Gas prices are rising for two reasons:
-- Production is maxed out and cannot easily be increased (in fact, it will likely decrease in the next few years and keep on decreasing)
-- Bush and Obama conspired to blow our national debt into the ionosphere, and thus our currency is rapidly losing its value.

Annoy these Wall-Street parasites and GROW YOUR OWN FOOD!!!

Thank the EPA for that. It costs so much money to build a refinery because of EPA mandates that no one wants to build new ones. Thus, gasoline production (not oil) remains static while demand for it rises.

Thats a little too far fetched... gas prices will always be rising and it is in the best interest of those filthy Repubs who were born into their oil money. Hey it makes presidents and congressman... Why would you want that to happen? I hate to break it to you but...many americans are very happy about our dependence on oil and plan to keep it that way. I am pretty sure that has much more to do with the previous president than the one right now. Hard working americans cannot simplly afford $5 dollars a gallon..while.. those who get those great big tax breaks for their great big bank accounts - $5 a gallon is absolutely nothing. Therefore, they have no problem paying a little to get a lot back in return. If we want the price of oil to go down..we have to stop using it. Its like a drug. We are hooked and homeless but we cant get off that oil. We will pay for it before anything because we think we need it. We were made to believe we need it. The real question is- Why are we not making it a priority to allow every american to afford a "smart" car. Not those silly, tiny, little matchbox cars you see floating around. How about a real live car that uses 90% less oil that is around 9k with tax deductions - and give these to real live hard working people? Actually make it cost more to buy oil driven cars..and punish those who believe flashy and cool oil is foolish. Make a stand and stick with it (not just until its no longer cool to be green?).

I'm sure the President won't realize it's because he stopped drilling in the gulf....

Actually it is not the cost of building a refinery that has stopped any new construction for the last 20 years it is securing EPA and local approval for the refinery to be built in a specific location. Everyone acknowledges the need but no one wants it in their backyard.

The energy industry is laughing all the way to the bank as we resist construction of a new refinery - we have created our own bottleneck and artificial shortages resulting in higher prices.

We have met the enemy and its us.

Although it may be a bit draconian, the best solution would be to reduce the amount of cattle used for beef consumption. People don't realize the enormous amount of land/feed that goes into each pound of beef and maybe we could even substitute mutten for beef in our diet. We could still consume chicken, pigs and lamb since they don't require so much feed. Then we wouldn't have a food shortage problem and prices would drop dramatically.

But we can't have that being that we just have to eat beef beef beef!!!

We have too many people (illegals) using our resources and crippling our country. We need to start taking care of America and the American people. We cannot save the world like some people think we can. The world is out of balance with too many people and not enough resources to care for them all.

WWIII

It's all supply and demand followed by speculation. "They" supply "it" because "we" demand "it", then "they" "speculate" "they" can make more profits by creating a falsely shrinking "supply". And viola!, panic in the streets while "they" pad their pockets.

And to#8- Jess, Oklahoma (from above comments), I can't beleive you said that. Do you get your "check" from the gov't every year?

what_the_81, you don't have a clue do you?

In 2008 Oil excutives were brought before congress and not sworn in? They were asked why fuel was so high, They said it cost two dollars and thirty-five cents to make a gallon of unleaded fuel, In late november after Obama was elected. The cost of unleaded fuel was one dollar and sixty-seven cents! Were they afraid that Obama was going to drag them before congress and swear them in? After seeing this why didn't he? fuel prices have steadily risen ever since.Could it be that it is sky rocketing again is that the repubs are back in power? Oil companies are making record profits again off the backs of the people.

The gas prices are rising because speculators are back in the crude market betting on a rise in demand this summer. There is a glut in crude supply currently but the speculators are projecting shortages on the horizon. They really should disallow speculation in the energy markets....take crude off the commodities market....keep the market contained within the users of the crude.

Hedge fund greed. They don't even have to pay for the crude or take delivery. Pretty nice scam for the rich investor.

Mike, three reasons why fuel and food prices are rising. Greed, greed and greed. That's what caused the economic melt down. That's what is causing inflation.

People believe the economy will be better and so oil will be in short supply. So they are seeing to it that it doesn't happen. Makes no sense.

Really, people sound surprised, food shortage? well maybe we should drill more off shore wells and contaminate more of our food supplies? Why is that you all are suprised, we just let the Fox into the hen house this past November, see how fast the price of oil has gone up, Republicans are all about oil so don't whine about it, after all most here put them in hen house, oil controls the cost of everything to include food, and you all think you're so smart? ..... LOL LOL LOL :-)

Gas prices are rising because India and China are demanding more and speculators are lowlifes

Nice article. They talk about Supply and Demand a few times.

Tell it for what it is. Mother Earth is overpopulated. We could only AFFORD to have two children, so we had no more.

Meanwhile, people in these Third World Countries and elsewhere are popping out babies like Pez Dispensers.

I'm sure the President won't realize it's because he stopped drilling in the gulf....

Here we go again...

Drilling in the Gulf has not stopped. The US and other countries continue to drill and pump crude.

The oil taken from the Gulf of Mexico is sold on the open market and is not slated for the exclusive use of the United States. International demand is increasing, so we have to compete for it with more buyers than ever.

Bosshoss -

Love your temperate fact-filled commentary. It is so persuasive (NOT).

Labels labels labels labels labels labels.... using them communicates nothing.....

I don't suppose the Koch family fortune used to fund the Tea Party/Freedomworks and Dick Armey would interest you in this discussion... There are rich people in the energy industry - lots of them, some in each party, but far more in the GOP. Millions of their money were spent on political campaigns in 2010. I know some of them - in my family. Not a Dem in the group.

Most farmers are not making much money - so food prices rising is hardly padding the rich. Agribusiness is the exception - usually grains etc. are subsidized, not lettuce and strawberries.

If Americans stop buying processed foods, they will save a lot they spend unnecessarily. Stovetop stuffing or chips or Oreo cookies or soft drinks have little food value, cost a lot, and are very much impacted by changes in energy and water prices. Buy a 10 lb bag of potatoes instead, sweet potatoes, corn and grapes in season, romain letuce, fresh spinach, bulk bags (25lbs) of rice, bulk size packages of dry beans lentils or chickpeas, local fruits and vegetables, and your grocery bill will drop 20% or more....and you'll be healthier!

So - maybe we need to watch gas and heating bills more, and complain when they jump in double digits.

And maybe we need to watch out for articles like this one to see why the media is trying to scare people -AGAIN!!????????

James: That is exactly right. Commodities are bought and sold in advance and doled out to get higher prices, same goes for food and items like cotton. I noted the US eating processed foods and therefore not liable for the food shortages. Excuse me? Raw materials go into production of ...everything. The corn used to make Fritos still starts as corn. Also, please note that corn is now a biofuel rather than food, in many instances. I'd rather eat, need that for survival, driving a car is optional.

As to making this a Republican issue...oh, please. Much of the commodities brokering is carried on internationally. China is buying up cotton and soybeans, soybeans being an important source of protein in the east.

As to raising cattle: Much if not most of grazing land is unsuitable for farming. The areas are too dry, soil too poor to sustain crops but will grow grasses. I read Diet For a Small Planet years ago, I agree that what's happening in the former rain forests is tragic, but here in the US much of the farmland goes under the developer's bulldozers. More shopping malls and subdivisions, less food production.

Gas prices are rising for two reasons. First, more of the world is using gas for their cars. And second, OPEC and the oil companies have and are engaged in price fixing to retain big profits.

RiverDog; I think you nailed it...I got fixed after 2 sons even though we wanted a daughter. I don't know why you mentioned "Third World Countries" (which we seem hell bent on becoming), I see every day people pushing several kids around, yanking on them, yelling at them, with another in the oven right here in my little town. Shopping cart with beer and cigs, whining about the economy. My heart goes out to the innocent kids. SAD!

RiverDog-1572451

Nice article. They talk about Supply and Demand a few times.

Tell it for what it is. Mother Earth is overpopulated. We could only AFFORD to have two children, so we had no more.

Meanwhile, people in these Third World Countries and elsewhere are popping out babies like Pez Dispensers.

although it's sad but true this is the best comment I've seen today I'm laughing so hard at the Pez dispensers part that I'm crying.

What the 81....you mean you can still afford to buy a steak?

Shugga...I have not seen a comment this dumb in a while, this has nothing to do with illegals. Food prices are rising everywhere. Did you read the article, or just the voting question at the end?

Remember a few years ago - before the economy collapsed and Gas prices went through the roof, then came the collapse and they went back down again?

The LEFT(progressives) lied and claimed it was due to oil shortages.

Oil is a based on FUTURES trading, those who do futures trading were artificially inflating OIL prices by BUYING it at inflated prices and withholding it from the markets to sell it again a few months down the road at even higher prices. WALL STREET is the reason its going up again.

This scam was backed by the Progressives because it furthered their GLOBAL WARMING SCAM.

REAL Legitimate science has proven that GLOBAL WARMING science was not factual and that the scientist behind it fabricated his findings.

I feel I need to clarify a couple of things.

Those that blame the EPA or regulations for high prices are only partly correct. Yes, it is a highly regulated industry, but that is largely because the industry itself has demanded regulatory legislation. Such legislation protects large corporations from more poorly-funded competitors. Competition cannot afford to compete, and regulations restrict refineries, thereby driving up costs. Oil companies love regulation, and they are the source of much of it.

Blaming President Obama (or any other politician) is stupid. Blame capitalism, because capitalists drive the whole show. They will charge consumers as much as possible to maximize profits. If you want to control the cost of fuel, you should consider nationalizing the energy industry; otherwise, STFU.

Evil forces come with that green/back..the horns are still active; old corrupt and putrid..

When populations get extremely hungry they'll come to where there IS food. Those with the means to get here will come ready to fight to survive. (Those without the means will simply sit and starve slowly.)

Wouldn't it be far better and far easier to SHARE OUR WEALTH NOW. Most Americans are fat in so many ways - physically, mentally and spiritually. Peace is much less expensive than war. Playing nice with our worldwide neighbors would yield benefits on all levels.

Please folks, slow down on consumption in all its forms. Grow a garden this spring. Drive a bit less. Turn down the thermostat. Make a $5 donation to CARE or similar.

Oh and buying all that plastic - Did you know OIL IS USED TO MANUFACTURE PLASTIC??? We then have the audacity to complain about oil prices and accept almost across-the-board plastic packaging of which most ends up in landfills. Sheesh.

