Another reason to grow your own food...

[Jolly]

...and maybe food for somebody else:

http://fortune.com/2014/12/21/why-th...ght-over-food/

If the author is right, food prices will rise significantly. For us, that means growing food is going to be a powerful economic incentive, either for consumption or for sale.

[SkizzlePig]

Seems I've read about this somewhere before ... Rev 6:6

[TxMex]

I've been having this same thought. Prices are so high in the grocery stores that it seems like produce sales ought to bring in a reasonable amount of money now a days.

Meat prices are going through the roof as well. It would be reasonable to assume that more folks will start thinking of growing their own to offset this and possibly the price of animals will be going up as well.

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by TxMex

I've been having this same thought. Prices are so high in the grocery stores that it seems like produce sales ought to bring in a reasonable amount of money now a days.

Meat prices are going through the roof as well. It would be reasonable to assume that more folks will start thinking of growing their own to offset this and possibly the price of animals will be going up as well.

I quite buying burger in the stores for $3.99 a pound and up.
I can buy totally grass fed ground beef for a flat five bucks a pound.
I have been to their farm and I saw the nice mixed pasture they had their cattle on and I also saw them cutting hay for the winter feed from a field of great mixed crops. There was a lot more on that field than on any hay field I have seen others cutting.
I am trying to get my soil turned around and back to growing feed and food.

[SkizzlePig]

This thread got me thinking ... is the current spending on food the same percentage of the average income that it was 20, 50, 100 years ago? Meaning: Has the price of food gone up (or down) at a greater rate than inflation or earnings? Sure seems like it to me, but I wonder if anyone's researched it.

[FarmChix]

Being in the food industry, I can tell you that the market reports we get weekly only show increases. There is a slight drop here and there, then the spike up. Every time you turn around, you hear "coffee is going up....grapes are going up....cocoa is going up....issues with diseased blackberries". I just placed my seed order today. This year, I have ordered enough to help out all six of our adult children. Rather than taking a vacation, I will schedule the time for putting up our bounty. I've asked for a soil tester for Christmas, so that I can make sure I get the best harvest possible. Based on last year's cucumbers, I'm of the opinion that while I have great soil, it is lacking in nitrogen.

Even goods that you cannot produce, I've noticed such spikes in prices. I see the monetary advantages of what is happening with new mothers. i.e. price of diapers so more are using cloth. price of Similac, so more are nursing.

Skizzle - I think you are spot on. In my personal opinion, the price of food HAS gone up at a greater rate than inflation.

[arnie]

all the more reason to plant a bigger garden and not complain about having to go out to the cold barn to milk

[Skandi]

Originally Posted by SkizzlePig

This thread got me thinking ... is the current spending on food the same percentage of the average income that it was 20, 50, 100 years ago? Meaning: Has the price of food gone up (or down) at a greater rate than inflation or earnings? Sure seems like it to me, but I wonder if anyone's researched it.

That is the 2009 % of income spent on food for various countries

"Twenty (eight) years ago, American consumers spent 11.7 percent of their disposable income on food. Thirty (eight) years ago, that figure was 15.1 percent. Going back in history, Americans spent about 20 percent of their income on food about the time today's baby boomers were born. In 1933, the figure was more than 25 percent."

source

and here's a graphical representaion from another site




So it's gone down a lot over the last 100 years (as a % of income) although the latest data I can find indicates a small % rise in the last 10 years or so.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by SkizzlePig

This thread got me thinking ... is the current spending on food the same percentage of the average income that it was 20, 50, 100 years ago? Meaning: Has the price of food gone up (or down) at a greater rate than inflation or earnings? Sure seems like it to me, but I wonder if anyone's researched it.

Food prices in USA have dramatically decreased as a present of total household spending over the past century or two.

Dramatically.

I think someone just put up some charts showing this, food prices are about the only thing that dramatically gets cheaper in the USA.

There are brief spike increases that we all read about, but the trend has always been less and less and less of your budget is spent on food, year after year.

Perhaps not the people in this forum, but generally the USA population has bought ever more convenient food - prepared, or microwaveable, or from McDonalds or the bar and grill.... So many folk are spending a lot more to eat, but the money is being spent on the processing, not on the food itself.

We have a really good land base and many climates to grow food, and a lot of land mass to do so. Our govt (as every other govt does) sees stable and cheap food supplies as a good thing, and encourages food to be plentiful and cheap.

