Survival Living In America

Who would of thought that survival living would be a reality in America?

We in America are spoiled. We have so many choices at the grocery store that it is beyond the imagination that food won’t be there. Although there are many right here in the united states who head off to bed hungry on a constant basis, the true food shortages which have sparked riots in other countries have thus far escaped the USA. It is foolish to think we are never going to face trouble forever.

Wendell Berry discussed in his book ‘The Unsettling of America‘ 31 years ago that food was too important to be used as a weapon. People have ignored that idea for thirty years because – WE have food on the grocery shelves and it can’t be that bad.

Society looked the other way as dairy farmers endeavored to hang on to herds of a few hundred cows and maintain their way of life. It looked the other way again when small hog farmers were buried under 9 cent hogs, a cost that meant ham alone brought twice what the entire pig cost. Some farmers gave hogs away as it would cost them to sell or keep them.

This will eliminate many alternatives for our food. While we see now with those who have oil, they can, will, and do dictate the price.  Folks, see the flashing neon sign that our food supply is in the same situation. Indeed, consumers are for the most part so unaware of it that they continue to buy, generating income for the few of corporate entities that hold the bulk of our survival food storage.

Archer Daniels Midland – ADM – bills itself as ‘supermarket to the world’ and had a 67% increase in profits while Cargill – resented by small farmers around the world – had an 86% profit increase.

Most consumers haven’t any idea what some ingredients in their products actually are.

For instance, sorbitol is a hydrogenated sugar alcohol derived from corn, which is utilized in sugarless gums and candy, as well as being an ingredient in polyurethane.

As one of the biggest processors of oil seed, ADM produces soybean powder and meal for human and animal use. Extracted from that may be a crude oil used not only for eatable oils, plant oils and lecithin, but also for economic oil, biodiesel, and polymers.

Cargill – enjoying record profits – has its hands in baked goods, cereals, drinks from alcohol to cola drinks to fruit drinks, candy and chocolate, dairy, health and organic ( think sports drinks, vitamins ), meat and poultry, pharmaceuticals, prepared foods ( seasonings, jams/jellies, side and main dish mixes, puddings, sauces and masses more ) and snack foods. You won’t see ‘Cargill’ on grocer shelves openly labeled just like you won’t see the other majority players, but it’s there and much of what you eat comes from them.

Rest assured when it comes to maintaining those record profits they won’t care about those too poor to buy their foods. Cotton farmers in India, pushed out by Monsanto cotton, have committed suicide at the prospect of losing their livelihood, and farmers in several other nations do not even desire them as neighbors. If it comes to their finances or yours – theirs will take precedence. Monsanto and Cargill each own 50% of the GM foods market globally.

Monsanto eagerly pushed farmers into courtrooms where a tiny farmer has no possibility of winning, whether they’ve ever planted their seed. One farmer was held accountable for planting their genetic altered seed on land he didn’t even own – which made no difference in the courtroom. Comprehensive power corrupts totally is an acceptable adage to explain what’s happening.

With these companies holding the overwhelming majority of our food supply, what happens when they raise prices and demand more profits? We can do without fuel – but we will not do without food. Sadly, the headlights are approaching and most consumers don’t have any idea to move off the road.

Corporate America exists for one thing – profit. They’d give a token amount for charities but profit comes before anything. Lower costs drive the ‘reasons’ for GMO products, which the general public don’t want to eat and farmers do not want near their fields.

If your checkbook is drained and they are showing record profits do you think they’ll barter with you as small farmers will? Do you suspect they will feel sorry and say, “here’s groceries until you get on your feet?”  Not going to happen – it cuts into their profit. Farmers have seen it – consumers don’t and are not aware of it.