Agricultural Reform: The Future of Agriculture in America

[basimpson22]

I know this has been discussed in other threads but, as the son of a livestock broker and cattle farmer, this issue hits real close to home.

Anyways, this all got started with a post I made on facebook: "Why do we blame unemployment on the government? Job creation is not their responsibility." Well someone brought up the prices of corn, wheat, etc. I did a bit of research and it seems that government subsidies deserve much of the blame for high food costs. Yeah, not sure how we got from job creation to corn prices either, but that topic really intrigued me. It's something I think deserves much attention. I believe that, with food prices soaring over the past few years, an agricultural reformation is imminent. It seems to me the solution would be the decentralization of agriculture: to move toward more locally grown produce.

Also, thought I'd throw this out there. It's an article about a lettuce plant here in Tennessee, actually, less than 10 miles from my job. They use advanced hydroponic technology to grow their produce. This is a good way to go but we can't rely solely on this. Like with a mutual fund, we ought to diversify. I think that in the near future we'll see more people growing with hydroponics as well as more people growing, selling and consuming produce on a more local scale.

lettuce link: http://ucbjournal.com/news.php?id=244

Thoughts?

[caroljane]

This is an interesting subject, given the worldwide availability or nonavailability of food, and the vital importance of enough being produced. Our corn prices are going up, I know that, because of drought in the US.

I read somewhere that Brazil alone produces enough food to feed the whole world into the next decade..forget where I read it...maybe MSK keeps up with the economic scene there?