JPS:....I really have to tell you how very much I appreciate the in- depth and educational value of every post of yours so far on this link...(I, of course, would have left out the ‘f**king’ on the one, but then, you’re still young...’-)
Thanks for the good work.

Having done everything on your list does not change my take on the situation.

“Genetically modified” is not the same thing as “evolution”...careful, your own ignorance is showing.  Genetically modified is not even the same thing as controlled hybridization.  Hybridization can be done by anyone in a back yard, greenhouse, our under lights.  “Nature”, unassisted, could never use e. coli to break through a cell wall and enable the insertion of Bt (another bacteria) into the genetic structure of a plant.  That, by itself, is not necessarily a terrible thing; however, releasing it into the wild means that it can/will release itself from our control.

The “terminator” gene was manufactured to protect patents (and life forms couldn’t be patented until a little more than two decades ago), but what happens when such technology flows into the evolutionary stream?  We can hope that it won’t hybridize naturally, but if it does then how will we restart evolution?

There is nothing inherently wrong with genetic modification, though there may be things inherently dangerous about it.  But genetic modification of crops has not been aimed at increasing yields (at least according to Monsanto), so we don’t even know if increased yields are possible.  There is almost certainly a point where a plant cannot gather enough sunlight and water/nutrients to produce bigger/more seeds/fruit...no matter what genes are in it.

All the factors you listed are indeed in play in this crisis.  But there are others.  Most people don’t realize that Ethiopia has some wonderfully rich agricultural land.  Do they use it to grow food for themselves?  No, they use it to grow cut flowers to sell to Europeans so that they can buy food.

It doesn’t matter which precious metal your straitjacket is made from...it is still a straitjacket.

It seems that Mr. J is the one who might need to do some traveling and reading.

There is a force to be reckoned with.  It now controls roughly 90% of the seed trade for several species of agricultural products.  I’ve said elsewhere on TD that Monsanto makes Halliburton look like the Salvation Army.  It wasn’t hyperbole.

http://www.brownfieldnetwork.com/resource_other/200804 16/f97ed749-ae81-5c55-2b37828c1c4c3db6/111412/dbs041608.MP3

sorry for the goofy link.  It’s an MP3 of a radio show from farm country.  The host of the show recently parted ways with the communication company, because of this show in particular.  These aren’t latte sippers talking, these are tractor driving types.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/mo nsanto200805?currentPage=1

An in depth expose about the tactics of Monsanto to enforce its patents.

Also, if you have a Netflix account, you can watch The Future of Food online; it does a good job of explaining what has happened in agriculture since 1980.

This crisis is no surprise to people who watch these issues carefully.  It’s been brewing for a long time.  A few corporations have profited from the buildup, and they plan to profit from the “solutions” as well.

Plant that garden...it’s the least (and the most) you can do.  Oh, and patronize local farmers through farmer’s markets, CSA’s, food co-ops, and personal relationships.  They need you as much as you need them.

to Amy Goodman and friend, for the efforts and the article....
eminently lucid and shareable…

and we strive on…

Everything you wrote is true, Cyrena.  I know that for urban dwellers it is much harder to grow your own food.  I was thinking more of the suburbanites.

Still, there are ways to grow food...even in small spaces.  It just takes more ingenuity, and will produces smaller yields (though they can be surprisingly large).  The other thing for urban dwellers to do is shop well.  CSA’s often accept WIC and even food stamps.

I would like to see more collective, urban gardening projects.  (If i lived in an urban area, i’d be involved with them...for sure.) I think of cities like Detroit that are rotting...with abandoned property everywhere.  Not only could urban people feed themselves off of that land, they could sell produce from that land too.

Of course our government will stand in the way of the myriad solutions to this problem.  But it’s something that we shouldn’t let them stand in the way of.  It was not all that long ago that city folks kept kitchen gardens...and even small livestock. (Immigrant neighborhoods in places like Chicago still echo with the sound of roosters.)

And it depends on where you live, in many places it isn’t time to plant yet. (I’m still a month from the frost free date.)

Actually, I taught myself how to can, and that was before the Internet, (or at least before I had access myself) so I had to rely on books. It worked out just fine. It should be even easier to learn now with Internet access. Requires minimal investment in the equipment.

The very real drawback, and for very many people, (specifically those that are most constrained by low or non-existent incomes) is that they don’t have the propery or access to property that would ALLOW them to plant a garden. (I know longer own my own property to plant my standard gardens either).

This is particulary true for those in the densely populated low income areas of most urban demographics. Where in NYC, Chicago, LA, or any of those other areas does one have space to grow a garden? They don’t. It’s that simple.

