I know this is very unlike me but I just can't help it. My Darling Wife and I were in Billings the other day and tried out a new eating establishment in the city. The Staggering Ox. It serves what they define as sandwiches. I really hate to say this but it was the worst meal I have ever had in a restaurant.
I had The Beastie sandwich. It had roast beef, onions, sharp cheddar, Monterey jack, among other things on it and I had it with the jalapeno cheddar bread. The sandwich comes in a very odd bread container. this container makes the sandwich very hard to eat. My mouth just couldn't stretch enough to try to get a decent bite of the sandwich. I couldn't taste any jalapeno or cheddar in the bread. In fact the bread was a dry tasteless mass of dough that had no redeeming qualities. I never once spotted any cheese on the sandwich and the star of the sandwich, the roast beef, was tough and tasteless.
The menu online listed Iced tea as a drink which is what I prefer, but once in the store I found there was none and was forced to drink soda. No Iced Tea is a big o point against any eating establishment.
I ordered chips with my sandwich but never received any with my sandwich. Since the receipt wasn't itemized, I had no way of proving this so there was no chips with the meal.
Now I've been told that you should always find something good about everything and this is no exception. There was one good thing. With each sandwich you get a sauce. Believe me, this sauce is necessary to give the sandwich any taste at all. I got the sauce which was a mixture of horseradish and blue cheese. It was very good. Not so good that I will ever go back again, but good. I figure My Darling Wife can make the sauce and have a real good sandwich topper at home with it.
My darling Wife was just as displeased with her meal as I was with mine. I always try to figure out how a place could be better than it is. This one is beyond me. I don't see how it could ever be good by my definition.
Like I said, it is very unlike me to complain about a place but this time I had to mention it. I couldn't help myself. That should tell you something.
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain. Maya Angelou
Monday, March 24. 2008
Food
Tuesday, November 6. 2007
Food Crisis
Everybody that has read here for a while knows that I am very concerned that the push the US is seeing into ethanol and biofuels and the subsidies the government is spending on these things are endangering our food security. We have to think about what we are doing by trying to grow our fuel. Is the possibility of not having enough food worth growing our fuel instead of fuel?
Here is an interestng article that discusses this.
I don't know if you have noticed but I have definitely seen that my food bill has risen quite a bit in the past few months. Last month I about dropped my teeth at the total price of my food bill and this month looks to be worse yet again. What's the cause of this rise?
Now I have to agree with these reasons. I might really focus in on farmers growing more fuel instead of food in the price rise of food but the other factors they mention are true too. It is hard to figure how much each contributes, but growing fuel is not helping the situation. How might it affect things?
All ready the corn used for ethanol in this country is affecting food supplies throughout the world and the expansion the Government wants will cause even more problems. I know the food shortages will affect poorer countries before it affects the US, but it still concerns me.
I always like to think I grow food to feed people. I don't really care where the people live, I just think it is important to feed people. I know everybody out there thinks I'm crazy for worrying so about growing fuel instead of food and my concerns on food security but read the article and it really makes you wonder. How many people in the world are going to go hungry because you want to put a little ethanol in your SUV instead of gas? Do you think about this at all? I think it's something we need to consider instead of continuing to expand our ethanol industries. Is starving people worth putting ethanol in your SUV or is driving a more fuel efficient vehicle and not traveling as much a better idea so food is more affordable. Tough call ain't it.
The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practiced, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. Pierre Charron
Here is an interestng article that discusses this.
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.
I don't know if you have noticed but I have definitely seen that my food bill has risen quite a bit in the past few months. Last month I about dropped my teeth at the total price of my food bill and this month looks to be worse yet again. What's the cause of this rise?
The price rises are a result of record oil prices, US farmers switching out of cereals to grow biofuel crops, extreme weather and growing demand from countries India and China, the UN said yesterday.
"There is no one cause but a lot of things are coming together to lead to this. It's hard to separate out the factors," said Ali Gurkan, head of the FAO's Food Outlook programme, yesterday.
Now I have to agree with these reasons. I might really focus in on farmers growing more fuel instead of food in the price rise of food but the other factors they mention are true too. It is hard to figure how much each contributes, but growing fuel is not helping the situation. How might it affect things?
Last year, he said, US farmers distorted the world market for cereals by growing 14m tonnes, or 20% of the whole maize crop, for ethanol for vehicles. This took millions of hectares of land out of food production and nearly doubled the price of maize. Mr Bush this year called for steep rises in ethanol production as part of plans to reduce petrol demand by 20% by 2017.
Maize is a staple food in many countries which import from the US, including Japan, Egypt, and Mexico. US exports are 70% of the world total, and are used widely for animal feed. The shortages have disrupted livestock and poultry industries worldwide.
