They sent in Delta Force and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

[kyburg]

Federal agents searched facilities of a dog and cat food manufacturer and one of its suppliers as part of an investigation into the widening recall of pet products, the companies disclosed Friday.

Yay whee clap paws squeal with glee -

What I can't get my head around is WHY we're importing agricultural goods - that's one of the few industries we could, yanno, actually still dominate in globally.

I guess we're just getting really good at getting old and dying providing health care, which is the only growth industry left in the USA.

"Government won't protect you" - BAH.

Big Business will kill you, if you and I and the guy over there (ie, WE THE PEOPLE*) don't take steps to protect ourselves.

REMEMBER THE PINTO.


*Uh, that's the government, folks.

I'm going to go read a book. Several of them.

Comments

Importing Agriculture and water

[forestcats.livejournal.com]

This year I know that CA will be importing both grain and hays in bulk because there was no rain. Right now you may see beef prices dropping here because ranchers are culling herds that they know they won't be able to feed this year. Same and worse for the horse market.

Water rights are going to be the greatest issue in the next decade. Cities and human populations living in 'reclaimed' deserts are draining the Colorado to the extent that we have significantly hurt the agriclutural areas here and in Mexico where the river USED to flow.
Only Santa Barbara has bothered to get ahead of this by deslaination and claiming drinking water from the Ocean. Catalina as an island too does this.

To a lesser extent the brain drain from traditional bread belt states have shut down even more farms. People don't want to return to the country and run the family farm.

Re: Importing Agriculture and water

[poetpaladin.livejournal.com]

With these global changes, what's the weather/climate forecast like for the East Coast? New England?

Re: Importing Agriculture and water

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

There's good economic reasons why family farms across the country are in so much trouble that people can't stay on land they grew up on. The exception is for farms that can grow specialty crops that reach nearby niche markets, and of course if a fad dies or a law written for the benefit of a larger competitor or a distributor's benefit, then they're in trouble again.
In any case, CA ag is not family farms in any sense most people understand. Standard crops like rice out here take huge acreages, with huge capitol investments in irrigation, water rights agreements, and the equipment on the upper end of John Deere's ranges. This size bias was partly due to a bank fad in offering shaky credit to farmers during boom years, about 20 years ago, which in bad years afterward led to foreclosures and consolidation of land ownership in the hands of banks all over the country. Which, of course, led to larger fewer farms with corporate owners. If you've ever seen rippers and land planers (which use laser levels) capable of leveling a swath that's the width of a 4-lane highway, you get how much financial gambling is involved.