Tag: Agriculture

Hunger: The Saddest Injustice

A good friend and blogger (https://beetleypete.wordpress.com/ ) got me to thinking about the issue of hunger….as always I have an opinion on that issue as well…….

There were times during my life when food was a major concern…..I admit that I had gone to bed hungry…..the saddest injustice for me is hunger.

I have tried to focus on hunger here on IST…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/12/22/hunger-is-growing/

https://lobotero.com/2010/02/03/hunger-is/

Then we have TV shows that waste food for entertainment….pumpkin chunking. bowling with raw turkey, etc.  I find all such “entertainment” disgusting……but let’s look at hunger right here in the US, that shining city on the hill…..

  1. 1 in 6 people in America face hunger.
  2. The USDA defines “food insecurity” as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. In 2011, households with children reported a significantly higher food insecurity rate than households without children: 20.6% vs. 12.2%.
  3. Food insecurity exists in every county in America. In 2013, 17.5 million households were food insecure. More and more people are relying on food banks and pantries. Collect food outside your local supermarket for a local food bank. Sign up for Supermarket Stakeout GL.
  4. 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.
  5. In the US, hunger isn’t caused by a lack of food, but rather the continued prevalence of poverty.
  1. More than 1 in 5 children is at risk of hunger. Among African-Americans and Latinos, it’s 1 in 3.
  2. Over 20 million children receive free or reduced-price lunch each school day. Less than half of them get breakfast, and only 10% have access to summer meal sites.
  3. For every 100 school lunch programs, there are only 87 breakfast sites and just 36 summer food programs.
  4. 1 in 7 people are enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Nearly half of them are children.
  5. 40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or about $165 billion worth. All of this uneaten food could feed 25 million Americans.
  6. These 8 states have statistically higher food insecurity rates than the US national average (14.6%): Arkansas (21.2%), Mississippi (21.1%), Texas (18.0%), Tennessee (17.4%), North Carolina (17.3%), Missouri (16.9%), Georgia (16.6%), Ohio (16.0%).  (source:  dosomething.org)

Kinda sad from a country that can spend $1.5 trillion on a war that it cannot win.

It is a world problem not just one for the US…..and as the world’s nations grow more wealthy the hunger rate never changes……

It’s impossible to ignore the growth of economic inequality in each corner of the planet. Vulgarity is the order of the day, with the very rich hoarding vast amounts of wealth while the poor scratch the earth for their livelihood. The British-based charity group Oxfam has done an important service by offering an annual indication of the gravity of inequality. This year, Oxfam noted that a mere 42 rich people have as much wealth as 3.7 billion poor people. What is most astounding is that in 2017, 82 percent of the social wealth produced by the world’s people was vacuumed into the bank accounts of the wealthiest 1 percent among us. This is not an ancient problem, in other words, but a current problem posed by the structure of capitalism: goods and services are produced socially, but profit is sequestered privately—and with fewer and fewer hands able to seize this profit.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/09/05/hunger-warning

Every generation wants to end world hunger and very generation fails to do so.

I just cannot see a way to make the elimination of hunger  a priority…..words will not feed anyone…it will take action but where will that action come from?

Closing Thought–27Jul18

The US has a suicide rate that is anything but envious…..our vets kill themselves….our homeless commit suicide……our bullied teens feel suicide is their only out….suicide is all too “popular” in our society……

There is a sector that is having its trouble with suicide and it is a sector that one would never consider as  problem……our farmers.

Suicide is exploding in America – and the increase isn’t confined to celebrities like Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Suicide rates have risen by an astonishing 30% since 1999, with suicidal people citing relationship stress, financial difficulties and other issues as the underlying cause.

But suicide rates have increased for some professions more than others. According to CBS, farmers are facing the highest suicide rate of any profession in the US. The suicide rate for people in the field of farming, fishing and forestry is 84.5 per 100,000 people – more than five times that of the broader population. And with retaliatory tariffs from China and the European Union set to further undermine US crop prices, a bad situation could be about to get worse. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates, making the loans on which farmers depend increasingly expensive.

http://theantimedia.com/farmers-america-killing-themselves/

Please do not think I am blaming any of this on current policies…the problem goes deeper than that…..

This is a problem that has a cure but our current system will never end the spiraling problem….plus if the tariffs do much damage the rate may even increase…

Please have a good weekend….I will see you guys tomorrow….chuq

 

The Coming “Farm Aid”

It will not be Willie Nelson and John Mellenkamp…..no music….no foot long hot dogs…..no crappy beer on tap……

The story making the rounds is the tale of the American farmer and how he/she is losing markets and money thanks to the policies of Our Dear Leader……but not to worry….there is relief coming from DC…..

