What is Digg?301 Comments
- jstohler, on 01/29/2008, -8/+80More expensive food means people will buy more crappy (but cheap) food and continue to get fatter and unhealthier. Vicious cycle.
- david76, on 01/29/2008, -4/+69Thanks to brilliant policy decisions in the US, we have shifted food stuffs to making fuel rather than feedstock. Unfortunately, ethanol subsidies have had undesired effects.
- minoss, on 01/29/2008, -3/+36I think a lot of diggers are going to miss the point of this article. In a free market, if prices rise it will simply create more incentive for new entrepreneurs to enter the market. This in turn increases competition and lowers prices. Our problem now is we have way too much protectionism in the US. We issue huge subsidies to local growers and hinder trade with other nations. This raises prices and as the article states, hurts those whose food costs compose a larger portion of their income.
If you want to help both our country and others, open up trade. Stop with the lobbyist created protection scemes like ones that exist for sugar. All these do is protect a few wealthy individuals at the cost of everyone else. Stop giving money and food to other countries which can have negative effects (how can their local growers compete with handouts?), and instead open unhindered trade channels with them. This increases their wealth as well as benefits us.
China's economy is growing at an amazing rate. Want to know why? It's because of trade. The more you trade the more wealth you create and the better off your economy is. - MatthewDuke, on 01/29/2008, -2/+29That's nothing...I spent $2000 for an Apple
- TheRascalKing, on 01/29/2008, -6/+33One word: Ramen.
- inactive, on 01/29/2008, -12/+38SOYLENT GREEN FTW!!!!!
- Animental, on 01/29/2008, -12/+34Just plant a garden, people.
- minoss, on 01/29/2008, -1/+22Thanks for once again reinforcing my view that the average person knows jack ***** about the economy.
In simple terms, the article is saying that government subsidies and protectionism is hurting consumers, just like it always has.
Oh I forget, you obviously know more about the economy than some crack pipe publisher like The Economist. - katorga, on 01/29/2008, -1/+20The US grows more than half of the worlds cereals, formerly at prices below what farmers could live on. Subsidies were in place to keep farming alive as being able to feed yourself is a primary national security checkbox. Subsidies lead to massive agribusiness, the capitalist version of the Kolkhoz. That basically wiped out farming to 2% of the population. Excess grain was bought by the US government and given away as food aid which wiped out local production of food in recipient countries. Once the US decided to use everything it produces, the 3rd world goes hungry or .....prices rise and it become feasible to small farmers to get back into business.
- darladoon, on 01/29/2008, -8/+27judging from the comments already posted, it is abundantly clear that most Digg users are pathetically ignorant. and i'm not surprised, given what many Digg users do all day: sit around doing internet, on hardware manufactured in burma, and eating junk food.
- baalzebub, on 01/29/2008, -3/+18the real problem with ethanol is using corn when cheaper and less important crops would actually work better such as sugarbeets & sugarcane and some grasses...
- TherealObadiah, on 01/29/2008, -7/+22WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!! (and it's Bush's fault.)
- inactive, on 01/29/2008, -0/+15... dugg up, especially for having a sausage egg mcmuffin as your icon
- sovereign3, on 01/29/2008, -1/+13I think farming is more efficient when large farmers farm for hundreds of people, instead of one farmer farming for sustenance. Large farmers benefit from economics of scale. Thus, time isn't necessarily a loss of money. Small farmers will expend more time for a relatively smaller yield of crop.
- wrenchone, on 01/29/2008, -0/+11And for those of us living in a tiny apartment in an overcrowded city, we should plant this garden where?
- tak84, on 01/29/2008, -13/+24Bull. A head of lettuce is always going to be cheaper than a beef and cheese burrito. Americans are fat and unhealthy because they're too lazy to cook healthy food. Not because healthy food is too expensive. Everyone knows you can prepare healthy food at home for much cheaper than a meal at McDonald's. Stop blaming obesity on everything/everyone except the people that are making the unhealthy decisions.
- sovereign3, on 01/29/2008, -1/+12That is not 'food.' At least not in a pure sense.
- cactus476, on 01/29/2008, -1/+11I shouldn't have to spend $2 for a freakin' apple.
- hollyberrry, on 01/29/2008, -0/+10I believe, according to Fast Food Nation, that is a flavored ***** burger.
No thanks. - CraigJ, on 01/29/2008, -2/+12So, sacrifice half hour American idol on your widescreen to make a healthy mean for your family.
- dued007, on 01/29/2008, -0/+9thank you!
thats the first thing that anyone has said that actually correct
The same problems exist with rice I believe as well as sugar like you mentioned. - nbl9999, on 01/29/2008, -1/+10Double Cheeseburger at McDonald's is still $1.
