Close Topic Options

Food Shortage Controversy - Page 5

Mousetrails, you seem to have a problem with reading my replies and bent set on sticking with playing a tune over and over, but here it is:

I do not know if you feel guilty or something about the way you treat your employees that you feel the necessity to 'defend' your morale as an employer, but I just do not get it. Maybe someone can explain to me what I am NOT SEEING in your deliberation with my words.

And... before you run, I believe Krakyn gave you a reply.

Controversy Shortage Food

I have to agree with Krakyn here. THe oil companies have done all they can to make sure we are dependant on their oil. THey have gone out of their way to suppress the technology that would have put us in a position of using a lot less fuel and lessening our dependance on foreign oil. The fact of making sure the car industry does not put out a big block V8 that gets over 50 miles per gallon proves it. Making sure that the electric cars do not have compatible chargers is just another example. Congress not giving money for research and development of alternate fuels is a third way to see this.

Now we are getting quickly to a big juncture. DO we keep using food to produce fuel or use it to help feed the hungry of this world? This is a question that you and I can not answer. IT is a question that can only be answered by the governments. I remember a time where corn, wheat and soybeans sat on the ground rotting because we could sale food to other countries because we were not on friendly terms with them. I know a lot of fields still go unused because a farmer does not get paid if the crops he harvested go bad from sitting on the ground. Why should the farmers suffer because the governments want to play mean games on each other. If I was a farmer I would be move than willing to sale my corn to the ethanol plants because it is a sure bet they will buy it. IF I grow corn or soybeans to help solve world hunger I have no guarantee that the government is going to let it be sold for that purpose. Now everyone is getting mad because there is so much food shortage in the world. I think the governments needs to do something about this.

Food Shortage Controversy History & Civil Business Politics

mousetrails please do stay you have seen more then us and yes I do wish to hear what you have to say as how else can I learn? I have always enjoyed the company of those older then myself for that very reason.

I also know sometimes a man knows something is wrong and it can be very hard to put on paper in a way that conveys both the feeling and importance that is delivered in person.

My dad always spoke poorly of the hippie generation and he is your age (72 to be exact). I know much of how he grew and lived even my son still feels the call of the dirt. I wake more and more often wishing I never chose to leave the land but what is done is done. My dad spoke poor of them because he felt the illicit lifestyle would bring damnation down on them and the country as a result since they are the future leaders.

But no matter the cause for the oil prices and the shortage of food the question is how do we get going again.


I do see the small farmer being the key to this answer problem is who is left that has the know how and the gumption to do it. I am a great example yup I cna go work the land but will I nope. I am getting to darn close to filling my pension. The after that I might but only very small scale for a small number of years. I fight with this as I should be teaching what I know to my boys. My grandfather could have built anything he ever needed with his hands...My father lost some and I now none of what my grandfather knew by his own choice. He knew the toll smithing took on one body. But it is thin thinking that has caused us to get where we are depending on other to do what we should do our selves.

Page 5 Controversy Shortage Food

UN sets up food crisis task force

A United Nations task force is to be set up to tackle the crisis triggered by rising global food prices.
Ref. https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7372393.stm

Controversy Shortage Food

I am glad to see they are at least looking to produce more in their own countries as that helps every one in a poor country. I hope heavy levies or fines will be issued on countries that are hording or preventing export on their own surplus stocks. We need to support each other world wide and in our own countries.

It is hording and high tax levies placed on certain countries for other political reasons that are going to hurt us. At the same time we can not ignore child labor issues or nuclear threats. A very difficult balance but food to the staving must occur.

I think pressure need to put on the States and Canada to encourage the vast unused farm lands here to be re-cultivated as we alone could likely put an end to the shortage if that was done and I would not be shocked if they could also produce enough to met some demands for biofuels also. But only if the governments make it a priority.

Food Shortage Controversy

I think that the government of the USA will not make it a high priority at all. For some reason Bush feels that what has done in foreign policy is enough. IF the countries are starving that is not his problem. I think it will be nice to get someone else into the white house after 8 years of a monkey in there.