We blame the government for so many problems. We all need to look in the mirror. If YOU can't do what you want everyone else to do then you will realize it's not easy. Still, make some small changes for the good of yourself and the planet. Once you get moving in a positive direction it gets to be a good habit!

Stock Market speculation... cost of oil, cost of food..... and a financial "chairman" who uses manipulated numbers to manufacture the statement that his index shows there was no inflation in the last two years. And they sell this lie to all of the FOOLS.

Only one thing I'm sure of. Starvation turns humans into vicious predators that will stop at nothing. Keep staying the course as we are, filling those off shore bank accounts and numbered Swiss accounts they way they are and the world can be sure of one thing........ It will all go up in flames.

It's coming people, have no doubt and the ones causing this are to ignorant to understand, that the turmoil that is on the way, will include them and theirs.

That's my piece....... For what it's worth.

THE government did it, is a bunch of bull. The government haters seem to become more looney each day.

Don't let the lying liars tell you that gasoline production is maxed out, that's a flat lie. I work in the industry. In the 1990s, we were running 125% or more of certified capacity, right now it's at 85% and carefully managed to keep prices HIGH, and why shouldn't they have the right to squeeze, it's not 'Free Market Capitalism' anymore it's Corporate-Government Socialism (=Fascism). Add to it the stealth 30% Ethanol Mandate slipped into the Fed 'Quantitative Easing' (e.g. US$ devaluation), now we have 30% ethanol gas with 25% lower mileage forcing you to buy 25% more fuel and pay 25% higher STATE GAS TAXES, are you starting to wake up now, honey? Get it?

Ca-piche!? Mil.Gov Mafia is the mythic Stage V Golum Monster with insatiable appetite, 'Saturn devouring his Son', Goya gave us a picture view, Google it:

TWO AND A HALF YEARS gone since the engineered Credit.Con 'Housing Collapse', now 11,000,000 empty houses they WE OWN, and 46,000,000 American jobless, homeless, part-time, on-call, ...yet Mil.Gov has STILL not Reduction in Force'd any of their Full Time Employees. 'Reduction in State (FTE) employment is UNFEASIBLE'. Just a giant black hole of salaries, benefits and pensions sucking the American Dream into an alternate universe.

Don't be hatin'! Free Speech isn't free! Watch what you say about Mil.Gov!

I only have a few things to say:

1. Buy REAL FOOD

2. Buy LOCALLY GROWN FOOD or GROW YOUR OWN

3. Only buy real, food that is IN SEASON.

4. Eliminate MEAT from your diet...it's UNHEALTHY for you , unhealthy for the animals and unhealthy for the environment.

Ternan "The energy industry is laughing all the way to the bank as we resist construction of a new refinery - we have created our own bottleneck and artificial shortages resulting in higher prices."

Good point. We'll let the oil refiners set their own prices (supply and demand) because the government will not allow any new competition, thanks to the EPA and the environmentalists.

Meanwhile, people in these Third World Countries and elsewhere are popping out babies like Pez Dispensers.

I call em baby sprinklers but Pez Dispenser made me giggle! That's a visual I'll be stuck with all day!

AGAIN, Roy, your precious oil industry corporations are the ones largely responsible for all written regulatory legislation. These regulations keep the oil industry wealthy and unchallenged by competitors. To actually believe as you do--that the EPA and environmentalists actually can challenge the oil industry--is sheer ignorance. Why do you continue to repeat this? Are you a paid propagandist?

4. Eliminate MEAT from your diet...it's UNHEALTHY for you , unhealthy for the animals and unhealthy for the environment.

I have never seen a healthy looking vegetarian or vegan. This is simply untrue. We are omnivores.....if we weren't meant to eat some meat we wouldn't have the teeth we have.

ASK OBAMa he rescinded the permit for a coal mine this morning he is continue to cut down domestic supplies of energy to reduce the footprint and force the country on the green path.
That will automatically increase cost of food and everything else . A large portion of food is now being to used to make bio fuel to comply with regulations of the EPA
It may become necessary to shut the government down completely to keep the idiot in the white house from completely bankrupting the country.
It is time to shut down all of the government departments Obama is using to change the law by edict, that he couldn't get through congress.
I expect to see some one like Harry Reid introduce legislation to allow Obama to rule by edict a la his alter ego, Chavez.

Fuel Controls Every Country/Gov. we must have it.

Alternate Fuel HHO Gas increases MPG by 90% and is free to make once it is installed in your car.

Ethnanol replaces food with fuel production and DDT is used for these crops it is at record production Thanks AL GORE Way to love the Planet

jerry194283, you have fallen into the right wing trap of assigning blame to persons as a way of diverting from real issues. You should be asking why you, as a working American, have no say in how our national energy resources are being managed, priced, distributed, and allocated. But you won't, will you? You will continue to blame Obama, or Pelosi, or Reid. Just as you are instructed.

Sad.

Hope,

Share our wealth? Okay, kindly give me addresses so I can start shipping condoms out to breeders in India, China, Africa, Mexico, and any country filled with guys who lack the discipline to pull out, and women who can't seem to understand how babies are made, or that they really don't need another one. There are millions of these idiots in America as well. You can watch some of them on tv arguing about DNA tests and child support.

Oh, wait do you mean money? Yeah, I don't think that will do them any good, it's like putting a band aid on a shot gun wound. I think condoms are a better idea. If they don't breed them, they don't have to worry about feeding them. Better than that is sterilization. They can still mimic rabbits, the Earth is happy, and share the wealth hippies can relax, or begin complicating some other easily fixable problem by spewing guilt without offering solutions!

HOPEfully this makes sense. Of course if you want to waste your money and time, knock yourself out...at least you'll be quiet.

Each and everyone of us are responsible for how much gas we consume, esp. with the gas consuming, guzzling luxury cars that are driven for the so called show off impression. Try planning your errand trips by consolidating them into a specific direction, or walking when possible, which is good for your health. Make it a family game each week to see if you can beat the previous week for gas consumption. Encourage the promotion for energy saving vehicles that are affordable for all levels of income. Encourage the auto industry to stop making the gas guzzlers. Encourage feasibly economical and affordable energy home building for all levels of income. And most importantly encourage the IGNORANT H.O.A.'s to allow access to build small windmills (esp. in the states close to the oceans) for family homes to help lower the amount of energy used as-well-as the amount of monthly fees.

I have posted posted before on the topic of world over population. The world has passed it's natural maximum capacity. Technology has allowed us to far overpass this. Until we start controlling population explosion we can expect massive death on supply chain hiccups that make every war ever fought look insignificant. Basically the world will regulate the population for us since we don't have the discipline of foresight to do so. This will happen within most of our life times.

Totally agree. Whether we like to admit it or not we are part of the animal kingdom. When the population for a certain type of animal booms, it either wreaks havoc on other animal populations (lionfish, zebra mussels) or the population collapses due to lack of food or disease. It's mother nature's way of keeping the population controlled and everything in balance. I have gotten ugly looks from people when I mention that I think part of the reason we have so many new strains of viruses and incurable fatal diseases is the earth has hit maximum capacity and it's trying to lighten the load. In the animal world....the strongest survive and reproduce. In the human world....those that will get a bigger handout reproduce......and reproduce some more.....and reproduce some more. Eventually we will reach a breaking point and our population will collapse. I just hope I'm not there to see it.....and I did not have nor do have any intentions of having kids so I can sleep at night knowing I didn't bring someone into the world who will most likely witness it.

the money the US sends to these 3rd world countries to help those in need - never get to the PEOPLE who need it - instead it goes into the pockets of those IN POWER.

We need to STOP sending money to these governements that are allowing their own citizens to starve to death

Lmao @ noneofthe above08... I too will gldly make a contribution to thirdworld birth control. I just dont understand how these people can be starving day in and day out and make a concious decision to have children which will be starving right along side them. But I am also aware that a very large portion of these children are a product of rape in these almost lawless countries.

it is pretty funny how many Americans clicked YES. UH? Burger King McDonalds DOLLAR menu will never go up in price. your waist line will though.

Yes - the PROGRESSIVES in our government want us to RIOT - they are calling for it - Van Jones and Francis Fox Piven. That way the Government will take our FREEDOM and replace it with Socialism. MSNBC does not want you to know this - as they are PROGRESSIVES themselves.

@Mike,

Gas prices are going up for the same reason food prices are. Production is staying the same of falling and demand is going up. What do you think all those shiny new cars in India and China are going to burn. Rice? And if they do, rice prices go up.

Here's the equation:

1st World Countries= Money, resources, education, innovation, heath care, and food production. Result: Lower birth rates, increased immigration, significant social services, significant exports and donations of goods to 2nd and 3rd world countries.

2nd World Countries= Limited money, infrastructure, education, limited health care, and food production. Result: More children per family (less education and birth control), more dependence on other countries for goods and business within country, limited ability to support itself, strong interest in emigrating to better countries.

3rd World Countries= Very limited money, sporadic infrastructure, very limited education, very dependant on other countries for businesses and aid, very limited food production. Result: Many children per family as you need help and many will die during childhood, major dependence on other countries for aid, little to no health care, great likelihood for destroying resources through lack of education and internal struggles, massive emigration to other countries.

So what have we learned? At some point there is a limit to what we can produce and any fluctuations in production will upset the entire planet. The trickle down theory can only work so far. When famine comes back so will disease. I have a hard time telling people to stop having children, but there will be a point where it will be impossible to support all of the people without destroying the environment to do so (for a while until the topsoil washes away, the water runs out, etc.).

We are already sharing the wealth. The devaluation of our dollar by massive bail outs and unsustainable spending programs effectively does this.

Indigo,

You forgot to mention Wall Street and Hedgefunds manipulating prices.

If we got rid of welfare for farmers, food would not be a problem. Just go to Northern Nevada sometime and see all the farms that water dirt. They are paid to not grow food to keep prices artificially high, and they are paid to water nothing to keep their water rights.

While countries around the world barely get enough food, our government pays our farmers to not grow food. God Bless America.

imawinn,

"But I am also aware that a very large portion of these children are a product of rape in these almost lawless countries."

LOL! What's a large portion? You've got to be kidding me. The scary thing is you actually believe this.

No Nation is more than three meals from a revolution !Food prices at the retail level are up 22% in the last 18 months,there is no inflation, insurance costs are up 20-30% in the last 18 months, there is no inflation, taxes are being raised at the State and local level, there is no inflation, fuel costs are up 12% in the last 6 months, there is no inflation. What are they basing their numbers on grass on the lawn of the white house ?