- cambob76, on 01/29/2008, -0/+8Wow, this is from two comments ago! ^^^^^
- Wacer, on 01/29/2008, -0/+8We can fill our bathtubs full of dirt and grow one there. Who needs showers anyway. /jk
- sharkd, on 01/29/2008, -1/+9Fifty years from now, they will be talking about how rising food prices precipitated the Great Ramen War.
- MBX1, on 01/29/2008, -3/+11I can't believe that guy and his administration haven't been lynched yet for what they've brought onto this world.
- jkizzle, on 01/29/2008, -1/+9i have cut down to about 1.5 pounds of meat total a week, and most of that is poultry. more fruit, less fat, more life.
- idhindsight, on 01/29/2008, -14/+22Don't eat as much meat.
It's inefficient (8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef), and is one of the leading causes of global warming. It's not enough to drive a ***** Prius. - SteveDeGroof, on 01/29/2008, -1/+9Most people don't have the skills, time or patience to maintain a garden. I've tried and I'm absolute crap at it. Now, give me the gardening equivalent of a Roomba...
- karel747, on 01/29/2008, -1/+8One word: Scurvy.
Yaarr. - Toast1185, on 01/29/2008, -0/+7Dead on. The cost of a calorie has plummeted over the past 100 years, right now population growth and other constraints are out pacing agricultural productivity, that's not likely to be a long term issue. The explosive growth in India and China (both GDP and population) are not sustainable, it will level off and things will adjust. Also, keep in mind the government is subsidizing a lot of farming in this country, and even paying some not to farm. When the price gets high enough, the government subsidies will end, more competitors will enter the market and there will be an increased interest in developing efficiencies in agricultural. Of course, this would have to be in a non-Presidential race year so that the politicians wouldn't be playing kissy face with Iowa.
- Neticule, on 01/29/2008, -1/+8if anyone tries to take my bacon, I'll ***** kill em!
- MBX1, on 01/29/2008, -0/+7Because only good people get assassinated.
- Neticule, on 01/29/2008, -0/+7They just offset the rising cost by adding 40% more air to the burger "meat"
- ninsei, on 01/29/2008, -7/+14... or don't have time to cook b/c they have a family they are trying to feed and so work two jobs to pay the rent. Look, I'm not absolving people of responsibility for their own life and decisions, but there is certainly more to the situation than you are acknowledging in your post.
- TomK88, on 01/29/2008, -3/+10Time is money...
- jeehalte, on 01/29/2008, -0/+7Head of lettuce is really just water, there is almost not nutrition in it at all that is why its popular in ***** salads.
- tak84, on 01/29/2008, -2/+9As with any situation there are exceptions. All I am saying is that the vast majority of instances of obesity in America is not due to the fact that they had NO choice but to eat fast food everyday. It really doesn't take that long to prepare a healthy meal.
- FredFredrickson, on 01/29/2008, -0/+6Sugar? What's tha- oh, you mean high fructose corn syrup, right?
- jd72277, on 01/29/2008, -0/+6Guerrilla Gardening!!!
- greenlight2001, on 01/29/2008, -2/+8Exactly. $6 in seeds, $40 in supplies = hundreds of $s worth of food in a few months. Hell, even a few tomato plants in planters will give you a decent crop.
- breezytrees, on 01/29/2008, -1/+7No. Did you see the graph? Yea, the price jumped in 1950 massively, but it basically doubled again in 2005, EXACTLY when the U.S. started subsidizing ethanol production. Amazingly, this is at a time when food prices were dropping. Due to technological advances, food prices dropped 75% from 1974 to 2005 (again taking into account inflation).
My respect for the economist has jumped a million fold after reading this article. - DreKor, on 01/29/2008, -1/+7Where do you do that? We have them on trees where I live.
- Coffeedemon, on 01/29/2008, -3/+9What nutritional value is there in lettuce? Sure there are some nutrients but how much of it do you need to eat in order to get any? A better example might be fruit but the prices of that will go through the roof in the future unless we can all get it from local supplies.
- TomK88, on 01/29/2008, -0/+6Or just make the food WHILE you watch American Idol?
- inactive, on 01/29/2008, -0/+6Farmers will use more and more unsafe farming practices to produce more Ethanol to make more money that will deplete the soil causing another dust bowl look at what happen in the south when they only grow cotton.
- designer, on 01/29/2008, -2/+7Keep turning food into fuel.
- Dipster, on 01/29/2008, -1/+6Coscto still sells a hot dog with a soda combo for the same price it has for the last 18 years.
- aspec, on 01/29/2008, -2/+7Then you drive up the price of Ramen and completely offset college economy.
I like it. - inactive, on 01/29/2008, -1/+6Check this out, I grew about a hundred of dollars of vegetables on my balcony. I grew baby corn even. Not all of it turned out, but I think this was more of a learning experience for me.
Check it out and see whats possible in terms of urban gardens (with pics)
http://lamersize.livejournal.com/234218.html#cutid ... -
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