produced from that etanol

Ethanol fuel is worse than a "fad" Susan. It's a scam, diverting money from much more worthwhile renewable energy programs.

Ruth, it is a sad fact that much of US land and buildings in our largest cities are owned by other countries, China being among them and Japan, and even some Iraq owned property. I have no idea how this was let to happen, and the fact that we are allowing China to buy farm land to grow anything here is obscene, what is wrong with putting our own farmers back to work and living in the land of plenty. I can't even find an orange in our stores now that has Floirda or California stamped on them and they are so expensive don't buy them. But I can buy all kinds of juice from those states, I guess wherever the bigger profit is, but who knows who owns those companies either. And I hate the idea of corn being used for gas, as then the farmers have to pay more to feed beef , and meat products will skyrocket, and eggs are double in price and milk is out of sight. Do you know the cost of living adjustment we get on our social security does not include gas and food prices in figuring the inflation rate. I am sorry I am reading these articles, don't want to get upset, rather live in my memories, and let the people who know everything and made and allowed all this happen, try to dig us out of it. Glad I am no longer young.