Max^100 - The liberals would only raid our gardens saying that we had to "redistribute our wealth"

American, way to go... Drag politics into this. Instead of looking at the real issue, blame the left!

This is a beautifully illistrated example of capitalism and free trade!

I got on this post site somewhat late, but am very pleased to have read the posts of RiverDog (#1.16), OldDude (#1.21), Matt (#1.34), noneoftheabove (#1.40), and StangSalie (#1.42). We ALL agree that the coming world-wide problems of lack of food, potable water, and affordable and adequate energy sources will cause civil unrest everywhere on unimaginable levels. We MUST institute, by ANY and ALL necessary means, world-wide birth control! Excess population leaves BILLIONS of people without skills and renders them frustrated, seething with dismay and anger. Various groups incl. some religious groups are horrified by this suggestion, but if the the reality of the coming worldwide conflagration continues to be denied for whatever the reason, the world as we know it is doomed. It is only a matter of time. Hope (post # 1.27): What is this "SHARE OUR WEALTH" absurdity? Are you living in the REAL world, or are you just another unrealistic "One Worlder?" Hope, read post #1.40 and LEARN rather than just hoping.

Expect food riots around the world as the population exceeds the capacity to feed them. The world population hit 6 billion in 1999 and will hit 7 billion next year and this is happening as the worlds farmlands dwindle. The world simply has too many people but nature, as always, will impose its own remedy.

Production is only maxed out because that is the quota that OPEC set. They can produce more, but that would drive the cost per barrel down. OPEC should be sued. They do business in the US and break our laws on price fixing. Why hasn't our government done anything about this? This is what I pay my politicians for. Not arguing over laws that are already on the books (health care).!!!!! My mobile service is getting killed with the price of fuel.

noneoftheabove08 - simple living on each citizens part will automatically free resources. American consumption is obscene compared to the 7/8 of the other world's citizens who GO TO BED HUNGRY EVERY NIGHT.

Wouldn't it be nicer to simplify and share the wealth than to KILL these people when they show up starved and looking for a meal here in the USA?

You might not agree with my assessment and that's ok but WHAT'S YOUR SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS THEN?? You critized my message yet offered us nothing . . .

cutter - I agree with you. Population problems are the elephant in the room nobody wants to deal with! But as far as your comment about being a "one-worlder" (whatever that really means) last time I looked we actually do have only ONE WORLD. Once we f***k it up there ain't no emergency exits either.

We would NOT have a FOOD Shortage if they would not ship the FOOD out of this COUNTRY... This is the cost increase because they compete for the same food source...

Beef would PLUMMET in Price if they stopped shipping it overseas!!!

I didn't get to type in the complete comment in the previous box.

I'm not concern. Since when does food prices stay the same for long periods? Have you noticed that a candy bar is no longer 50 cents and neither is bread?

Also note the incredible shrinking package. I thought the workout routine was really going great when I hefted a bag of dog food and literally tossed it into the cart. Then I looked at the weight. What was once 20 lbs is now 15 lbs and the price has gone up to boot.

Gemini @ 1.31:

Agreed on everything except that meat is unhealthy for you.

Meat from sickly, fat, and miserable animals raised in CAFO's and under like horrible conditions, and pumped full of hormones and chemicals, is unhealthy for you, a living horror for the animals, and heartbreaking for people who care about them.

Meat from pastured, humanely raised animals fed their natural diet is good for you.

(I know it's a moral issue for many people, but even vegetation is fed and nourished from decayed animal flesh, and then we eat that vegetation. It is the way of nature, and there is no getting around it.)

Perhaps in the end, we'll go back to being hunters and gatherers. Because our current monocrop-style agriculture is, in the long run, unsustainable and destructive to the planet as well...including animal life. When it ends, as it must, what will be the options?

@ StangSalie

and these days I have not seen a healthy looking omnivore here in the U.S.

What makes you think he will tell that to people he wants to control. Watch out mud pies and dead birds on the menue of americans diner tables. Enjoy your meals. And that is not enough people can go pick up dead bodies from the garbage dumps like they did Jonh Weheeler. How is that for a meal.

JEREMY-664722

you don't have a clue do you?

Are you serious? I suggest you do research on how much land and grains are devoted to feeding a cow that will eventually be slaughtered for consumption. They on average consume between 20-40 pounds of corn & hay daily. Just imagine for a second if that food instead went to feed other people. You could literally feed a whole villlage for a week off of what a cow eats in a day.

Notice I said reduce beef consumption, not eliminate it since I know of the health benefits. I'm not saying you can't enjoy the occasional steak, I just would like people who consume beef daily (and there are a lot of them) to at least think about this. who's the clueless one now?

Hope,

Are you serious? I offered you no solution?! I offered you condoms, and asked you to give me addresses to which I would mail out crates of them to anyone that was more interested in breeding children they couldn't feed, than in finding ways to help themselves.

You offered MY MONEY!

What it boils down to is VERY VERY SIMPLE, if you can't feed them, don't breed them. And I sleep VERY well at night knowing that can feed my children because I work my butt off to earn a paycheck. If the US economy feel into complete ruin aka Mad Max style, I'd still find a way to feed my kids, tho some of my neighbors may mysteriously disappear. What's your address in case this happens? kidding...tho maybe not.

Hope, and if you really want to make a difference buy yourself a plane ticket and start visiting other countries so you can see what I already know. The prolific spread of ones DNA, when one cannot even afford rice, is complete narcissim and criminal.

I have a box of condoms ready to be shipped out. Now kindly enlighten me with your plan to save the world with MY MONEY.

Because of all the food eating androids?

Agreed. It's more of a problem of too many people. This rock will only sustain so many individuals. We can't keep growing exponentially indefinitely. With advances in public health in the past 100 years, the global 'die offs' we'd see due to the bubonic plague, the flu, etc have been largely removed.

Us humans no different than a herd of deer with respect to food supply.

Rack: Sadly, the fundamentalist Christians and Muslims breed like rabbits and will destroy the ecology in the not too distant future.

Humans can grow their own food, deer can't!

It's not the food that makes us reproduce like rabits, it's the oil. Without oil, the planet can only sustain a billion at most. I can't wait till Peak Oil hits! Apocalypse Now!

Simple Thinker: You and I rarely agreee on blogs but that was very good response. Had a good laugh today thank you.

Waylon: "human population is artificially high" that statement requires some explanation. Are you insinuating that we have inflated the numbers of people living there deliberately? Interesting concept - without merit of course.

Before everyone jumps on the bandstand about international aid - etc - keep in mind International aid does nothing but perpetuate the problem - we keep them alive at a subsistence level so they can propogate to increase the population even further beyond the capacity of the land. It's called a do-loop folks - never ending cycle of misery, hunger and poverty

Bottom line: Let Mother Nature takes it's natural course - we have nothing to offer except temporary relief - until we can offer these people a viable future now - then we need to let nature take over.

We are in a war against hunger, poverty and misery we can not win. We (the world not just the US) simply do not have the resources to feed the world population, we could only affect change through a massive relocation of essentially entire nations from their historic and geographic homes to areas that can better support those populations. Are we ready in the US to see massive droves of these relocated people coming into the US - is there any nation ready for something like that? I think not.

The world population is simply too large to be supported with the natural resources we have available. Our environment can not handle the current strain and our food prduction could never keep pace with the population growth unless something radical occurs to change the equation. Mother Naturue or our own destructive actions will adjust the population to a sustainable level.

Ternan- I wasn't aware we disagreed so often. I guess I must now disagree with you on principle alone ;-) !!!

Artificially high? You mean the populations are actually high?

The fact is that when Obama signed the law earlier this year forcing farmers to consider all workers employees and pay the minimum wage it cut out many of the family farmers that still provided food. I used to work in the fields when I was young during the summer because we were paid by how much fruit we picked and had no set hours. It was a nice arrangement. Now the farmers have to pay them minimum wage and all the other benefits provided to employees. Not saying its wrong, but obviously disrupts the amount of food being picked and sent to market. I know a few family farms in Oregon that quit having people pick their fruit. Instead they just sell real cheap to people willing to pick it themselves, so they are closing down. They can't afford to sell their food at the lower price with increased labor costs, obviously prices will go up and the little farmers will go out.

I seem to recall the term 'useless eaters.'

What you are saying could be one of the facts.

We should stop CORPORATE WELFARE. A SMALL FARMER like the one you quoted CANNOT COMPETE WITH A GIGANT CORPORATION that is receiving FEDERAL FUNDING via subsidy.

How is that one can of water is expensiver that one can of soda ?

To sell one can of "pure" water you might add anything but a label.

On one can of soda you add: A LABEL, COPY RIGHTS, MERCADOTECHNIA, SYRUP MADE OF CORN and other chemistry.

A can of water should be expensier than one can of soda.

http://farm.ewg.org/region.php

BRETT--Your comment is simply not true.

peteMT - I had the same thought.

Nazi Germany

wcritiquing- first and foremost it's more expensive not expensiver (sorry it's the grammar nazi in me)

most water doesn't come in "cans" it comes in bottles obviously it won't have a label telling you whats in it since it's WATER there's nothing added to it. Unlike soda that has coloring, syrups, sugars, and etc etc, though depending on the water you buy (distilled, drinking, spring) it WILL tell you where it was bottled from and the PROCESS they used to make it such.

Bret it seems like you're referring to Savie Island.

accept the poll was for the UNITED STATES not anywhere else. palin stupids shouldnt take polls

Meat products should also be substantially higher than fruit/vegetable products, but are not because of large government subsidies.

imoen - got a cell phone? Got a computer? Got plastic? You got oil! Now what ya gonna do?

No on Cell phone. And my "obsolete" Core 2 duo computer is second-hand and was free.

So, your logic is that my life requires oil? Odd considering humanity has existed on this planet for tens of thousands of years without petroleum.

ImoenOfTelengard, in an earlier post you said this:

It's not the food that makes us reproduce like rabits, it's the oil. Without oil, the planet can only sustain a billion at most.

Three questions regarding that statement.

1. How does oil make us reproduce like rabits?

2. Where did you come up with the idea that without oil the planet could only sustain at most a billion people?

3. How does the existence of oil have any kind of impact on the number of people on the planet in the first place?

Oh and this statement:

So, your logic is that my life requires oil?

Personally, I would answer that with a resounding NO. Your life does not require oil, but everything you purchase or use on a daily basis does, at some point depend on oil either directly or indirectly.

