We Pay Most for Food

Folks,

Following the theme that USA pays the most, now comes James Bovard with a wee
expose on
food...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/bovard/bovard22.html

I recall Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture speaking to USA farmers circa 1972
saying "get big
or get out." Destroying the family farm is government policy, and remains so,
through many
democrat and republican administrations, in spite of the fact that under a
Jeffersonian milieu,
the family farm thrived indeed.

With massive agribiz, bird flu in chicken and mad cow in beef has an easier time
spreading.

But an interesting note is this policy of keeping prices high can indeed go on,
for a very long
time... high priced food as a policy has been around longer than high priced
oil.

And also, one might argue that the price of chicken, nominally and relatively,
has fallen in the
last 50 years, I'd argue "it ain't the same chicken." What did you get in
nourishment from a
chicken 50 years ago vs today?

I buy the free range, organic (whatever that means) chickens from the hippies.
I pay a huge
price over what I can get from Safeway. But, I know the chicken tastes far
better, I bet the
nourishment is exponentially higher, plus I bet the price per pound is lower
than similar
chicken was 50 years ago, what with the hippies using somewhat advanced methods,
and
distribution costs dropping with trucking deregulation. And when I boil free
range chicken
bones in water I get a delicious broth. When I boil Safeway chicken bones I get
hot water.

This of course is similarly true of wheat and corn and apples and pears, etc.

John

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