"The use of food as a source of fuel may have serious implications for the demand for food if the expansion of biofuels continues," said a spokesman for the International Monetary Fund last week.
The outlook is widely expected to worsen as agro-industries prepare to switch to highly profitable biofuels. according to Grain, a Barcelona-based food resources group. Its research suggests that the Indian government is committed to planting 14m hectares (35m acres) of land with jatropha, an exotic bush from which biodiesel can be manufactured. Brazil intends to grow 120m hectares for biofuels, and Africa as much as 400m hectares in the next few years. Much of the growth, the countries say, would be on unproductive land, but many millions of people are expected to be forced off the land.
All ready the corn used for ethanol in this country is affecting food supplies throughout the world and the expansion the Government wants will cause even more problems. I know the food shortages will affect poorer countries before it affects the US, but it still concerns me.
I always like to think I grow food to feed people. I don't really care where the people live, I just think it is important to feed people. I know everybody out there thinks I'm crazy for worrying so about growing fuel instead of food and my concerns on food security but read the article and it really makes you wonder. How many people in the world are going to go hungry because you want to put a little ethanol in your SUV instead of gas? Do you think about this at all? I think it's something we need to consider instead of continuing to expand our ethanol industries. Is starving people worth putting ethanol in your SUV or is driving a more fuel efficient vehicle and not traveling as much a better idea so food is more affordable. Tough call ain't it.
The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practiced, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good. Pierre Charron
Friday, January 12. 2007
Ethanol Concerns Grow
Ethanol Production Threatening Livestock Industry, Food Supply
In a way I keep laughing about these stories. I have been expressing my concern about the energy industry consuming our food supply for quite a while now and it seems like just now other people are starting to catch on.
I did find this comaprison from Lester R. Brown interesting to say the least.
So it really seems my concerns about food security and ethanol are very real. I am not just blowing smoke, this ethanol boom is putting our food supply in jeporady and hunger is a real issue to be concerned about. In a way this is all self correcting though. All the ethanol plants either in production now or being built, will drive the price of corn high enough so that the plants will start losing money and then a bunch of them will go bust. With oil prices drifting down and the cost of corn drifting up, this break even point will be reached sooner than we all think.
Would higher food prices cause a consumer backlash against ethanol? I'm not real sure. I don't know that the majority of people would understand all the relationships and understand that ethanol is the reason food prices are rising. Would the consumers also then understand that the government subsidies of the ethanol industry are part of the reason for the higher food prices? Would this then cause a backlash against the government?
Thinking about government subsides to the ethanol industry, what is the government going to do when ethanol plants do start driving the price of corn so high the plants start losing money? Since the Government is so hot and bothered for ethanol will they then start subsidizing the purchase of corn for the plants so the plants can stay in operation driving the price of food for consumers even higher?
Really, the only solution to this problem is Cellulosic ethanol. This process uses waste materials instead of food materials to make the ethanol. Then all the questions about using our food for energy would be abated. The problem is that Cellulosic ethanol has not been perfected yet. To save our food supply maybe we need to invest more money into R&D on Cellulosic ethanol. I think that would solve this particular problem.
A Chicken McNugget is corn upon corn upon corn, beginning with corn-fed chicken all the way through the obscure food additives and the corn starch that holds it together. Michael Pollan
Think tanks and livestock producers alike are alarmed at the rate of growth of the ethanol industry and its effect on feed supplies for the meat industry.
Ron Plain, an agricultural economist at the University of Missouri, says that increases in corn costs have already added 25 percent to the cost of raising hogs to slaughter weight, from a projected $40 per hundredweight in early 2006 to an actual cost of about $50 per hundredweight. If corn continues to the $4.05 per bushel price level considered the break-even in ethanol production, the increased feed costs will add 31 percent to the cost of hog production.
Gene Gourley, an Iowa pork producer and swine nutritionist, testified on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council to the Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday that ethanol producers are receiving huge subsidies of $1.53 per bushel of corn purchased and tax credits of $0.51 per gallon of ethanol produced, resulting in runaway growth in ethanol production. “These incentives have the ethanol industry growing at an almost unbelievable pace,“ he said in his testimony. “New plants are springing up everywhere, and they’re using a lot of corn.“
In a way I keep laughing about these stories. I have been expressing my concern about the energy industry consuming our food supply for quite a while now and it seems like just now other people are starting to catch on.
I did find this comaprison from Lester R. Brown interesting to say the least.
One 25-gallon tank of ethanol, he says, consumes an amount of corn that would directly or indirectly feed a person for a year.
So it really seems my concerns about food security and ethanol are very real. I am not just blowing smoke, this ethanol boom is putting our food supply in jeporady and hunger is a real issue to be concerned about. In a way this is all self correcting though. All the ethanol plants either in production now or being built, will drive the price of corn high enough so that the plants will start losing money and then a bunch of them will go bust. With oil prices drifting down and the cost of corn drifting up, this break even point will be reached sooner than we all think.