President Trump showed off a new campaign hat on Monday—it’s green with yellow letters, reminiscent of the John Deere logo, and it reads “Make Our Farmers Great Again,” notes Politico. (See Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue sporting one here.) The message is a calculated one as the White House seeks to ease farmers’ concerns that a US trade war will hit them hard. On Tuesday, the White House put the word out that its efforts will go well beyond hats, however—it’s rolling out $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers, especially those dealing with dairy, pork, and soybeans, reports CNBC. Details:

  • The money: It will come partly from a program set up in the Depression to help farmers called the Commodity Credit Corporation, reports the Washington Post. Because it’s an existing program, congressional approval isn’t necessary. Trump had asked Perdue to explore options months ago, and more details are still to be released.
  • Short-term: Perdue said the “one-time” program would help farmers dealing with “illegal retaliation” to US tariffs, reports the Wall Street Journal. “This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration time to work on long-term trade deals.”
  • The politics: The rollout comes as Trump travels to Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa ahead of the midterms, states where the agricultural community has voiced concern about the fallout of retaliatory tariffs from other nations. “The farmers will be the biggest beneficiary,” Trump said of his trade disputes in Missouri on Tuesday, per USA Today. “Just be a little patient.”
  • Criticism: The new plan isn’t sitting well with members of Trump’s own party who are worried about the longer-term picture. “What is our future down the road?” asks Senate Agriculture Committee chief Pat Roberts of Kansas. “We are trying to make the point that we don’t want aid, we want trade.” Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse: “This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and White House’s ‘plan’ is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches.” But it wasn’t only politicians: “This proposed action would only be a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs,” Brian Kuehl of the trade group Farmers for Free Trade tells the New York Times.
  • ‘Welfare’ theme: Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Rand Paul of Kentucky both hit upon the same phrase in their criticism: “If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers—the answer is remove the tariffs,” Paul tweeted. “Our farmers have been in nonstop, saying they want trade, not aid, and now they’re being put on welfare,” said Corker. “Hopefully soon this ill-thought out policy will end.”

No end in sight: Most stories point out that the emergency aid is a good sign that Trump doesn’t intend to stop the trade disputes anytime soon. He extolled them again on Tuesday morning with a “Tariffs are the greatest!” tweet. And in Missouri, he said, “What the European Union is doing to us is incredible, how bad. They sound nice but they’re rough.”

There you go…the answer to crippling tariffs……agriculture welfare!  WAIT!  According to dim wits that would be creeping socialism (Humor!)…..I believe  Our Dear Leader fell asleep in the Wharton School when they taught trade and tariffs……never fear he is a genius.  (wink wink, nod, nod)

Closing Thought–18Dec17

WE hear about the suicide rate among our veterans…..also we read about children committing suicide because of bullying…..it seems that suicides are becoming all too regular.

I read something that gave me something to think about….a group that we do not connect to the word suicide……farmers…..

On the day in May 2011 that Matt Peters took his own life, he spoke on the phone with Dr. Mike Rosmann. Rosmann, himself an Iowa farmer, is also a psychologist who doubles as “one of the nation’s leading farmer behavioral health experts,” writes Debbie Weingarten for the Guardian. She knows that firsthand: The former vegetable farmer, weighed down by depression, once called Rosmann herself. “We were growing food, but couldn’t afford to buy it. We worked 80 hours a week, but we couldn’t afford to see a dentist, let alone a therapist. I remember panic when a late freeze threatened our crop, the constant fights about money,” she writes. And she’s not alone. Weingarten cites CDC figures that show the industry with the highest suicide rate is agriculture.

As for possible reasons why, the CDC lists “social isolation, potential for financial losses, barriers to and unwillingness to seek mental health services (which might be limited in rural areas), and access to lethal means.” And the financial picture isn’t pretty right now, with Weingarten noting the median farm income for this year is expected to be negative $1,325. Rosmann says many farmers’ issues can be addressed in no more than five therapy sessions, something he likens to an Employee Assistance Program. Congress in 2008 voted not to fund the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, a program that would have made hotlines and counseling available to farmers. The cost would have been $18 million a year; Rosmann maintains that the price we pay annually due to suicide is much higher. Read Weingarten’s full piece here.