One things certain, you wouldn't need that core 2 duo computer since there would be no internet. That trip to the grocery store would probably be on horseback over a dirt road since pavement would not exist.

But you could always bundle up in animal skins by the wood stoked fireplace that's heating your house and read a good book. :)

They think it is high here too so the new world order is going to clean out alot of you and many others.

I agree with this, If a country is subsidizing its own gas prices(examples are Saudi Arabia/Venezuela) to keep them artificially low in that country and then raising the price per barrel to countries it exports to then we should also raise our price of foods shipped to those countries, Americas biggest problem..we always worry about the starving children of the world first and never about our own starving children

Rich, I agree lets pay the price for OPEC oil and keep our food, camel crap and sand sandwiches are not very filling, stop foreign aid to oil producing nations.

of no importance, good piont & a piont I have often said & asked why is it or better yet why is it are gov is always the 1st to help any other country, but are own! I have never understood that & I never will

Because the bleeding hearts demand that we practice zero protectionism and want us to become become Big Brother to the world.

As far as I am concerned, the US Govt works for Americans. Americans should be number one on the list of " Who can Americans help today?"

We have lost sight of the big picture. If we sink to the levels of third world countries, we will be in no position to help anyone.

Eric: It's not the bleeding hearts that demand no protectionism. The greedy Republican CEOs are the ones who want no tariffs -- that way they can get rich while farming American jobs out to third world hell holes. Every time a Democrat suggests a "fair trade" alternative to unchecked "free trade" the person is labeled a "Marxist" and voted out of office.

Good one Rich.

But then again, what a stupid question to ask of us. What the Hell do they expect us to say of our concern..NO ??

Stop using cliches' like "bleeding hearts"! It's getting old and it makes you sound stupid.

You are probably correct, Halo.

However in regards to China, if memory serves, it was the Clinton administration what was all about creating a free trade agreement with China. They felt free trade would open up a huge new market for American goods, result in improved conditions for Chinese workers and encourage the Chinese government to enact human rights reform. Not overly concerned about the American worker, more concerned with the Chinese worker. China doesn't buy much from us, but we buy almost everything from them...

I am not smart enough to figure this out. I am smart enough to know though, that we cannot keep on the path we are on.

Yes, the population of Earth is going to continue to rise faster and faster every year (barring a major war, epidemic, or other disaster). This is why I scoff at people that say space flight shouldn't get so much funding.

Folks, The US raising food prices to tthe OPEC nations will have no effect.

First they can afford to pay and will retaliate with even higher oil prices

Second: We are not the largest food suppliers to those nations

Third: How do you propose to get the entire world to support what is essentially a blockade of food shipments to OPEC country's until they meet our demands for increased food prices? Blockades have never been successful, remember the oil embargo in the 70's - it forced the price of oil up but never stopped the flow of oil. Would China or India or Brazil support an embargo on food - I think not - they need the oil more than we do.

Clinton was mostly a Dino (Dem in Name Only), sort of like how Bush-41 was a RINO.

The problem has been with both parties, Free trade is killing us, We tried open trade agreements they do not work, We are getting the short end of the stick, Repeal all of them.

Crude oil per barrel $91.00, corn per bushel $6.30..... We should sell corn to everyone we buy oil from for whatever they sell their oil for. "camel crap and sand sandwiches are not very filling", I would think not.

The only way to bring jobs back to America is to have a tariff policy based on comparing American wages to third world country wages. If we make exporting jobs too expensive for the billionaire CEOs, they will be forced to move the jobs back here. No one is suggesting going back to the bad old days of union labor getting $80/hour for turning a wrench. But there has to be some meaningful middle ground between that and the specter of 30% unemployment and $7/hour Walmart jobs for the rest.

Anyone who says that we should raise food prices on other nations we sell to hasn't been in the produce section in the last couple years. Even half the produce now days is imported from South America, the cost of farming in this country is to high and the land is more valuable sold to build homes on, even now. Our governments controls are out of whack and need to take the food supply more seriously. The problem there is that most politicians have never been outside the major cities and just expect that food will always be provided on their tables.

Brett--Many farms have been sold because many children of the farmer do not want to farm. And as you said, land prices are so high they have sold off to get the money now. Corporate farms are huge now and will continue to be. It has very little to do with goverment control. It is corporate control.

However, in many countries, corporations are taking over the land. In some, farmers willing to stay and farm but are forced off their lands.

indigo - yep, a tarriff policy worked really well for us in the 1930's. Jobs sent overseas are not coming back until americans can compete at the same economic level that the overseas labor competes.

Our job growth will depend on how well american business can create exportable products that both the overseas consumer and the american consumer are willing to pay fair $$$ for.

Everyone was ready to hang President Bush from a tree when gas hit $3.00 but now, it's OK????? Someone please explain this phenomena please!

I don't see a phenomenon; some people still want to hang President Bush from a tree. Thanks for reminding us how we got here though.

what will they do if vary few of us can afford things like gas & food etc.. than how will they generate & income they have been used to just thinking out load then wouldnt they do as they have done befor & lowwer the price so more can afford to have & buy what they are selling That & how is it we as a country are always fighting other peoples war & always that creats a deficit for USA a country that help out @!$%# shouldnt we have some credit or $$$ for the help & the people we lost fightinhg there WAR

Time to lock down the prices we will allow companies like Monsanto to charge for food. Further make sure enough staples are staying in country instead of being shipped to places like China!

@spg64-1292127

FYI: Monsanto is involved on the production side of Ag, not the distribution side.

spg - Monsanto and Syngenta are bringing food prices DOWN by creating more supply (as Jess pointed out, they are on the production side). When harvests are low, price/bushel of crops goes way up. Improved/protected harvests bring market prices down, simple economics....please take a class.

Roy: Time to stop trying to blame Bush or anyone else for something you had a role in creating. Stop buying those Chinese made products and you might be surprised to see some of those jobs we lost overseas returning to the US. Ah but then you prefer spending $10 for shirt then the $15 it would cost if made in the US. Complaining about not having a job? Complaining about losing your home? Go look in a mirror you just found the culpret causing all of your problems.

eric thats easy to think that way why its it so hard for the goverment to rember who pays there BILLS & there income & I liked the thought of 3rd world country I & a teacher I had made a bet that was how soon will america be the BIGGEST 3rd world country in the world & I think the way those people that manage the place we call HOME are running the show it may happen faster then we thought it would!! Hope we were wrong ?? That and china & the rest of the world dosent buy much from us other than GRAIN but that becuase we no longer make much of anything which in my mind is & has been the BIGGEST problem w/ are DEF & UNEMPLOYMENT WE have NO world trade products they all went overseas .

There are a lot more people growing food at home because they believe it is better for the environment than having food shipped. We have always had a few food items planted but last year we almost filled a small freezer.

Jess, Oklahoma also pointed out, above in the short comments, that it was about time for a rise in food prices because he needed a raise. Do you get your subsidy check Jess?

I think if EVERYONE refraned from buying gas for 3 days, cost would go down. No gas purchase......no money being made

68% of the USDA's annual budget goes to food assistance programs (ie: food stamps), that leaves 32% for everything else. Not much huh?

I do buy federally subsidized Multi-peril crop insurance (which is subsidized to keep me in business during the years of drought, flood, disease, ect, to keep your food prices low). However, I don't see the "check" that the government writes to my insurance company if that is what you are referring to. Crop Insurance is the best way to keep commodity prices relatively stable and keep rural economies decent (notice I did not say strong). Is it a perfect system? No, but unless you have a better idea JEREMY-664722 get off your soapbox.

BTW, I sell my commodities by way of the CBOT or KCBOT, you know, where you buy them. So, still not seeing where you think this check comes into my hand at...

While I am at it, you assume I am male why?

Johnny: The food safety bill, S 510, that was introduced by Harry Reid originally had a provision that the government could come into people's gardens and small farming operations and declare their food unsafe. This was done to enhance the pockets of Monsanto and Dow Chemical. There was a huge outcry so they took out the personal producer/small farmer provision.

Those of you thinking Monsanto is just the best thing for agriculture better look again. Look at what they have done in Iraq. Essentially Monsanto has created a captive market in 3rd world countries. Instead of being able to continue with subsistence farming the farmers now have to go to Monsanto for seed and chemical fertilizers since the original non-hybridized seeds were taken away and replaced with non-reproducing hybrid and GMO seeds. There is a big issue with corn and Roundup. The GMO seeds are immune to the herbicides but the herbicides kill everything else.

Indigo: This is not a republican (bad) vs. democrat (good) issue. This is big business vs globalization and control. Reid is a democrat, he is really deep in Monsanto's pockets. Greed and corruption are rife in both parties, don't be naive or fall into political manipulations

Please go watch Glen Beck ON George Soros Glen Beck is telling the truth about why the food prices are so High? WHY? Obama Just sign the new FDA Bill we cat grow our own foods in our own back yards or what we can grow we cant not share it with our neighbors. How come miss M has her organic garden and she had children invited to show her garden? It was just to show off. However George Soros Happens to be a natzi has alots of money he misses the days how he destroyed his own people working with nazis he was even more evil then Hitler himself.You Go and Learn more about this man George Soros and FEMA CAMPS They are building to put every body in those camps and starve you all tu death. That is his agenda. Glen Beck is right" Wake up America."

creator2's post is strange, disjointed, and amusing. I especially enjoyed the part where he cited Glenn Beck as his source.

You should pay your own insurance if you want to farm. I like to drive but I can't get anyone to pay my insurance for me. You should plan ahead and have a "rainy day fund" put away. Whether it touches your hands or not, you get it. "to keep your food prices low...", by your short comment, you could care less about my food prices. I know how farmers are and I get how things work. They complain when prices are low/average and I even hear some complain when prices are high because taxes are gonna eat 'em up. And "he" is a generic term .

Three prostitute were sitting around talking about their jobs that just left. The first one said "Mine was a football player. When he finished, he stood in the middle of the bed and yelled 'Touchdown'." The second one said "Mine was a baseball player. When he finished he ran around the room tagging furniture like it was bases and yelled 'Homerun'." The third one said "Mine was a farmer." The other two looked kinda funny. She said "First it was too cold, then it was too dry, then it was too wet, then it was too hot...."

Connie, Your proposal has no merit, ok so no one buys gas for 3 days - ah but you strill need to go to work, take the kids to school , get groceries, go shopping etc - so are you now walking to all of those locations?? I think not which means your driving, burning gas, where did that gas come from - ah thats right you topped off before your boycott. So the oil industry has windfall profits the day before and the day after the boycott - end result - no effect.

