Food Speculation A Cause Of Runaway Prices???
By CraftyCorner
@CraftyCorner (5600)
United States
April 21, 2008 2:09pm CST
Get a taste of this. It made me sick to my stomach! People are starving because they cannot afford the high price of getting themselves fed and there are fat cats getting rich on jacking up the cost of food yet higher.
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http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2008/04/hunger-compilation-and-action.html
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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/agriculture-food-etfs-etns-hedge/story.aspx?guid=%7B9247B79C%2D08C5%2D4911%2D9332%2DAF92B5EF0661%7D&dist=sp_inthis
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While there are supply and demand problems, this is another bubble. Just like the housing bubble that just burst leaving people in foreclosure. While that was tragic, lack of housing doesn't kill directly that I know of. Lack of food does. Especially in the third world.
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Growing a garden isn't possible for many people, especially those driven from their homes by war or urban dwellers living on properties unsuitable for such for whatever reason.
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Hopping off soapbox...
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Lambchoper (538)
• United States
26 Apr 08
Get back on that box! Speak up, speak out. There is no excuse for milk costing $4.00 a gallon nor bread costing$4.00 dollars a loaf. When I was sixteen the minimum wage was $4.65 an hour now 20 years later it's $6.55 an hour in my state. That is a whopping increase of $1.90. When I was 16 bread was $.35 cents a loaf now it's $3.17 for the same loaf of bread. A $2.82 difference.
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My sister-in laws family owned and operated a struggling dairy farm. Milk was cheap so the government ran around dumping surplus milk on the ground, they bought all the live stock form dairies like my sister in laws for a hefty fee.
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One minute they were living paycheck to paycheck next thing you know they were millionaires. The one condition was they could not operate the dairy for 5 years. So they very easily converted to a feed lot and made a hefty profit from their land that way.
While I think it's just grand that this all worked out for them ,I think it's bull that they purposely wasted that milk to increase profit and they did this knowing that more people were going to starve than were already.
The all mighty buck is a plague on humanity.
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
27 Apr 08
I don't even drink milk any more, as I'm trying to LIVE on just $1200 a month disability and help two aging parents at the same time.
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Beans when bought dry are relatively reasonable. Peanut butter is fast, relatively cheap energy food at $7 for four pounds.
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Tomatoes pop out of pots anytime of year if grown indoors under lights. Little sponges do the bee's job. Bell peppers and herbs are the same.
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I am just glad that spuds are rich in calcium and grow just about anywhere any time.
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I'm allergic to wheat products so I have not noted the price of pasta or bread.
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When you buy stuff that isn't prepackaged, you make a big savings for yourself. I basically live out of a crockpot, ricepot, and microwave.
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Slow cooking crockpots are actually very convenient. If you choose one day a week to do your prep work, then just toss things in crockpots in the mornings, you come home tired to a ready made meal in the evening, and perhaps toss a side in the microwave...and instant fast, cheap, healthy food. Your budget will stretch further.
@Lambchoper (538)
• United States
28 Apr 08
Those are some great tips. Thank you, they are much appreciated. I am on a small campaign to cut my spending on everything. I am having my own little protest to the current economy by not feeding the machine. They can do without at least a small portion of my money.
1 person likes this
@vera5d (4004)
• United States
22 Apr 08
It is terrible how expensive food is...i can't go to the grocery store without spending $150...I am not buying anything frivolous - milk, eggs, diapers, butter, flour, spaghetti supplies, bread, occasionally ground beef or chicken if it is on sale (sadly $3 a pound for either is a "sale")...if i get cheese or cereal or much else like peanut butter or bananas - it's over. I can't afford to go grocery shopping anymore. Plus it costs me nearly $8 to get there and back because of the price of gas and where we live.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
23 Apr 08
Sounds to me like you are going to the cleaners and not the grocers! Ground turkey is cheaper than beef, and you don't taste the difference in your cooking as turkey is the tofu of meat.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
27 Apr 08
Good Lord! That does stink. Do you have a Safeway? They sell ground turkey in plastic tubes, or they did, for three dollars each. They were a pound and a half, lean.
@clrumfelt (5597)
• Tennessee Ridge, Tennessee
21 Apr 08
People getting rich off the backs of the poor
and destitute are going to have a lot to answer for
some day. One of the chief contributors to the worldwide
food crisis is the turning of corn into ethanol. That
is one of the worse investments imaginable, and so
many people going hungry because of it.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
22 Apr 08
I have to agree.
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Vertical farming may be a solution to that issue, leaving farm land for both cars and people. Biofuels aren't going away, but with vertical farming and other crop extenders, you can have your food and drive it as they are insisting on doing now by starving poor people.
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A friend sent me this little web ditty and it made me ill. All I can say is I hope this isn't true!
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http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/6050
