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Swirly, empty, swishing. | 26 comments (26 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
the secret is dry mustard. by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 11:34:23 AM EST
And celery seed. Seriously. 1/4tsp does wonders for egg and/or potato salad.

Good time to take up gardening, what with the coming food riots and all.

Earth First!
(We can strip mine the rest later.)


Don't get me started. . . by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #4 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 11:45:14 AM EST
on the bullshit food panic.

I hear assholes on the news talking about how it's all because farmers are converting all their food growing land over to ethanol growing land and I just want to start kicking the TV around the house.  No you idiots.  Ever single aspect of crops requires fuel.  From cultivation to planting to transport to the distribution centers and stores.  Fuel costs go up, food costs go up.  DOIY!  Dumb fucks.

[ Parent ]

That too. by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #5 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 11:53:13 AM EST
Turning food into ethanol (which allows the wealthy to drive, while forcing the poor to starve), but that's another rant) may not be a huge part of the food problem. But it is a part. It's also morally unsound.

Subsidies distorting crop choices (corn for ethanol over wheat for bread) is also an issue.

Global warming and the Australian drought that it's exacerbating is complicit in the global rice shortage.

Commodity price bubbles (where do you think the traders went after the mortgage collapse? ) are a problem.

In the US, the declining dollar raises the price of everything. Including oil.

Oil prices are really only a major problem in the US. The price in Euros hasn't climbed nearly as far as it has in dollars.

Earth First!
(We can strip mine the rest later.)
[ Parent ]

Sure. . . by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #6 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 12:02:40 PM EST
but in Europe they were paying the equivalent of five bucks a gallon five years ago.  So they SHOULDN'T be paying more now.

And the idea that farmers are somehow getting more money out of ethanol production for their corn pisses me off to no end.  You know it's not the farmer that's making money off of that.  At least, you would if you'd ever farmed.  Corn price to a farmer is corn price, regardless of what it's being used for.

[ Parent ]

ethanol by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #12 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:04:04 PM EST
IS contributing to the overall rise in food prices.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

And why is ethanol even being pursued? by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #13 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:40:28 PM EST
Because fuel prices are going up, not because it burns "cleaner."

And I'll repeat, it's not the farmers who are to blame for this.

[ Parent ]

correct by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #14 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:45:27 PM EST
It isn't a solution because the energy ROI is only ~2x. The only feasible crops-for-fuel grow in the tropics, like palm oil. Of course they're all an ecological disaster regardless.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

HIPPIES! by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #15 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:55:34 PM EST
GIVE ME COAL BURNIN' STEAMERS!

The solution does not exist.  Well, it does, but nobody likes it because it's scary.  Power = potential.  Potential = terra'ist.  So, we stick with stupid fossil fuels and various substitutes, all of which suck at least equally as much as the fossil fuels themselves.

[ Parent ]

the solution by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #16 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 03:08:43 PM EST
a decrease in population and a decrease in energy use per capita.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

Well, sure, if you're going for reasonable. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #18 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 03:30:16 PM EST
But with the number of couples thinking five or more kids should be a god-given right for every married couple, and that each of those kids needs three TVs, four computers and seven hand-held devices before they reach age seven, and two cars by the time they reach seventeen, that's not going to happen.

[ Parent ]

yep by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #22 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 04:36:35 PM EST
starvation and war are on their way for the world's poorer countries.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

Which the US is doing its best to become. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #23 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 04:59:03 PM EST
AH HA!  So there IS a solution.

[ Parent ]

sorta by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #24 Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 05:00:29 PM EST
we can retreat to a diet of corn and beans when the time comes. Bangladesh, not so much.

When I'm imprisoned as an enemy combatant, will you blog about it?
[ Parent ]

I'm an American. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #25 Thu May 01, 2008 at 07:00:18 AM EST
Why would I give a shit about some furriners?

[ Parent ]

Not just the poor countries by dmg (2.00 / 0) #26 Thu May 01, 2008 at 07:29:52 PM EST
It's going to get interesting for the rich ones too.

80% depopulation is not going to be achieved without some suffering.
--
Hard work is morally wrong.
[ Parent ]

Swirly, empty, swishing. | 26 comments (26 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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