It is sad to read this……but keep in mind once these people are gone from agriculture then all we have is agri-business….corporate farms……the prices will be going up until the poor eat what they can grown in a pot on the window sill…..

Gotta bounce my friends…..but will return tomorrow….see you then……chuq

Afghan Poppy Production

I have noticed that the opium production has hit a record high in Afghanistan….but it seems like it hits a record high every year….

Opium poppy cultivation has hit a record high in Afghanistan, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counter Narcotics. The milestone is just the latest in a long string of failures associated with Washington’s 16-year war in Afghanistan and its even longer ;war on drugs.

The U.S. has spent more than $100 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002, and more than $8 billion on counternarcotics efforts alone. Yet while 750 hectares of poppy fields have been eradicated there this year, another 328,000 hectares were cultivated in 2017—up from 201,000 hectares in 2016.

According to the U.N., the average yield this year has been about 27 kilograms per hectare—up from 23 kilograms last year. And three formerly poppy-free provinces are once again hosting poppy fields.

http://reason.com/blog/2017/11/15/2017-a-record-year-for-opium-poppy-culti

And then I read a story about a US airstrike that hit a Taleban opium processing plant……

In a move Pentagon officials say is directed at Taliban revenue streams, US F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked what they’re describing as “opium labs” in the northern part of the Helmand Province.

A pair of buildings were destroyed in the attack, which Gen. John Nicholson claimed caused “minimal collateral damage.” Nicholson noted there was a third building they didn’t attack, claiming it was to avoid civilian casualties.

Mich of Helmand Province is dedicated to opium farming, which is why the Taliban has long been interested in controlling the area. This talk of labs and factories is new, however, and it’s not clear what these buildings were actually for.

It’s been a recurring problem for the Pentagon that claims of destroying important militant facilities in airstrikes don’t ultimately prove to be true, and with recent reports of strikes destroying “ISIS bomb factories” actually just leveling a pair of civilian homes, this new claim of labs may be taken with a grain of salt.

(antiwar.com)

Here is a novel idea….why not destroy the crop in the field and avoid any screw ups trying to take out a factory?

Is that too complicated for the master minds that run our Afghan desk?

The Land Of Fruits And Nuts

Saturday and this post is about California’s “fruits and nuts”……No!  Really!  So get your mind out of the gutter……..I don’t know what you were thinking.

First the “Fruits”……

Recently I have written several posts about avocados…they have been in the news a lot….well they are a bit more…..especially in California…..

Things aren’t so easy for avocado growers in California these days. There’s more competition from Mexico and less water. And the old trees just don’t bear fruit like they used to. But the New York Times reports that’s giving rise to a surprising new California crop: coffee. The dense foliage of old avocado trees provides perfect shade for coffee bushes, and suddenly two-dozen avocado farms between San Diego and Santa Barbara are turning to coffee crops. There are now about 14,000 coffee plants in California—about 30 times the amount there were 13 years ago. The Times reports California appears set for the first serious American attempt at homegrown coffee outside of Hawaii.

There is, of course, skepticism that California can produce coffee as tasty as that from the tropical highlands of Brazil and Indonesia. But Jason Mraz points out people didn’t use to think you could grow wine grapes in California either. Yes, the Grammy-winning singer is one of those farmers jumping on the coffee train. San Diego reports Mraz has been growing avocados for years and is now making the switch. Growing coffee can be labor intensive and expensive, but one expert says California growers are targeting coffee lovers “willing to pay for something unusual.” The kind of people who don’t blanch at paying up to $12 for a specialty cup of coffee could provide California growers with sizable profit margins

I love coffee and I do not think that California has the soil for good coffee….especially a $12 cup of coffee….but then we are talking about people that buy flavored water, chewy vitamins and Snuggies….so I guess any thing is possible.

Now the “Nuts”……

I really like walnuts and pistachios and when California learns how to properly prepare them, pistachios, they might have a winner on their hands……sorry got off topic there…..

Ir seems that thieves are making a small fortune off stolen nuts….

Since 2013, more than 35 truckloads of almonds, walnuts, and pistachios, worth a combined $10 million, have disappeared in California. In an extensive look at efforts to crack the case, Peter Vigneron at Outside reveals a story that is, well, nuts. It turns out stealing nuts, which are worth a pretty penny, is relatively easy. In one 2015 case, a truck driver drove off with a $450,000 load of pistachios before a nut company realized his paperwork was iffy. Companies don’t always pay close attention to drivers’ documents. But even if they did, it would be hard to find anything suspicious. One convicted thief told Vigneron he was able to get his hands on the Department of Transportation ID number for a legitimate trucking company. He slapped it on a truck, got a fake driver’s license, and started getting jobs. It was that easy.

