Funny...I spent the winter in Cali and crop land everywhere and in use. True about up around the Klamith, but that is only a small %. Glad you are so knowledgeable about water in Colorado....I'm sure all the farmers here are unaware about their water rights being in jeopardy.
rafter- I think "millions" of acres is a vast overestimate, but they HAVE lost 10s of thousands of acres due to salinization of the soil from years and years of irrigation. Doesn't have much to do with the "greenies" however... just a fact of life when you irrigate constantly.
I DO remember reading about orchards out there being lost due to loss of irrigation water, too- decades old trees dying because someone pulled the permits or whatever. It doesn't do to get too complacent about water ANYwhere, given what is going on behind the scenes. The environmentalists don't care about humans... if it's a fight between "Gaia" or some stupid small fish, insect or animal- the humans will lose every time.
Summerthyme
About 6 weeks ago our local Food Lion remodeled the store. The shelving is shorter and the aisles smaller. Then, the walls are all lined with refrigerator foods behind glass doors. Things like cheese, biscuits, milk, cold cuts that were out in open refrigerator shelves are now behind glass doors like freezer foods.
Today I went to Bi-Lo's and they've done the same remodeling. The regular shelves are only 2-3 cans deep, They took out a whole produce side replacing it with 'bonus buy' shelves of their store brand goods. The produce that was 2 aisles is now one and more of the expensive items. Regular head lettuce was $1.59 ea!
One lady and I were both looking at the cheese, she said, " this is kinda creepy, are they getting ready for rationing?' It took me a minute to register that she really said that! When I thought about it, it is kind of creepy.
Meat on sale was so expensive, more than the regular price a month ago!
Even people on food stamps are going to find it hard to feed their family. Once they realize they can't make it, trouble will start.
Yesterday, on my way to work, found myself at Best Buy (Momma needed a new graphics card in her computer) and at the local grocery chain store.
At grocery store, they had boneless beef sirloin tip roast and steak on sale all week for $2.89 and pork roast and steak for $1.97/lb. so my cart was just hauling meat. The cashier noticed, said a lot of people were taking advantage of the prices. I told her I was filling the freezer while the prices were down. She "whispered" (really) that many folks were doing the same. Also, that many folks were hauling out canned vegetables, tomatoes and spaghetti sauce by the multiple caseloads. They tell her it's because they want to beat the price increases.
Then I fly into Best Buy, grab my graphics card, and hit the checkout. In chatting with the cashier, mention that we were supposed to get rain, so I didn't have to water the garden that morning. She volunteered that she had just talked to her brother in Iowa the night before. He said the ground was cracking, everything was dead, and it was really bad. Prices for everything were going to go nuts, and people won't pay attention until it's too late to get ahead on things.
Well, I was a bit rattled hearing this talk from random folk yesterday, pretty much unprompted. Appears that SOME are getting clued in to this thing.
OK. Back to freezing beans and canning chicken...
This came across my computer late yesterday
G20 awaits September grain report before plans on food
(Reuters) - Senior figures from G20 countries will discuss alarm bells raised by food price rises and how to combat volatility next week, but any decisions are unlikely before a mid-September report on grain supply, an official said on Thursday.
The third price surge in four years after drought in the United states and poor crops from Russia and the Black Sea bread basket has stirred new fears about food supply and inflation.
France, the United States and G20 president Mexico will hold a conference call on Monday to consider whether an emergency international meeting is required, aiming to avoid the food price spike that triggered unrest in poorer countries in 2008.
Ahead of the call, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak sent a letter to G20 members calling on them to step up joint action to stabilize international grain prices, his office said.
But a French farm ministry official told Reuters the G20 will wait for the next release of a report by the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) in mid-September that should yield a clearer picture of grain supply.
"This conference call is to take stock of the situation," the official said.
"The AMIS report will not be available for another two weeks so we would rather take a decision at government level and in our role as coordinator of the G20 (farm) system between September 10 and September 15," he added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87M0Q820120823
I have been wanting to lay in a lot more wheat do I can grind and bake bread.
I recall in days gone buy getting mac n cheeze generic at save - a -lot grocerys for 10 for a dollar.
Corn here, seems to be doing ok, but mostly just the sweet stuff. I have a few buckets of hard corn to grind into meal for corn bread, but I'd sure like to increase the amount.
Gotta have the corn bread to go with pintos n spam.
I could never eat the generic mac and cheese. Tried it once and have stuck with Kraft ever since.
The Social Security number is a bigger threat to Liberty than Communism or ISIS.
Isn't it strange that we don't require our policemen to attend law school?
"...the walls are all lined with refrigerator foods behind glass doors. Things like cheese, biscuits, milk, cold cuts that were out in open refrigerator shelves are now behind glass doors like freezer foods. "
On the one hand, closed cases are genuinely more energy-efficient (cheaper to run).
On the other hand, they may be easy to lock, depnding on what the door handles are like....
"You're not living in the story the world tells you you're living in. The story is not about the Clash of Civilizations, the March of Progress, the American Dream, the Rise of Civilization or the Struggle of Race, Class, and Gender. It's about the triumph of Jesus Christ in rescuing us from this passing world and bringing us into eternal ecstasy and perfection."---Mark Shea
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