Would higher food prices cause a consumer backlash against ethanol? I'm not real sure. I don't know that the majority of people would understand all the relationships and understand that ethanol is the reason food prices are rising. Would the consumers also then understand that the government subsidies of the ethanol industry are part of the reason for the higher food prices? Would this then cause a backlash against the government?
Thinking about government subsides to the ethanol industry, what is the government going to do when ethanol plants do start driving the price of corn so high the plants start losing money? Since the Government is so hot and bothered for ethanol will they then start subsidizing the purchase of corn for the plants so the plants can stay in operation driving the price of food for consumers even higher?
Really, the only solution to this problem is Cellulosic ethanol. This process uses waste materials instead of food materials to make the ethanol. Then all the questions about using our food for energy would be abated. The problem is that Cellulosic ethanol has not been perfected yet. To save our food supply maybe we need to invest more money into R&D on Cellulosic ethanol. I think that would solve this particular problem.
A Chicken McNugget is corn upon corn upon corn, beginning with corn-fed chicken all the way through the obscure food additives and the corn starch that holds it together. Michael Pollan
Friday, December 15. 2006
What You Talkin About?
Soaring corn prices are squeezing meat and milk producers, but consumers will not necessarily see higher prices at the grocery checkout, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in an interview Thursday.
Costly corn has made it more expensive to feed cows, chickens and pigs. Demand for ethanol, a fuel made from corn, has pushed the price of corn above $3 a bushel, the highest level in more than a decade.
That is bound to have an impact on farms and ranches, Johanns said.
"My best projection is that for a couple of years here, you are going to have a tug-and-pull between various industries," Johanns told The Associated Press.
Because so many factors go into making food, consumers probably will not see a direct impact, he said.
I think Mike Johanns is talking out his ass here. The Agriculture industry is supposed to suck it up and and lose more money than they do to allow consumer prices to stay the same? That's insane!
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that cost in the Agriculture industry go up, food prices are going to go up and with corn prices sky high, food prices are going to go up. That's the decision our leaders in Washington and the buying public have made. They want cheaper gas prices and are willing to pay more for food to get it. Obviously driving their vehicles around is more important than cheap food so why should Johanns try to insinuate otherwise?
Hell, the talk is that the new Farm Bill will push even further into energy production which will drive the price of food even higher. I haven't heard many people talk about this but it's going to happen. The consumers out there who think food comes from a grocery store and not real live people working in the country, don't understand that the drive to grow our own energy will take land out of food production causing higher food prices. It's basic economics. Shouldn't Johanns be out there educating the public of the repercussions of the decisions being made for and by them?
No, he just wants to hide the facts from the public to drive policy, just like they tried to hide the facts on NAIS until enough people made enough noise. I just want everybody out there to understand the consequences of their drive to grow more energy means higher food prices. This is simple supply and demand. Suck it up and deal with it. Don't try to hide the facts. That just causes problems in the long run.
The supply of government exceeds demand. Lewis H. Lapham
Sunday, November 19. 2006
Enough To Eat
Scientists urge research to aid in balancing food, energy needs
This is an issue I am really concerned about. With the thoughts of growing our own energy via ethanol and biodiesel, what's going to happen to food production? Right now that thought is taking second place in most people's minds as they run around making energy of our food supply.
In a way, the cattle industry is on the fore front of this concern, which explains my concern, since such a large part of our production hinges on corn feed in the feedlots of the midwest. Price of corn goes up, cost of feeding cattle goes up, and the feeder needs more money to break even which causes the prices in the meat case for consumers to go up. This puts food further out of reach of poor people and causes more hunger. This is a concern for me. They claim the by product, distillers grain, of ethanol makes good cattle feed and will take up some of the slack for the loss of corn to ethanol. Fine, I buy this argument, but what's it going to do to the cattle industry as a whole in the long run with so much corn going to ethanol instead of feeding?
I've read quite a few articles on just this subject through out the summer and they all say the same thing, don't worry. The cattle feeding industry will be just fine with the addition of the distillers grains to feed formulas, don't raise a ruckus. I kind of question this, it seems like ostriches sticking their heads in the ground and not wanting to look the situation over. Talking to my banker, cattle buyer, and other professionals, they're like me, they have absolutely no idea how the cattle industry is going to be affected by the ethanol boom and they are concerned. So, in the long run for the cattle industry we get to sit and watch the roller coaster ride of ethanol and see were we are going to end up when it's done. How it will affect food prices for the consumer has yet to be seen.