Though tracking nuts is far more difficult than tracking, say, electronics, which carry serial numbers, the thief was eventually caught delivering a truckload of almonds to a warehouse in Van Nuys, rather than its intended destination in New York. But he served less than a month in jail since those convicted of grand theft in California are to serve their sentences in county jails, which are overcrowded. Authorities are mostly focused on the “bigger fish,” anyway, a detective tells Vigneron; sometimes the drivers involved aren’t even aware of the larger scheme. That same detective says his investigations have revealed a key suspect co-signed a $5 million loan to a Los Angeles County official. Think you’re beginning to understand how complicated a case this is? It only gets more complex. Authorities say their investigations have also revealed links to the Russian mafia. More on that here.

See….fruits and nuts…….happy now?

As per usual this will be my only post today…….unless something major breaks and needs my attention…..

Enough!  Time to enjoy the day…..see you guys tomorrow.  chuq

A BAT In The Belfry

Ever wonder where that saying came from?

Surprisingly, belfry does not come from bell, and early belfries did not contain bells at all. Belfry comes from berfrey, a medieval term for a wooden tower used in sieges. The structure could be rolled up to a fortification wall so that warriors hidden inside could storm the battlements. Over time, the term was applied to other types of shelters and towers, many of which had bells in them. Through association, people began spelling berfrey as bellfrey, then as belfrey and later belfry. On a more metaphorical note, someone who has “bats in the belfry” is crazy or eccentric. This phrase is responsible for the use of bats for “crazy” (“Are you completely bats?”) and the occasional use of belfry for “head” (“He’s not quite right in the belfry”).

Now that has absolutely nothing to do with the post what so ever…..but now you know.

Trump is about to start his assault on tax reform and one of those items we need to watch for is a “border tax”…….

With an ObamaCare alternative off the table for now, the White House is turning its attention to a new initiative, the first fundamental overhaul of the tax code in 30 years. Intense lobbying already is underway, with one of the most contentious issues the idea of a “border adjustment tax,” or BAT. Here’s where things stand:

  • The border tax would effectively levy a tax on products coming into the US and give tax breaks to companies sending products abroad. Proponents say it would protect US jobs, while opponents say it would raise prices of everyday goods for many Americans. See a primer at CNN.
  • As you might expect, companies such as Boeing, Merck, and Dow Chemical that export many of their products are big fans of the BAT, while heavy importers such as retailers Walmart and Target oppose it because they say it would drive up their prices, reports the Atlantic.
  • A huge ad war is unfolding. The National Retail Federation, for example, is running ads against the BAT, like this parody of an infomercial.
  • Paul Ryan and House Republican leaders are pushing for the BAT, but their Senate counterparts generally oppose it, reports the the Washington Post. Conservative Tom Cotton, for instance, called it “a theory wrapped in a speculation inside a guess,” in this op-ed at USA Today. In a possible hint of compromise, the Post notes that Treasury chief Steven Mnuchin has suggested that some products or industries could be exempt, without offering details.
  • President Trump himself sounded skeptical of the tax initially but might be warming up. “Anytime I hear border adjustment, I don’t love it,” he told the Wall Street Journal in January. In February, however, he told Reuters that it “could lead to a lot more jobs,” and on Sunday, Reince Priebus said Trump thought a border tax could even “the playing field between our country” and others, per Fox News.
  • The success of the BAT hinges on the economic premise that it would strengthen the US dollar, though there’s a fair amount of skepticism about that, notes Business Insider. A more in-depth analysis, which takes note of “significant confusion and uncertainty” about how exchange rates might respond, is at Real Clear Economics.
  • The European Union might sue if a border tax goes into effect, reports dw.com. Canada isn’t a fan, either, notes Fortune.
  • More broadly, the GOP’s failure to repeal ObamaCare complicates tax reform, because Republicans were relying on savings from the ACA’s elimination as part of their calculations. The New York Times delves into the thorny legislative consequences, which mean that Republicans might have to work more closely with Democrats.

Your produce is about to become more expensive….to start……

Let the debate begin!

Let’s Play Diplomacy

Another Saturday and a visit from my granddaughter…..one of the brighter moments of my weekend…..

First a little something disgusting to make your Saturday.