Just to add - the screaming about gas prices under Bush was when they climbed to more than $4.00, not $3.00/gallon - the summer of 2008.

If we switched to four 10 hour day day work weeks, many commuters would save 20% of the gas they use, and we'd have 3 day weekends! If we switched to fewer processed foods, less energy would be required there too.

We cannot expect the world oil markets to change much, so we need to be less dependent on them. If my house gets 60% of its heat and cooling from non-oil sources, I won't feel big swings in pricing as much. If I drive less to work, same thing. We will use less, spend less, and hurt less if world supply issues occur.

@!$%# dorfy I LOVE that Idea sign me up I believe Australia does samethign close to that &* Hell the people are happier its &an all win situation

The important number to remember is 46,000,000 American jobless, homeless, part-time, on-call, no salary, no benefits, no pensions, no healthcare. Hey, that sounds like a sad old country song.

Those 46,000,000 Americans will be FORGOTTEN. Once they become 99'rs and homeless, as far as Mil.Gov (and most of US) are concerned, they're INVISIBLE. Then this summer as cities and states default and collapse, there will be more millions of soon 99'rs, and more empty houses.

There are 11,000,000 empty houses! Those Mil.Gov SWINDLERS put all the upside down mortgages on those houses ONTO OUR BACKS! We OWN those houses now, WE'RE PAYING FOR THEM. But we are FORBIDDEN TO HOUSE OUR 46,000,000 99'rs IN THE 11,000,000 EMPTY HOUSES THAT WE OWN!

Mil.Gov does not care about you. They DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU! And now they're coming for your Social Security, and you know what, they'll get it. They'll get all of it. It's a great big club, and YOU AIN'T IN IT!

'Youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q'

Donna--If you are a follower of Glen the clown Beck you already know it all. lol

Well, those of you dissing those who watch Beck, have you ever watched his show? No, but, well, he's an idiot and ergo, ditto his viewers. dissing Beck is what we have been told to do and, by golly, that's what we'll do...don't need proof of anything, just follow the party line...

You won't see the hypocrisy in your actions and statements, I doubt you can. But, ok, call names, point fingers and manifest intolerance, its what you do best.

Glen Beck Is My New Hero He Tells the truth to the Public He is A GREAT MAN. Watch his segment about the< Nazi GEORGE SOROS > happens to be culprit of all the food prices to go up They WANT TO PUT EVERY BODY IN TO FEMA CAMPS AND STARVE YOU ALL TO DEATH> " WAKE UP AMERICA" AND LOOSE SOME WEIGHT.They think you are all too fat and stupid. How is that for your egos.

odd I have not noticed any food price increases. and um the dollar menus are still a dollar and all the BIG Y's and 24/7 walmarts opening are actually driving DOWN the price of groceries. get out of your basement and stop shopping with pea pod.

bspurloc, what part of the country do you live in?

Obviously the same part I live in because groceries are not going up here either.

Not that they won't, and we should make sure they don't by backing legislation that controls Mega Corporations Like Monsanto. Yes I said Monsanto and yes I realize they are in "production." It is these huge corporate producers that are the ones that setting whole sale cost. Talk about needed a class in economics.

Yes we to police Walmart and other giant retailers as well, but real cost are set by the huge monopolistic producers that now control the markets, and Monsanto is #1.

spg64 - how do you plan on stopping the export of grains? Many states economies are agricultural based. How do you plan on stopping the federal government from sending grains overseas as humanitarian aide.?

american.,

Obviously at this point it is not needed. However if the food shortage starts effecting the US and it's citizenry I believe it is well within the rights of the Federal Government to Nationalize the grain crops to feed our citizenry. Sadly I believe if these programs are not put in advance corporations would gladly let American Citizens starve while they sold our crops to the highest bidder else where.

mygirl1

Every time I watch his show, my gut wretches and I want to scream. He cries, feints, rants, and breaks out his chalk in order to draw some 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon conclusion, and sells GoldLine shares.

An absolute hypocrite entertainer, not an investigative journalist. And before you ask, I do not watch Maddow, Olberman, Fox News, The View, or any of the MSM Opinionators, because within an hour, you have been fed your weekly safe limit of sensationalist news.

Anyone who has to watch this for their intake of the realities in our world need to get off the TV Talk Meds, for they are not safe nor informative.

Peace

notsojingo: I don't like kneejerk reactions dissing someone's appreciation of something. I don't like any of the television talking heads, and I'm not so naive as to follow slavishly an individual with an agenda. There are those who think Maddow hung the moon, I don't tell them I think they're idiots for liking the woman although their slavish adulation amuses me. I tend to defend the underdog and will go after those who torment the less articulate.

Glad you are amused, mygirl, by the chasm(or slavish adulation) these folks create, and they are not necessarily idiots by any means. Like going to church, temple, or mosque, people like to follow what they agree with, so Nancy Grace addicts must just love shrill-voiced lecturing. That is fine, unless they then parrot that shrill at me or interject Graceisms, Beckisms, et al.

Sticking up for the underdog is noble as well, depending on the contest. I find the middle class of the United States of America to be my favorite underdog to stick up for, however much they follow the masses to TV Host Education for sources of reference in picking sides in the great polarization which is where America stands falling today.

I am not amused.

If I may ask one question of you, it would be, "Do you trust that your government is there to do what is right for you as an individual?" As I agree with your Monsanto/Dow comments, I believe we both come to the same conclusions generally! Thanks.

Peace

Yall reckon my concern gonna mean a @!$%# to the @!$%#s jackin up the prices????

Not one @!$%#, not even a pea sized one.

My thought as well Notso.

Hi, I'm Petra and I use the bus. On a limited income, seniors, disabled and the working poor are already suffering. When you have to decide between food, shelter and medical bills, I would say you've pretty much hit the bottom.

Capitalism sucks, spread the word. It is a system used by feudal lords to keep the serfs working.

Yep - when I get sick my tiny life will crumble to dust in one heart-beat (or lack of heartbeat). Scary it is. But it is my reality and the reality of many others.

I can handle food and shelter costs. Medical bills? No way. Every day I wake up healthy I feel gratitude and relief.

Medical professionals drive around in Hummers and top-of-the-line Lexus's and I will die in the mud when I get sick.

Third world conditions in America - from a medical standpoint - which about 40 MILLION of us face daily.

Worth mentioning that other than some government programs which many do not qualify for, churches are the only resource for thousands of homeless.

Gemini 618; PLEASE, don't refer to beck as a "TWAT", I like TWAT. I think you meant TWIT? Peace

shawn,

No one can really argue with the first part of your statement and then you go off on an ignorant rant.

The high point of Union power in this country was also the high point of US economic power. As we ripped down the power of the Unions, corporations exported jobs.

It is the unchecked power of the Corporate Elites that is killing the US worker and the economy which are inter linked.

As for your incredibly racist rant about everyone wanting hand outs, that is pure racist BS. It has been US corporations that have kept their thugs in power in countries like Haiti against the will of the Haitian people. We have done everything we can to disrupt democracy in Haiti. Go read some history!!!

That being said we do need to pull back and concentrate on home for a while. Start with getting all of our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and go from there.

Shawn - on the one hand, your comment is a bit hard-hearted, but on the other, quite logical. I agree with you that the majority of these countries need to have populations they can feed on their own, (with a "few" exceptions.) We can't continue to feed these countries when they have already bred themselves far more people than they can support. They will always have problems until their population is balanced to their environment.

The US can easily feed it's population and almost always has a surplus. But it doesn't mean we should be enabling other countries to be constantly dependant on us. It is not their "right" to be fed us the US. The money has run out, we need to get fiscally responsible at home first.

but isn't that America's job...give taxpayer $ and supplies to all the countries that hate us the most?

I think it's even bigger than just buying and growing American. Most "American" companies these days aren't truly American anymore. They will gladly send higher paying jobs to these third world countries where they can get labor for dollars less.

This is the problem with a "service" based economy. The jobs are simply not "worth" a living wage. If you try to become educated, and have a job that is "worth" a decent wage, well prepare for market saturation and having your job outsourced to save money and cut costs.

As for subsidies, even "American" farmers receive a large share of them and it ultimately costs the taxpayers to support them. Just looking at the current 2008 Farm Bill, and using Sugar as an example, we see that the US government is committed to keeping 85% of our sugar demand to domestic sources. That sounds great but it also raises the idea this is government control of a supposedly free market. The bill also has a provision where the government will buy up surplus Sugar and sell it to Ethanol producers even if it means selling it at a loss.

So do we continue support farmers even though it may be harmful and costly to do so, or do we open up the possibility of importing food and goods from other countries which may be cheaper and may(note: not will) bring down prices for consumers though it would hurt domestic interest?

http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/agriculture/subsidies -- source of some information used.

Shawn, I have no problem helping a country where they feed mud pies to the children in order to fill their stomaches...unless you would just like to drop a bomb on them???

SPG: Sorry not buying the arguments that Unions are a force of good in this country - history has shown that to be far from the truth. The period of economic growth your referring to was not a cause and effect relationship between the economy and unions but rather the fact that the US was almost singlehandedly rebuilding the world after World War II.

Union became extremely strong during this period literally holding the business community and the US economy hostage with strikes, work disruptions, wildcats etc. The unions have never been a friend to the american worker or to this great country- during the times of greatest need (WWI, WWII, Korea War, etc etc) Unions conducted wildcat strikes at Defense Industry plants causing significant disruption of war materiel making it to the front and to those engaged in combat operations. The US military essentially moved in and took over entire plants to keep the materiel flowing.

The US economy has been decimated - our decline started in the 80's and continuous today. Why? because American unions have made our heavy industries such as: Steel production, auto production, chemical, ship building , technology etc etc non-competitive in a global market. Our labor costs simply make us non-competitive with Country's such as South Korea, Malaysia, China, Viet Nam, India etc etc.

Bottom line: We simply do not have a firm grasp on how to compete in a global market - we will in time but not today or tomorrow. We became vulnerable when our unions refused to acknowledge the threat of overseas labor costs and the impacts those woud have on our own labor market and economy. Unions have always had the short term outlook - what can I get today rather than a long term view of the economy and the world. We got our goodies up front and lost our future in the bargain (at least tempoarily). Unions serve one purpose - to ensure our work environments are safe anything beyond that they become a determint to economic growth for our Economy and our Country.

