Food

We read in the Bible of war-horses; of horses drawing chariots. But we never find an allusion to horses employed in the tillage of the land; for which by their gentleness, by the nature of the food which they require, by their great docility, oxen seem to have been formed by nature.

Mexico sugar output may fall 3.1% on fertilizer prices
Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point
Fuel costs are eating farmers’ profits
Corn bonanza won’t cut food prices
Fertilizer, feed costs pinch dairies
Wheat residue too valuable for fuel, scientist says

How serious is the problem of annual vegetable variety erosion? Very! Thousands of varieties have already been lost. Kent Whealy, founder of Seed Savers Exchange, figures that only 20 percent of the pea varieties once in cultivation are still available…Home gardeners have benefited from hybrids that are more disease resistant, more vigorous and higher yielding, but the cost has been high. Not collecting seeds means buying seeds and being dependent on seed companies, which means fewer options for home growing.

Those of us who have sought security by producing our own food to eat and to sell locally instead of trying to find salvation in the pretend money that the government is pouring into the banks to save them, should count our blessings. That popping noise I think I hear issuing from the Chicago Board of Trade is the sound of grain bubbles bursting all over the trading floor.