A bigger picture shot than just corn and the cattle industry also includes considering how crops will be affected by ethanol and biodiesel. The more cropland that is taken out of production for food and put into production for energy is going to affect the prices that consumers pay for food at the store. In the long run, the money the United States might save consumers with the growing our own energy campaign, might be offset by the extra costs the same consumers to feed their families because of the higher prices for food. The only advantage would be the money is staying in the US instead of going over seas.
Looking at my whole rant here, you might think I am against growing our own energy. I'm not, just concerned how this technology is going to affect feeding the consumer.
My Darling Wife one time went on a spiel about how we, her and I, were unimportant in the world and that we didn't make a difference. I looked at her and told her that we make a big difference in the world. A human being has three basic needs to survive in this world, food, water, and shelter. Everything else done in this world for humans is an add on product that is important, but maybe not vital, to human existence. We provide one of the basic things that humans need, food. I am very proud that I raise food to feed people. It is a very important and necessary so to say we don't matter is false. We provide a vital service to humanity and should be proud.
When I say I am concerned about the price of food for the consumers, this is where I am coming from. Feeding people is important to me and to have some of the food supply siphoned off for another reason concerns me. As long as we have enough food to feed people at a reasonable cost then I have no problems with the diversions. We are stepping off into unknown territory here diverting our food supply to energy. We need to watch were we go so that it doesn't go to far and cause people to starve. I think it's a valid concern.
Corn is the leading food and feed crop of the United States in geographic range of production, acreage, and quantity of product. The vital importance of a large acreage of this crop, properly cared for, therefore, is obvious. David F. Houston
To ensure that there's enough corn to fuel humans as well as vehicles, scientists are urging more research into boosting corn yields and improving ethanol production.
Many key issues related to expanding the nation's ethanol industry aren't being studied under current government programs, said Kenneth G. Cassman, director of the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"It's the core issue to ensuring that we don't come up short in food supply, and don't have high consumer prices, and can still maintain expansion of the ethanol industry," he said.
This is an issue I am really concerned about. With the thoughts of growing our own energy via ethanol and biodiesel, what's going to happen to food production? Right now that thought is taking second place in most people's minds as they run around making energy of our food supply.
In a way, the cattle industry is on the fore front of this concern, which explains my concern, since such a large part of our production hinges on corn feed in the feedlots of the midwest. Price of corn goes up, cost of feeding cattle goes up, and the feeder needs more money to break even which causes the prices in the meat case for consumers to go up. This puts food further out of reach of poor people and causes more hunger. This is a concern for me. They claim the by product, distillers grain, of ethanol makes good cattle feed and will take up some of the slack for the loss of corn to ethanol. Fine, I buy this argument, but what's it going to do to the cattle industry as a whole in the long run with so much corn going to ethanol instead of feeding?
I've read quite a few articles on just this subject through out the summer and they all say the same thing, don't worry. The cattle feeding industry will be just fine with the addition of the distillers grains to feed formulas, don't raise a ruckus. I kind of question this, it seems like ostriches sticking their heads in the ground and not wanting to look the situation over. Talking to my banker, cattle buyer, and other professionals, they're like me, they have absolutely no idea how the cattle industry is going to be affected by the ethanol boom and they are concerned. So, in the long run for the cattle industry we get to sit and watch the roller coaster ride of ethanol and see were we are going to end up when it's done. How it will affect food prices for the consumer has yet to be seen.
A bigger picture shot than just corn and the cattle industry also includes considering how crops will be affected by ethanol and biodiesel. The more cropland that is taken out of production for food and put into production for energy is going to affect the prices that consumers pay for food at the store. In the long run, the money the United States might save consumers with the growing our own energy campaign, might be offset by the extra costs the same consumers to feed their families because of the higher prices for food. The only advantage would be the money is staying in the US instead of going over seas.
Looking at my whole rant here, you might think I am against growing our own energy. I'm not, just concerned how this technology is going to affect feeding the consumer.
My Darling Wife one time went on a spiel about how we, her and I, were unimportant in the world and that we didn't make a difference. I looked at her and told her that we make a big difference in the world. A human being has three basic needs to survive in this world, food, water, and shelter. Everything else done in this world for humans is an add on product that is important, but maybe not vital, to human existence. We provide one of the basic things that humans need, food. I am very proud that I raise food to feed people. It is a very important and necessary so to say we don't matter is false. We provide a vital service to humanity and should be proud.
When I say I am concerned about the price of food for the consumers, this is where I am coming from. Feeding people is important to me and to have some of the food supply siphoned off for another reason concerns me. As long as we have enough food to feed people at a reasonable cost then I have no problems with the diversions. We are stepping off into unknown territory here diverting our food supply to energy. We need to watch were we go so that it doesn't go to far and cause people to starve. I think it's a valid concern.
Corn is the leading food and feed crop of the United States in geographic range of production, acreage, and quantity of product. The vital importance of a large acreage of this crop, properly cared for, therefore, is obvious. David F. Houston
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