Spg: Notice how I avoided mentioning above the long term relationship between unions and the American communist party (Great depression through the 70's) or the history of widespread corruption and mob control of unions by the MAFIA throughout most of US Union history.

Bring home all americans that are employed by our government from overseas,stop sending my taxes to foriegn countries and make sure every American citizen is housed, fed ,and employed then and only then should we consider helping any other nation.I'm one of the fortunate middle class people I have a job and a home and can pay my bills.However,6 years ago I was putting money in savings today I'm maybe 2 months away from not making it.This is mainly due to the cost of living increasing and my wages not keeping pace,Large corps are the main reason for this as they control both sides of that,

cooch: so you want me to use my tax dollars to feed, cloth and house americans - better idea lets create jobs for americans and let them pay for their own food, clothes and homes. I already pay to much in taxes and tired of all the freeloaders in our system. Lets start having the 42% of Americans that pay no income tax start paying.

Frankly compared to the number of Americans freeloading off the system and our illegal immigrant issues anything we send overseas is a drop in the bucket.

All the boy babies shuld be castrated so no more sex for them like the cats and dogs.

Americans pump out 68 per 1000 babies, more than 3 times any other industrial nation, and we use 4 times the energy of the other nations, for every American baby born, 3x4=12 other babies will starve to death and die in some 3rd world outpost, never having heard Barney laugh at the Cookie Monster, num, numm.

Unions are a very small part of any problem. Play that silly game all you want. That does not make it true.

Shawn, I have no problem helping a country where they feed mud pies to the children in order to fill their stomaches...unless you would just like to drop a bomb on them???

Who said anything about attacking them, let them continue eating mud sandwiches.

We have enough broke-a** breeders of our own to contend with, we don't need the rest of the world's as well.

@Ternan. You forgot to mention the control of our government by corporate interests. Just where are individual workers supose to get any voice at all if not for the unions? I do not belong to a union and I know they have plenty of excesses, but without them setting some basic standards we would as workers be in much worse shape. Now, how do you explain the fact that since we have fewer union workers than any time in the past 75 years and jobs are being exported at record pace? Corporate profits are also at record levels. Seems to me maybe you would explain that as well so the misguided masses could understand.

as u type on something MADE IN CHINA, sipping coffee from something MADE IN CHINA, talking across something MADE IN CHINA, to sit down on something MADE IN CHINA. grats

If you all think rest of the world is problem you all take a good look at yourselves: where all your ancestors are come from? i don't know why the pan has to call kettle black. You all going to eat not just mud pies to fill your stomacks eat rocks. Monsanto is an evil corporation wants to control the seeds. I would like to see all that man are working for monsanto to castrate them selves to control their own seeds so they would not breed evil children like them selves. castrate all the man become like the seedless fruits they are producing Man are the problem And the only evil.

Ternan,

You post 6.6 is as close to out right lies as one can get.

Union power and the power of the American worker coincide completely.

Unions -brought us the 8 hour work day. Now without unions many Americans are working 60 and 80 hours a week to get by.

Unions- brought decent pensions to the American worker. Now without Unions we are back to depending on the Stock market hoping our elderly don't loss their homes because of another crash.

Unions brought us work place protections: and now without them miners(and others)are dieing almost daily as corporate CEO's enrich themselves.

As for Mafia connections yes there were some but they all were connected to the Unions need for muscle to fight against Corporate Management thugs.

The very idea of blaming the decimation of our economy on workers is not only ludicrous but rather disgusting!

Corporate America has worked with the Republican party to get rid of most of our anti-trust regulations allowing a massive multinational take over of American production. Thus allowing the production of goods to move over seas. That happening with almost no real tax cost.

If you want to look at one massive cost the American Companies must absorb that puts us at a huge disadvantage. HEALTH CARE!! Other industrialized nations have Universal Health Care for their citizenry, giving their production companies a massive cost advantage.

In the third world they care nothing about the workers thus give them nothing. Of coarse we end up paying through the nose in Foreign Military aid to prop up the puppet regimes that allow our corporations to operate with impunity.

spg64-1292127

Your comment is worthy of more 'likes' then we are allowed to give! Thanks, and

Peace

(-:

spg-64: Now take it one step further. Who are corporate America?

May I offer:

The Smartest Guys in the Room. The really expensive Room.

Idioth, corn we EAT does not get used for ethanol production. About half the corn grown in the US is inedible to humans anyway. According to US Grain Council, 43% of corn is for livestock feed and residual (storage). 41% is for industrial use, seed (to replant fields) and FOOD we eat. 15% gets exported.

Ah, another anti-ethanol zealot. Do some research before spouting off please, MmmMmmbeer has it right. Furthermore, they've found new ways to create ethanol from switch grass that is actually a much more efficient process.

I'm not an anti-ethanol zealot. I'm an anti-CORN-ethanol zealot.

Indigo: Take the ethanol out of the gasoline (10% in most states) end result is higher oil usuage and increased cost of gasoline. Its simply a wash and as stated by Mmmmm and Broke: The corn used does nbot come out of our food supply and other technologies are being developed that will use a variety of different organism to replace corn in the production of ethanol.

Lets also stop paying farmers not to grow and eliminate price suppports for crops and agricultural products. We can than truly compete in the global market with our agriculture leading the way. If our technology develops to the level expected we could become a net export of ethanol also.

Corn that is fed to cattle can also be fed to people but needs to be processed. There is seed corn and sweet corn. Hard corn, fed to livestock can be ground and then you have cornmeal. Sweet corn is what you eat off the cob or can or whatever without having to grind it. Hominy is corn soaked in lime. Go look at Mexico where corn is their staple crop and see how many ways they have come up with to cook and eat corn

if making ethanol from corn is soo cost effective for using less oil, why does the government have to subsidize it? Could it be that if they didn't that the price of ethanol would be soo high that regular gasoline would be that much cheaper? So yea lets pay more in taxes to subsidize a product the essentilly does nothing but makes our taxes go up and Companies like ADM a ton of money..makes sense to me ..(sarc)

So Indigo...you'd rather EAT the GMO corn that they're making Ethanol from ?

Be my guest.

I don't think most people want to know how many different ways they can eat corn. They want to suck down their over proccessed, super-sized big mac meals and think it's ok because they chase it with a bucket of diet coke. It will come to a point, I hope not, but probably in my lifetime, if you don't know how to survive on little to nothing then you won't survive.

From a thermodynamics perspective, adding ethanol to fuel is absolutely stupid. It takes tons of fossil fuel to generate it, and it has less energy density than gasoline, meaning you have to fill up more often for the same mileage, thus negating any percieved reduction in emmissions (note I said percieved, if you take into account the production side of the chain then adding ethanol to fuel actually increases the carbon footprint of your car). But hey we have a corn lobby, so dammit we're using ethanol.

Now you'll get all the 'field corn isn't food corn' GMO FrankenFarmers and all the 'Let Them Burn SwitchGrass' fanatics spouting their drivel. GMO processed field corn is in EVERY PROCESSED FOOD in the form of High Fructose Corn Substance, with 6x the daily allowable mercury dose and with DIRECT correlation to Early Onset Diabetes which began to soar when HFCS was shoved through the FDA.

Switchgrass will NEVER be used for methanol fuel, as long as there is field corn, DUHH! And methanol will never be safe as fuel, it's extremely TOXIC.

The important number to remember is 46,000,000 American jobless, homeless, part-time, on-call, no salary, no benefits, no pensions, no healthcare. Hey, that sounds like a sad old country song.

And those 46,000,000 99'rs will NEVER be able to afford the 30% Ethanol Mandate stealthed into the Fed's Quantitative Easing, with 30% Ethanol's 25% LOWER GAS MILEAGE, forcing you to BUY 25% MORE FUEL and pay 25% MORE STATE GAS TAXES! Are you starting to get the picture?

'4.bp.blogspot.com/_FYQrSFgrMSQ/S--6zlKcMdI/AAAAAAAAGcg/o8SONe9nhPQ/s1600/goya-saturn.jpg'

or we could stop acting like prices are going up when they are not. thanks to walmart and competition.

Does any of you make a research who really owns those corporations. You all shuld go after them. They are the another leeaches of the world.Working hard to destroy humanity Along with George Soros Evil man.

So why is Brazil happy being petroleum-free?

Brazil is not petroleum free, they have a state run petoleum company similar to Mexico. Obama funneled approximately 400 million into Brazil's offshore drilling company, a company which Soros owns about a quarter of

Corn ethanol is also a net loss from an energy standpoint. It takes more energy to convert corn into alcohol than the alcohol releases when burned in an internal combustion engine.

People don't realize that corn ethanol isn't green at all. There's something better out there....we just haven't found it yet. Would rather see subsidies to toward finding that solution that pouring it into other countries.

Sugar cane ethanol is much better, but the USA doesn't have the climate to grow the stuff. Basically, corn is a starch that must be converted to sugar and then converted to alcohol. Sugar cane ethanol starts out as sugar so one level of processing is eliminated.

again must point out that corn we EAT does not get used for ethanol production. About half the corn grown in the US is inedible to humans anyway. According to US Grain Council, 43% of corn is for livestock feed and residual (storage). 41% is for industrial use, seed (to replant fields) and FOOD we eat. 15% gets exported.

I agree that corn ethanol is a wasteful process, but until reliance on oil energy drops that's the alternative we have. The corn used for fermentaiton has a high cellulose content that humans (and even some microbes) cannot process efficiently on their oown. However through engineering cellulosic processing is getting more efficient and really, fuel stock plants are harder and harder to find (can use sugarcane perhaps, some tall grasses, but the majority of plant material is not usable for alcohol fermentation). Many universities, private companies, and even gov't. grants are already going towards finding alternatives.

Just an idea (and please respond if anyone knows more correct info), but why doesn't our society build geothermal plants to harvest the earths limitless supply of thermal energy, convert it into electricity, and use that to power our cars (which obviously would have to be electric!)??

I understand this is not a quick nor easy proposition, but wouldn't it make more sense than to collect, refine, and burn enormous quantities of a resource that is quickly becoming finite? Save the remaining petroleum for uses that cannot yet be readily changed.

What does the anonymous voice of the Web think about this??

Actually electric cars have been around for 40 years.The automotive industry killed them in the late 70's to protect thier interest in oil consumption

We have a geothermal heating/cooling unit in our home. It's a mid to early 80's model, very cutting edge for the time. There are several geothermal plants in California. It would be a start getting our power grids cleaned up.

