Lose a Bit on Every Crop and Make It Up In Volume...

Subsidies have a way of disrupting markets.  In "The 9 Foods the U.S. Government Is Paying You to Eat",  you can see where government money is going to boost food production.  Corn is #1, of course, but very little money is ever directed toward producing healthful foods.

The distribution of food subsidies is even more obvious when you examine this pie chart (and pie, definitely, does not get subsidized).  Have a look where the money goes for food subsidies.

Norman Pagett says

We are faced with a barrage of bad news about the imminent, and inevitable rises in the cost of basic foodstuffs.Professor Tim Benton, head of Global Food Security working group has warned that ‘meat could become a luxury by 2040, because emerging middle classes in South Asia and going to affect food flows’.In everyday language, ‘food flow’ is the nice way of saying those who can afford meat and luxury foods will buy them, while those who can’t will go without.As Professor Benton makes brutally clear, ‘food is going to be competed for on a global scale there is going to be a doubling and trebling in price of everything we need to survive’.Tesco boss Philip Clarke backed up his statements: ‘The end of cheap food is over because of the surge in demand. Over the long run I think food prices and the proportion of income spent on food will be going up’.Remember that bit—the proportion of income. It’s going to be critical to your way of life.Two years ago Oxfam issued the same clear warning: Food prices are set to double by 2030 as the population grows from its current seven billion to eight then nine billion. There will be a perfect storm of ecological and sociological factors.Again, we need clarification of polite-speak: what that really means is that people will not starve to death quietly, they will fight to survive. And that is going to get nasty.

We are living in an artificial world market and it is about to end.  People who can raise and eat quality foods will be grateful for having learned the necessary skills.  This problem will be slow to arrive, but learning the skills and gaining the habits of healthy food take time too.  No time like the present.

Grow your own

Grow your own... This topic will probably grow to the biggest topic of the whole site.  And, well it should.  I am going to list what will eventually be here, especially if some readers help me with more ideas and content.....

• Grow your own, from the bottom up, starting with soil.  Permaculture tells us that soil is the most important part of a garden or hoop house, or anything producing food.  SOIL feeds the plants you sow in your garden, and it nourishes the plants and produces plants that contain the nourishment (aka nutrients) you put in there.  Soil is regional, it is different in the north and the south, in warm and cold climates, and it supports different plants.  Nature makes good soil (or else nature wouldn't exist at all) in climatic context.  Wisdom (a human trait) can help nature along.
• Seeds and varieties of plants need to be matched to the climate.  Sweet Potatoes, grown readily in the Southern US, are next to impossible in the far north, unless heat is provided to extend the season.  Winter Squash keeps the whole winter in the far north in a root cellar, and feeds many people with plentiful vitamins and minerals they need....
• You need to understand the difference between heirloom, hybrid, and GMO seeds. Heirloom seeds produce the same seeds in their produce that were planted when they were grown.  Hybrid seeds produce exceptional crops, but the seeds from those crops cannot be grown the next year (they will produce lots of bad fruits)
• GMO crops are genetically modified seeds that should not grow the next year, but if they do, you don't want to see the results.....

Each of the topics above will ultimately merit its own page... and saving seeds, improving soil, and other topics will follow....