For those that do, (such as a few of the Indigenous tribes that were banished to the periphery of the reservations) they grown their crops and the Feds come along and dig ‘em up. (This particulary for hemp, which is a mainstay for making so many things) but the food gardens are destroyed right along with them. Yep...happens in Northern and Central California (at least to these tribes) all the time.
And, the feds always wait until the crops have been carefully planted and are near ready for harvest. To add insult to injury, they throw the elders in jail.

Still, it’s not my intention to sound discouraging, but rather to remind all those who CAN still do this, (grow gardens)that they should have been planting already.

Never too late though.

It’s just Dick-Head’s paraphrasing of Marie Antoinette, ‘Let them eat s**t’.

“Free Market” had a nice ring to it.  Translated, it ain’t that nice:  Unlimited economic power for some with the necessary consequence of economic powerlessness for others. (Read a few ‘some’ and billions of ‘others.’)

I went to buy some rice-Last month it was $1.18-This month it is $4.81-[at the walmart]-and I wondered if
“SHRUB and CO.” are having any problems feeding their families???I wondered if “SHRUB and CO”. are having any health problems they can not pay for???I
wondered if “SHRUB and CO”. put gas in their own vehicles-turn off a light to save energy-PLANT A GARDEN so as to have ANY FRESH PRODUCE this year-
Worry about JENNA’s “hubby to be” getting a job...........................etc........?

Good one.

International Monetary Fund officials, reportedly ‘distressed’ by stories of citizens in nations they have ‘helped’ being reduced to eating dirt, are contemplating massive loans to First World cattle ranchers, to try to get them to develop nutritional ‘food’ products from animal waste.

The Cheney ranch, in Montana, has already received massive subsidies to transport shiploads of it’s first product, CaCa Puffs, to hungry third-worlders.

Before this goes any further, we should all take a moment to recognize that the United States is not immune to this...we’ll just be the last ones to feel it.  But, hell, you might have noticed that the grocery bill has been going way up lately.  Realistically, the shortages that are causing riots and forcing governments to guard grain mills with combat troops are not so much shortages of the grains, but shortages of the money to buy the grains.

It isn’t going to get better any time soon either.  The other factors of the “perfect storm” aren’t even counted by Ms. Goodman.  Pollinator populations (not just bees) are collapsing.  There are some questions as to whether the commercial bee colonies will make it through this season.  They nearly didn’t make it through 07.  Yields are actually declining in some cases.  And recent studies by the U’s of Kansas and Nebraska show that GMO crops produce smaller yields than traditional seeds.  (So much for GMO’s saving us all.  The seed companies now say that lower yields are because they weren’t trying to increase yield...but it’s not like they can flip a switch and bring out higher yield, roundup ready, bt crops and have them on your table by the end of the summer.) Never mind soil depletion that’s causing an increasing need for fertilizers.

And since every nook and cranny of the industrial food chain is bathed in oil, don’t expect prices to go down unless oil prices go down...and don’t expect that.

There is something you can do.  Plant a fucking garden.  There isn’t any excuse.  Only those who can feed themselves are truly free.  That’s why our agricultural “development” of the third world under neo-liberal economics made sure that all those places got tied into industrial, export agriculture.  What good would a self-sufficient third world country be?

And you’re next, America.  If you think that ADM and Cargill are going to feed you out of the goodness of their hearts, you’re a fool.  The average suburban lot (often old farm land with the good soil stripped off) is enough to provide the better part of a family’s produce needs.  Your mother (or grandmother) can probably even teach you how to can.

Or you can do nothing and hope that someone else solves the problem for you...your choice.

Well, it took a while for this news to make it here, but thanks to Amy Goodman, we now enough now, for everyone to understand that we’re starving the rest of the world, and that it’s only a matter of time (sooner rather than later) that we’ll all be faced with the same.

Even as the world’s most dangerous terrorist says this…

• “… President Bush defended food-based ethanol production: “The truth of the matter is it’s in our national interests that our farmers grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us....”

Those who may not LIKE US? Might that not be the rest of the WORLD? Could it be because you, Dick Bush, have never been willing to PURCHASE energy from ANYWHERE, because you only want to STEAL it and/or keep it in the ground to manipulate the obscene profits that you and your cronies are getting from it?

And of course he and his cronies are also making a literal killing off of the misery that they’ve created to make the obscene energy profits for their multinational energy corps…

• “...“Making a killing from hunger.” In it, GRAIN points out that major multinational corporations are realizing vast, increasing profits amid the rising misery of world hunger. Profits are up for agribusiness giants Cargill (86 percent) and Bunge (77 percent), and Archer Daniels Midland (which dubs itself “the supermarket to the world") enjoyed a 67 percent increase in profits...”

I don’t know why the Carlyle Group isn’t mentioned here, but I have no doubt that the Bush dynasty is connected to Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. Maybe I should check on the Clintons’ associations with these multinationals as well. Seems like ALL of these roads eventually lead to either Houston or Little Rock. (or now, Dubai as well).