Midwest Drought Threatens Crops, Livelihoods and Food Prices

Posted on | July 17, 2012 | 1 Comment

How in the world does this get translated into “food” prices? They are not growing food, are they? Yes, livelihoods. Are they threatened? Could it be that this is a blessing in some sort of corn silk disguise? Corn, the way it is grown in this country, cannot be mistaken for “food”. Is it the drought that is causing this? Why not add a bit more anhydrous to the mix? “An” means “none” and hydrous means water. “NO WATER”. Sucked from the soil and the plants and spit back out to grow demineralized and debased GMO and hybrid corns that cannot survive without fossil fuel inputs galore. This picture is askew, tilted toward the industrial machine, the non-food monopoly variety. And what about the drought? How are we to define all of this? And where goes the water? What of the rain that dives headlong into the bottom of the watershed, without the least effort to collect and distribute it where it falls? What of the fructifying rain? A one inch rain event on one acre of land produces 28,000 gallons. One inch. Even in a drought stricken year we certainly get over one inch of rain here in the Midwest. Thousands of acres of tillage, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, diminishing seed stock, depleted soils, 800 horsepower machines tearing it up, squashing it down. Why in hell does it takes some big ass tractor to plant a bunch of itty bitty seeds? Bigger is better? More acreage, more acreage, more acreage! Out a sight, out a mind. Name me one farmer at this scale that will even climb down off the big toy machine and touch or smell or taste the soil anymore. Was driving by some “farm” that stretched out over the horizon the other day and there was noone in the big toy tractor but the big toy tractor was moving about at a fast pace. It must have been a ghost named GPS in the air conditioned booth atop those big wheels. Drought. Why? Draw down the ancient aquifers! Alcohol! Subsidies! Taxpayers money paying for all this non-sense? Yes, we are in the middle of a drought of our own making simply because we have flattened the fencerows and murdered the trees.

Comments