Food Shortage Controversy - Page 5

Run JB? I have no intention of running. I said I was going to go to a more peaceful place, but I'll give it one more shot. I don't have any problem at all reading your replies. What I'm playing over and over is your very own words. You, Krakyn, and Kntoran seem to be stuck on greed and people "in high places" starving the world.

I don't feel the least bit guilty about how I have treated an employee either in my business, or in packing houses where I was foreman. I'll try to make myself very plain and simple. You accuse me of feeling guilty for the way I have treated people. You have accused me of being one of the greedy ones in high places.
JB

Instead of explaining "in a conversational tone" you got hot under the collar when I said greed and conspiracies had nothing to do with food shortage
JB

I never said anything about 5 employees "on a farm." but you accuse me of not reading your replies.
JB

I don't believe this has anything to do with conspiracies, or big secrets in dark corners. There would have to be too many people keeping a global secret to pull it off.
And then to ad insult to injury, after I have fed your own words back to you, you claim you just cant understand my "ranting" and ask if anyone else can make any sense out of it. I don't "rant." I carefully research and I quote what I find. I am a proven writer, not a "ranter."
JB

JB, Krakyn, Kntoran, I don't believe in spooks in the dark corners starving people in a grand world wide conspiracy. This whole thing can be traced back to the US not being allowed to drill for our own oil, or build a refinery for 30 years. We keep making more people. Illegal immigrants come across our borders by the hundreds daily. More people makes the demand for gasoline go up and up, but we are not allowed to supply our own demand. Ah, but we can make ethanol out of corn! So the demand for food grains explodes and you three are blaming greed in high places.
I don't like being made to look stupid, or greedy. I like, even less, three people that are bound and determined to blame the "food shortage" mess on greedy people in high places. I don't enjoy in the least someone reading my writing with their mind racing a mile a minute to come up with all the reasons why I must be wrong instead of letting my thoughts soak in for at least a minute, or two. Thank you Krakyn for at least reflecting on my words a little.

And last, but not least JB, I don't recall on any thread on your magnificent website anyone ever threatening to "whoop another's butt." How out of place and gross!

Edited: mousetrails on 1st May, 2008 - 6:12am

Food Shortage Controversy Politics Business Civil & History - Page 5

What I see here is typical bureaucracy. We have a couple of massive buildings in Washington DC called the Department of Agriculture. In that building, they help guide/control what farmers make and dont make. As with all bureaucracies, these things move slow...real slow. Most cannot remember when the US was making so much tobacco that the price to grow it basically equaled what they could sell it for and it took years to get that fixed. The same thing has happened over the years with wheat and corn. Over production and the price bottom falls out and the farmers become poor and get out of the business. The key thing is that it took years in each of these cases to get the right amount to the market. Well, the market has just started taking off for grain and after years and years of telling farmers not to grow anything on their lands...now they have to get them started again. What does that entail. Well, it means, stop paying the farmers to not grow things and then they will have to start growing crops or get out of farming (but in truth many have been out of farming for many years and getting paid for it). Well, that is a bit of a problem now for some farmers that didnt upgrade or maintain their equipment during the years of getting paid not to farm. There are solutions, but they will need to be developed and agreed on...and that in government time means years. If the rewards for farming go up (price received), then you will many more people to go into farming and or restart their farms, but the payback has to be there.

The only thing I get concerned about is the use of food as a combatant against the price of oil. I could actually invision food production being left on its own and the food output being blamed on the oil price. The goal would be to drive down the oil price which is purely over inflated with fear and emotions.

Governments are incapable of moving fast for anything. Especially, the US government which is specifically designed that way to ensure few radical changes over shot periods. This is why there is no chance that we can immediately switch our infrastructures over to solar power, wind power, coal gasification, ethanol production and restarting of farms.

Edited: Vincenzo on 1st May, 2008 - 7:50am