Big Ed: Natural gas reserves in the US are estimated at a 50 year supply - then what??? Ethanol and technologies like ethanol and shale oil etc are simply capabilities that will allow us to extend our petroleum resources a bit further into the future. We still need to solve the issues of a renewable energy source and reduce consumption.

Ethanol can use other types of nutrients we are simply learning which are the most viable - corn has been and will always be a short term solution and takes little or nothing out of the human food chain.

cooch: Electric cars are part of a solution but will never be the solution to a renewable energy source. Bottom line: electricity comes from someplace - ah power generation which means coal fired or nuclear energy plants. The greatest benefit of electric cars is not a reduction in energy consumption but a reduction in CO2 and other pollutants.

The Automotive industry stalled on production of electric cars in the 70's, 80's and 90's or several reasons - most important reason - no interest by the American public. Also technology (battery specifically) could not support it, the infrastructure was non-existent, and GVT programs supporting it were non-exitenet. When your paying 35 cents a gallon for gas who needs an electric car?? Industry builds products the consumer wants - the American public did not want electric cars in the 70's or 80's or 90'. They have a "mild" interest in Hybrids today.

wah wah wah really people?? "stop using oil, use something else" wah wah wah now it's "stop using corn" wtf do y'all want???

Yes with the production of electric cars we clean the air. BUT ever been to a battery manufacturing plant? The byproducts of a plant are considerably more dangerous to our water supply, than the extra carbon we put in the air from burning fossil fuels. Hydrogen sounds good until you start to understand how much water is used in the production of it. All of our resources are finite on this planet...and until we can get into space and harvest the unlimited supplies of energy there, we will need population control here. Time for that WW3. I think most who will otherwise starve to death will appreciate a quick painless death to a slow agonizing one. But then again. Who knows? Maybe the 5 billion have nots will defeat the 1 billion haves?

mmmmmbeermmm---You are perpetuating a falsehood.. Ethanol does take away from edible crops and is not made only from corn that is inedible. You must be a ADM spokesperson. I worked in an ethanol plant that sold to ADM. So don't play that corporate tune to me.

exactly what brazil is thinking. palin stupid award to u

Whatever. The US has low prices because of subsidies. Stop spreading lies.

Jesse, Thank you. I have many friends that farm here in Idaho and I must tell you the majority of the population is clueless. I can tell you that water rights and land are the largest most underestimated commodity in the U.S. We might live in rural areas but when food and water get tight we will scratch each others backs. You cannot grow anything in concrete....

According to the reading I have done in the past, I believe both of you may be correct, to a degree.

My only concern with your post, Jess, is that you feel strongly against eating organic at all. I understand your point, however. Yes, yields suffer with organic production because our modern, conventional farming methods are extremely efficient. Mother Nature, however, is not always as efficient as human ingenuity. But that is precisely the reason why organic is best, imho. When organic food is produced, the idea is to grow food in accordance with nature's laws. Modern methods obviously have numerous risks to our environment that are not easily corrected. When we attempt to circumvent the natural laws of nature, and try to "cheat" the system, so to speak, we ultimately lose.

As a doctor, I see this all the time with pharmaceuticals. Drugs force the body to do something it otherwise would not do on its own, therefore, there are inherent risks that are produced as a result. This is why most medications are intrinsically harmful, and ought to be administered more cautiously.

With organic food, we could certainly still feed the world, but with two major aspects. One, we need to go back to growing gardens for our personal uses. A small 20x20 ft. garden can grow enough produce to support a family of four, generally. Second, we would have to implement "industrial organic", which is already being done, but not on a widespread scale. We can grow copious amounts of food, it is simply the methods behind it. To expand on this thought, please realize that less than 3% of the American population grows all the food for the rest of us.

Certainly, due to the lesser yields of organically-grown crops, our food prices would likely increase, but not if we each had a small garden of our own. And we would have to allocate more people and resources to growing food, much like it was in generations past.

For a good read, try "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. Great insight into the corn production in our country.

Jess: What happens when your soil runs out? Keep adding more chemicals? As to food yields, good soil yields good crops. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that every year you buy your seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. from the same corporations and you do so because it is commercially viable and convenient. Do you rotate crops? Have you explored other methods of farming?

As to everyone growing a garden...good luck. City dwellers don't generally have yards and the yields are sometimes good and sometimes not. I applaud the idea of growing your own, sometimes the cost of growing your own in time and money makes heading to the supermarket the cheaper way to go

@ IndyPatriot-1934313

I have read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" among other publications by Mr. Pollan.

Another thing I have against organic production is the environmental implications it brings. Organic farming requires tillage. Tillage is a fuel hog and promotes erosion. Organic farming also has to get its nutrient requirements from somewhere. That somewhere is manure (ie: poop of some animal). Just think of the bacteria, yikes! Sounds like a recall in waiting to me.

Also, there is much more to food production than corn. I notice none of you mention soybeans, wheat, sorghum, alfalfa, ect, why is that? Maybe because of the lack of media attention on them, hmmm interesting.

I don't know much about your personal finances Mr. Patriot, but as a doctor I am assuming that you probably don't have to worry about the efficiency of your garden in paying for itself. Well, I do.

@ Imoen of Telengard

I have to have a certain return per acre to make any money at the end of the crop year. This is where those subsidies come in. The Multi-Peril Crop Insurance I purchase is federally subsidized to keep me in business on those less than stellar years when I have a crop failure of some sort. This keeps your food prices low and keeps your face out of the picture of those people rioting for food. Clear? Ok good.

@mygirl1

My soil is not going to "run out" because I use cultural methods among conventional methods to control pest, conserve moisture, and keep the soil (and the nutrients attached to it) in place. And no, I do not buy from the same corporations every year. We have to make money, that includes shopping for the best value, duh. You need to spend some time with a farmer sweetie.

We have low prices because the American dollar is the worlds reserve currency to base products cost on, we also with that have the right just to print money out of thin air. With the devaluing of the dollar we will loose that status and we WILL be just like a 3rd world country. This is only the beginning of what is going to be a long, tough road for many Americans and certainly millions of people will die because they lack even the most basic survival skills.

The USA has taken severe advantage of the rights and privileges we have (had) in this country. We have for too long allowed these politicians to have carte blanche with our rights and we do not hold them accountable for what they do. Most Americans are so stupid they have NO CLUE how our government works, how our currency and financial freedom rest in the hands of The Federal Reserve (a private owned bank) when that is in fact unconstitutional for anyone other than OUR government to print our money. You can blame the congress in 1913 for that and EVERY congress after for not repealing it.

The people of the USA need to step back form the TV, internet and there Ipods and look into what is going on here...otherwise it's fema camps and slavery in our future.

My personal finances aside, a small garden (I'm talking very simple, here) is not greatly expensive! The cost of seed for a 20x20 ft plot, which is roughly the size I have, is minimal (say, $20?). I do not use fertilizers, ammonia "fixers", pesticides, herbicides, etc. I do not need these things since my garden is so small and manageable. Instead, I till by hand (elbow grease), use my chicken's poop and table scraps for compost, and weed/harvest continually throughout the short, Maine growing season.

But understandably, this works well because it is a small, personal garden. Obviously, on a grand, industrial scale, the logistics grow exponentially. As I stated previously, we would certainly have to allocate more human resources to growing food organically. A greater percentage of our population would have to work in agriculture. Who knows, I suspect our society may be heading down this path anyways, given the current economic situation. Interestingly, in the early 1930's there were approx. 3 families living in urban areas for every family that lived in the countryside. Now, the ratio is closer to 75:1. This is a big problem!! You all can see why, I'm sure.

Plus, Jess, I'm not saying there is an easy, workable solution here. The answers are going to come hard. However, the Earth sustained herself for millenia with natural farming methods, it is our modern agribusiness that has circumvented this sustainability.

Apparently Jesse is a MONSTERANTO/Big Ag SHILL , who probably also has illegals working his property ( which is the MAIN reason why food is ARTIFICIALLY CHEAP in this country ) . Either that or he's just ignorant and has been thoroughly brainwashed.

In the end... farmers like him are part of the PROBLEM and CAUSE the problem, they're definitely NOT part of the SOLUTION.

Jess is a hypocrite. His/her post from the short comments was a big "yippie! food prices are going up, I'll get a raise...". Going by his/her other post it's like "... blah blah blah keep prices down...".

As both a regular corn farmer, then an organic truck farmer, I'd have to say you're both right. We need good tilth management practices, the soils in the MidWest used to be rich black, now they're dunn like the OK dustbowl days, that tells me industrial farming is unsustainable, but organic farming is unobtainable except on indignent small-holdings with lots of cheap labor.

So in a sense, it's a 'done deal'. Let's see the tab.

And here we are again, Big Agra dumping US grains and meats south of the border, just CRUSHING indigent farming coops and driving them to El Norte, while their small-holding are consolidated and pawned off to ... Big Agra!! The greatest disaster you never heard about playing out in Central America.

But where I stepped off the industrial farming wagon was GMO corn, spliced from the genes of BACTERIA! You are literally ingesting bacterial genes so powerful they destroy the gut lining of insects and small animals, wiping out all instar-grub insects, not just corn borers, ALL instar-grub insects which contact the GMO corn pollen are at risk. Bees, butterflies, beetles, bugs. All.

So are small farm animals like fowls. There is a DIRECT correlation between Big Agra dumping GMO corn when the EU first refused to allow imports, and Avian Flu epidemics. GMO corn was dumped to Russia, China, Vietnam and Mexico. Where were massive Avian Flu epidemics? Russia, China, Vietnam and Mexico. Bacterial genes in the GMO feed corn DESTROY THE GUT LINING making the fowl susceptible to disease always present in the environment.

Now ask yourself, EVERY CORN CHIP BRAND IS FRITO-LAY and EVERY PET FOOD LABEL IS PURINA. Go ahead, read the labels. Does it say 'GMO corn'? Heck no! How many kids today suffer from allergic reactions? MILLIONS. And what do they snack on? HFCS soda, and GMO corn chips! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to correlate HFCS / GMO to Early Onset Diabetes and Auto-Immune Allergies. Where do you think those BACTERIAL genes end up?

They end up as YOU! Your DNA is becoming GMO. Eat organic ... and survive.

Herman: Right on, I support you wholeheartedly and do support organic. I also agree with the GMO foods. Also the pesticides and herbicides. Remember the herbicide that was used on hays in england? Fed to livestock, poop composted and then used as fertilizer and the crops died off. Seems the herbicide didn't die off, but instead remainded intact through an animal's alimentary canal and was just as effective as when first dumped from the bag. That is scary stuff...