The only thing that will derail this is stuff like the EPA going after total control of water in the USA, and other such total controls on what people do with their land. If we get our property so controlled as USSR used to have, where the govt dictates exactly what can be done; then we will start importing our food from other countries, and lose control of our own destiny. This is a huge topic and I'm making a simple short statement here, but really, this is the one issue facing our food supplies and costs.

Paul

[elkhound]

Five reasons why you're totally crazy if you aren't growing your own food

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/047998_ho...#ixzz3MkoPPsjV

http://www.naturalnews.com/047998_ho...#ixzz3Lz8B9NKu

[JoePa]

Na - people are worrying too much about stuff that will never happen - who cares about 2050 - heck the world might not be around by then - sue is good to grow your own food - I always have a big garden - shoot deer - fish - so no matter what happens I'll keep doing that - when I go to the store and look at the food baskets other people have - it's mostly junk food - that's why their food bill is so high -

[COWS]

Agree that food used to be relatively more expensive. How do i know? Well, from casual conversations with family members I know that in the 1930s and early 40s people with excess eggs and some produce could swap them for other food in the local grocery store. My family, along with other rural families, produced as much of their food as possible. By about 1950 factory farming was getting big to the extent that my parents quit growing hogs for food and keeping chickens foe eggs and meat. (Quality not as good, Daddy called the store chickens "them old embalmed chickens", as I've said before.

It was obvious to my wife and I early in our marriage that having a garden was a major money saving proposition. She came from a fairly large family and her parents gardened seriously as long as they were able. Ours was especially useful when our children were at home.

Re food in market being harvested before it's ripe: Potatoes are one crop that is harvested when they are ripe. They have a long shelf life also.

COWS

[billinwv]

There is nothing like going out your back door and getting fresh vegetables for the table. The work and the food will help keep you healthy and keep a few bucks in your pocket.
A pretty reliable source on NPR this week reported that we produce enough food now to feed 3 billion more people than the current population. lack of money to buy , politics, distribution and waste still leave many starving.

[spacecase0]

if you are not already saving your own seeds, then you might already be lost.
think about who you trust with your life and where you get your food from now

[bigjon]

local beef ordered,seeds are ordered,bought second tractor,local horse farm will fertilize my fields for free!

[Miss Kay]

I was watching my husband out with the cows yesterday. We've got a dairy steer born last November that we kept and are raising for the freezer. He is so cute and loving and is crazy about my husband. My husband was telling me how smart he is and how much easier he is to train than the horses. He works off voice commands and loves pleasing his dad. Too bad he will be freezer beef this time next year. Husband said if he was younger and in better health he'd keep him for a ox to train for fun. He's going to have a tough time with this one going to the butcher but it is what it is. The steer will live a great life and then he will make me happy if not the husband!

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by SkizzlePig

This thread got me thinking ... is the current spending on food the same percentage of the average income that it was 20, 50, 100 years ago? Meaning: Has the price of food gone up (or down) at a greater rate than inflation or earnings? Sure seems like it to me, but I wonder if anyone's researched it.

You might get some kind of an answer from Table 8. From about 23% in 1929 to 11% now. http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-product...res.aspx#26636

geo

[Rustaholic]

Originally Posted by Miss Kay

I was watching my husband out with the cows yesterday. We've got a dairy steer born last November that we kept and are raising for the freezer. He is so cute and loving and is crazy about my husband. My husband was telling me how smart he is and how much easier he is to train than the horses. He works off voice commands and loves pleasing his dad. Too bad he will be freezer beef this time next year. Husband said if he was younger and in better health he'd keep him for a ox to train for fun. He's going to have a tough time with this one going to the butcher but it is what it is. The steer will live a great life and then he will make me happy if not the husband!

I had a wonderful time with the steer we had one summer when I was a kid. That steer really loved me and I named him Patches I believe. I was just as happy when we butchered him and ate him. Treat them like loved pets then eat them like great food. Happy animals taste better.

[MO_cows]

The food shortages now are due to political problems, not any shortage of food production. And I found this part of the article disturbing:

“To address food security, we need a shift in the way we address poverty and inequality in the world,” Stephen Scanlan, a professor of sociology at Ohio University. “There should be a reframing of food as a fundamental human right in a way that governments actually stand by.”

Smells too much like rob from the rich to give to the poor, rather than helping the poor not be poor any more!

There are many good reasons to raise your own food. Most of them are positive and make it enjoyable, satsifying to do. Don't plant a garden out of fear, it will be a curse not a blessing.

[DaleK]

People complaining about the price of food and necessities has little to do with the price of food and much to do with their redefining of the term "necessities"