MO_cows":28d50k96 said:
Roadapple":28d50k96 said:
Mo cows, if you believe the majority of people are trying to buy good nourishing food for their families, why are their kids so overweight and they themselves dragging a butt 2 axehandles wide? Look in their shopping cart, when you see a woman shopping with the kids, and about all you see is chips and cookies,and etc.. You see very little Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, etc. She's not planning a healthy meal for them, the kids are telling her what they want and what is easy and fast for her to fix. When she could be feeding them good healthy beef, which we're all interested in, she's buying 85% lean hamburger and salt loaded weiners. And when those little fat as..er adolescents start having health problems, who pays, the people who were trying to feed their kids properly, with good healthy food, grown in Canada and the U.S.A. Not picking on you, Mo cows, just my observations going by a school or while shopping.
My glass is still half full. SOMEBODY is buying the organic bananas, the cage free eggs, the no-BST milk, etc., or corporate ag wouldn't have it on the shelf. Period. And 10 years ago you had to go to a farmers market, a Wild Oats or some kind of specialty store to find those things. So the trend to healthy eating, even if it's only their perception of what's healthy, is growing.
How many of those overweight, overworked and underpaid "fat moms with fat kids" just don't know any better? And don't have a scrap of time or energy to spare to read all the labels. That cheap box of macaroni and cheese is in cute shapes and has cartoons on the box so it must be good for my kids?? No, lady, it's full of fat and salt. Mis-information and ignorance is the problem, not that people don't care and can't learn.
I think you - and indeed many others miss the point completely. Rather than quacking about what is being grown and bought here - it is far more important to realize what USED to be grown here and is now imported. Just because someone buys free range eggs shows how you and others missed it completely
I take no issue with what you say about them - people WILL buy them - what the video is saying - and what I am saying is that we can no longer feed ourselves without imports.
Your home grown organics are such a small part of the overall food requirement program in Canada and the US of A that it is insignificant in the overall scheme.
Essentially the video is saying this -
Ag is in danger because it is being paved over - built on and commodity pricing are driving people out of the business.
We are in danger of becoming at the mercy of those who control food.
China will be the largest owner / controller of farm land in the world very soon - and if we do not produce enough food to feed ourselves we will pay the price.
I participated in a bit of civil unrest a while back - the only reason i did not go to jail was the police were kind enough to not arrest me or I would have lost my job - we were polite and determined and I think some of them actually supported us - we blockaded three major food distribution outlets to drive home a couple of points about BSE and beef losses
All major food stores within 150 miles went to empty within three to five days in the Cornwall and Ottawa areas
Now all you have to do is think about how it would go if rather than growing our own food - someone else did it for us - and then refused to sell it to us.
What happens if food runs out in Los Angeles, Berlin, New York, Seattle, Toronto and Montreal - not to mention any of the other thousands of cities on this continent?
Yes it can happen
Several examples in third world countries - Sudan, Etheopia and Somalia immediately come to mind. Dictators have power. Some day China might have that power as well. They think along the lines of many years - we tend to think about tomorrow. They know that controlling food production means power - big power. Fortunately we are not subnect to dictatorial whims - but other actions could cause the same things - war, blockade and so on.
What happens if a world power controls food production and decides to use that strategic asset?
Any country that cannot feed itself cannot determine its own destiny without ASKING permission or paying the country that controls the food. This is the real point. And it is close to happening.
Imports of common food stuffs means we are not producing enough.
And THAT is what I took away from the video. After viewing I honestly thought others might as well - it appears I was wrong.
Bez+