Jess: Poop makes great fertilizer, of course you have to compost it which is what farmers have done for centuries. If you have a dairy you have tons of compostable poop which can be used to fertilize fields. Also, poop is methane gas, a fuel source...ta da. Renewable daily and in great quantities. No one mentions that for some reason, guess because massive dollars can't be made based on an item's scarcity.

As to farmer time...look closely at the corporations, how many are subsidiaries of Monsanto and dow?

@ gemini618

Who is MONSTERANTO? I have never heard of them.

As for illegals, that has no bearing on this discussion, keep to the point. For the record, due to the mechanization of American Ag, my farm employs my husband and I only (last I checked no illegals).

The rest of your comment doesn't dignify a response.

@ Indy-Patriot 193413

I see where you are coming from. I agree that America would be much healthier if they all could eat whole grains and fresh fruit and veggies. On the farm ratios, they are a testament to American Farmers. We are doing more with less everyday. I think you have good ideas, the answer is like you said going to be a bit of everything you and I have mentioned. I just wish more consumers would be as well read as you. It would cut down on the amount of uneducated postings (see gemini above).

Happy Trails!

@JEREMY-664722

Way to revert to 5th grade with the name calling, very mature. If/when food prices go up yes I will enjoy the pay raise. In the mean time you need to re-read all of my posts. They pertain to why prices are low right now and how you off-farm consumers can help keep prices down. But, hey if you want to pay more go ahead our rural economies can sure use it. Thanks for playing.

Can't be a whole lot worse than the other sh*t that is put into foods...

you know the Hopi indians talked about the sea turning black and the life it holds dying. the bible talks about famine. All we need now is a bright "blue star", and we will then kn ow we are all screwed.

Eric: Speaking of the contaminated food supply...
When will America wake up and start asking to know why autism has gone from 1:150,000 children to 1:110 in a period of 30 years?

Indigo Halo:

Well we all know the Autism IS NOT caused by immunization shots so I wonder what all of those parents will blame for their child's disorder now.

Not sure. But it *is* a disaster. and there *is* a reason. An illness doesn't go from 1:150000 to 1:110 in thirty years without something fundamental changing in some profound way.

Hal

I saw Brad M.s 2012 decoded last night also, and I know this is going off topic but did you notice that the predictions were 1/3d of the seas would go black and that 1/3d of the people would die due to earthquakes and they tied that to the gulf oil spill and the Haiti earthquake. My question is...these predictions seem to insinuate or encompass the planet , how then can we say these things are happening when it was only the gulf and Haiti...not the entire oceans or the entire earth? Sometimes I think we interpret these things the way we want to, rather than the way they are. As for what we are doing to our food supply...I think we should feed our own for a given amount of time until we can get back on our feet as a nation and let all the other countries pick up the slack for once! someone, also above mentioned we cannot feed the world organically...maybe not...but we can all try to grow our own or buy locally if possible. I live in a rural community and we have numerous small organic farms around us which is a real plus...I also grow what I can without all the garbage thats put into the soils from our bread basket or from overseas ( only God knows whats in our foods these days, or better yet...where the heck it comes from!!!

I so agree with you Indigo, I personally still think it has something to do with immunizations I don't care WHAT the news says... You go from giving a kid one vaccination at a time to SIX there's a problem, not to mention the things they do to our food all for "public safety" you've got to be kidding me.

I don't care if the cost of organic food and products is sky high. I will NEVER EVER put conventionally grown /processed, POISONED FRANKENFOOD in my mouth, chemicals on my body, in my house, on my lawn.... EVER EVER EVER. I refuse to support Big Agri, Big Chem, Big Pharma and all the rest of the greedy MOFO's that are out there to destroy us all for nothing more than for greed and profit.

Big shout out to gemini618! I'm with you on not using unnecessary chemical on my lawn (or lack there of), in my house, or where ever I can avoid it. I totally agree that profit has been put above our countries/planets welfare. It's sad the average person doesn't have the financial resource's to buy organic. However, anybody can move away from using the toxic household cleaners sold by mainstream manufacturers. Substituting good old baking soda, salt, vinegar, lavender oil and other natural, nontoxic items to clean with, is cheaper, effective and safe.

They poisoned the fish in the sea and everything around the bibel belt.They want you all to eat that sea food and get cancer fast and die: or die in the Fema Camps. Pick your choice.

Yes I agree with you He is going to run but not hide we will not vote for him again. When people voted For The one of the most evil man <George Bush and Cheyney>That was a big mistake. This one isn't any better i wasted my vote on them .This is a system of corruption of how to make voting public suffer.Before we all go to the polls to vote: they are kissing up everybodies derier.This time I don't want to vote I just want to fart.

True. These third world countries have far too many people. They keep on having children they can't feed. Look at Africa for example. And all these countries expect Other countries to feed them. B.S.

We do not feed Mexico. Please make informed responses.

Religion. Make babies for the glory of God. Please find some other interpretation of the Bible, Koran, or whatever faith or cult you believe in.

castrate the man all over the world, turn them in to unics so they cant have sex and father a child. let their pennis just hang in there.That will serve them right. Lets face it only evil is in this world is man's creation. They are not GOD only GOD is GOD. man like POPE is purely the Most evil form of mankind.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"

There you go Dave. A wise man once told me, " in order to build a perfect world we have to show a little mercy and compassion."

The Obama family seems to be into the redistribution of wealth. Mrs Obama has a cause to fight fat, "operation fat fight?"

How about the redistribution of fat? For every pound a person is over weight they have to make payment to a person who is under weight. A tax on fat?

Man are not wise they they create evil they are not wise they are just evil Like Hitler was and will be.Nothing has change.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."

Rather than sending money to these countries governments, we should spend our resources teaching the people to farm and ranch. Teach them how to get the water out of the ground for irrigation, teach them how to be self-sufficient. Then, once we have given them the knowledge and even helped with the initial groundwork, we are DONE. If they do not follow through out of laziness or whatever, it is no longer our responsibility.

The same could be said for this country. Stop the government handouts, if you don't work, you don't eat. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no issue with temporary or short term assistance when someone is going through a hard time, but when there are GENERATIONS of people who have had no other job than welfare, it is time to stop.

There are acres of land in this country that would be prime farmland and would enable us to grow more food than we need, but farmers are not allowed to use it or they are paid premium price to NOT farm it. (They make more doing nothing than they could ever make producing) "Back in the day", families had gardens for staple foods and those who didn't would help neighbors with their gardens and they would share the bounty once it was harvested. Yes, weather conditions play a part is what is grown, but anything that is grown will reduce the burden on the government to provide these necessities.

It's not our responsibility to begin with.That is our problem

Wrong..it's EVERYONE's "responsibility" and people like YOU are the problem.

It isn't our responsibility. People like YOU who keep claiming it is are the BIGGEST problem.

Hey embarrassed to be here! would you rather be on face-book? at least this forum gives dialog to think bout!!!

Now who is the Christian here? The ones saying it is or responsibility, or the ones saying it isn't?

Who is professing to be christian?

Already do and it does make a difference in the home budget and the taste of the food!

I grew up on home grown food. Now I have been growing my own garden for a couple of years. I have enough food canned and stored in my pantry to last through a couple of "unfruitful" years if weather conditions are not favorable. How many people in recent generations do you think would know how to make a loaf of bread or biscuits if all they had was some flour? We have forgotten how to fend for ourselves with all the processed convenience foods.

Could you butcher a chicken or pig? Could you hunt a rabbit or deer? Could you grow potatoes or beans? If the grocery store shelves were bare tomorrow, could you survive a week? I could!!! That is because as kids, we were taught how to be self sufficient. As a 40-something, even people in my generation don't know how to perform basic "survival" functions. If they can't open a can of something and pop it in the microwave, they can't cook. We have failed our children and need to fix it - FAST!

I grow quite a bit of food myself and buy from local farmers. It is not always cheaper to buy local produce, but at least you are supporting real farmers and bypassing the parasites who profit from being in the middle.

swimmom...yea that sounds stupendous...it would be great if we could all (300million of us) live off the land. Unfortunately that's is impossible. I don't think the animal population in this country could sustain it's self for very long if we were ALL killing animals to survive. Growing our own Gardens and sharing with our neighbors who can't or don't have the property to do so makes much more sense. Learning to make the essentials I do have to agree with you on though. Imagine getting a bushel of corn for what? 7-8$ the products you can make yourself with that are probably worth 50 or 60$ Wheat the same thing. Even if you just bought your own flour and baked your own bread you're savig ALOT of money. And I think your neighbors would much rather show up at yer place once a day to buy a loaf of bread for 50 cents than go to a store and pay a dollar for a loaf of god knows treated with what bread. Greed has gotten into the food supply. And the ONLY people who aren't benefiting from it are the farmers. Maybe they should look into opening there own for profit bakeries and mills for making flour and the staples that we ourselves can turn into goods and cut out corporate America altogether.

George: S510 (the 'food safety bill') is the attempt to control what people can grow by stating that homegrown food may be 'unsafe' and therefore confiscatable. It was toned down from the original version to (currently) exclude home gardens and organic farmers.

Raw milk sends the food police twisting around the bend, literally with guns drawn as happened to an organic food co-op in california. Please remember that the food lobbies are huge, powerful and controlled by big AG biz, big Chemical (Monsanto and Dow) and they don't like competition. Rather like the war on marijuana, easy to grow in your backyard, very hard to control and tax so...against the law. The same was done with moonshiners. Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has expanded

Although I am not an avid supporter of population "control", I feel your post is spot on!

Unfortunately, our population is growing exponentially due to increased life spans, consistent birth rates (per capita is actually less than in previous centuries), and social contentment.\

But, to re-state your position, there is no happy ending in store for us.....

I would actually say that's incorrect. The developed nations of the world have a static or negative population growth.

The US even is at 1.8 children per couple as an average. This is upped when you toss in illegal Immigrants into the mix. The same goes for France, Britain, etc. Hell, Russia has such a problem with negative population growth, Putin throws "make a baby" days. (That's tongue in cheek I'm not sure what he actually calls the day)

The native populations have got it down. However, introduce the uneducated, illiterate underclass to the welfare state and the food problem is only one time bomb nations have ticking. It all goes back to border/Immigration control, and cutting off the subsidized goods we constantly provide the developing world through the UN etc.

Global population is expanding out of control, but you are correct about developed nations. Thank you for the clarification.