We are always talking about GMOs and how disgusting the whole idea is….I proved my point with a tomato I bought 2 weeks ago…..it is firm red and delicious looking…after 2 weeks of sitting on my shelf….I got what you see below….still firm and red and delicious looking but it was sprouting already….

 

This is what the interior looks like…..hundreds of sprouts waiting to emerge…
The tomato starting sprouting…..still firm and few blemishes…..
And that is what GMO brings to the table…..a MUTANT TOMATO.
Tomatoes are off the menu unless I grow them in the garden.

Moving on….my granddaughter likes playing games…we play chess, dominoes, and backgammon (she is still learning this one)…..

She knows that I am a foreign policy wonk and is always asking questions along those lines….she seem interested so I decided to introduce her to the world of diplomacy…

There is a board game, Diplomacy, and now it can be played on-line…..It’s a multiplayer, web based implementation of the turn based strategy game Diplomacy by Avalon Hill, in which you have to try and conquer Europe. To win you have to be strategic and diplomatic, making deals and alliances with other players, and stabbing them in the back when it suits you best.

Source: Play Diplomacy Online ::: web version of the classic Diplomacy board game

It is an excellent way to learn about diplomacy and international relations…..The game of Risk is good but Diplomacy is better by ten….

(NO!  I am not being compensated in any way for my review of the game)

Finish your day with a smile and love in your heart…I will return tomorrow with much more stuff.

Closing Thought–15Feb17

Things could get worse!

With a new president and new rules for immigration the farmers and all of American agriculture is facing a dilemma….a costly dilemma.

The day before harsh new laws came into effect, Brian Cash had 65 Hispanic men picking tomatoes. Now he has none

Brian Cash can put a figure to the cost of Alabama’s new immigration law: at least $100,000. That’s the value of the tomatoes he has personally ripening out in his fields and that are going unpicked because his Hispanic workforce vanished literally overnight.

For generations, Cash’s family have farmed 125 acres atop the Chandler mountain, a plateau in the north of the state about nine miles long and two miles wide. It’s perfect tomato-growing country – the soil is sandy and rich, and the elevation provides a breeze that keeps frost at bay and allows early planting.

For four months every year he employs almost exclusively Hispanic male workers to pick the harvest. This year he had 64 men out in the fields.
Then HB56 came into effect, the new law that makes it a crime not to carry valid immigration documents and forces the police to check on anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally.

Source: Alabama immigration: crops rot as workers vanish to avoid crackdown | US news | The Guardian

If this continues then I expect the price of fresh produce to skyrocket…..this is not just a story for Alabama…it is being repeated in other states as well…

Spring Has Sprung

Happy May Day everyone!

Sunday and my day in the garden making sure my stuff is doing good….and the best news was…..the first tomato of the season…..

(a little outta focus but I was excited to have my first tomato sandwich of the season)

Most of us will be hitting our local farmer’s market to scoop up some of those “garden fresh” veggies……but we need to be careful….why?

Your fresh veggies from the Farm could be a con…….

NBC Los Angeles’ news team decided to do some checking around at local farmer’s markets, and paid visits to the farms where the vendors claimed they grew the food they were selling. In some cases, they found fields full of weeds or dry, empty fields. The vendors were selling vegetables and fruit they had bought wholesale, and were selling it at premium prices at local farmer’s markets, claiming it was locally grown and organic.

Source: Farmers Markets Aren’t Always The Better Buy: The Pros And Cons Of Eating Local

And there is another aspect of buying this produce…..

With farmers market season upon us, anyone looking for extra incentive to get up early on Saturday to check out the organic offerings from local growers might want to take a gander at the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen,” the organization’s annual roundup of conventionally grown produce most likely to be contaminated with pesticides.

That plural—pesticides—is no joke. Despite growing consumer demand for healthier, more sustainably grown food, many samples of the most contaminated produce tested positive for residues from not one but two or more chemical pesticides. A single sample of strawberries contained residues from a whopping 17 different pesticides.

Source: The 12 Most Pesticide-Contaminated Fruits and Veggies | Alternet

This is why I grow most of my fave veggies…..onions, peppers, tomatoes, asparagus and my fave fruit….figs, pears, plums, peaches and tangerines….that way I know they are not treated with anything harmful……

Sorry to be a bummer on this Sunday but I feel that you guys need to know what is coming your way….go enjoy the rest of your weekend……I will catch up with everyone tomorrow.

Have A Day, My Friends!