Yes...but!

June 16 2008

Home > Columns >Yes...But! Year 8-32

Bedlam in Belleville? Trauma in Trenton? Panic in Picton? Turmoil in Tweed? Mayhem in Madoc? What in the world am I trying to convey?

I think we must be prepared for the impossible.

I have twice seen mobs go out of control. In 1945, when our city was liberated by the Canadian Army, a hungry crowd from what was then called “Het Rooie Dorp” - a predominantly red or communist part of my town - came rushing past our house on the way to pilfer whatever was left in an abandoned German food depot.

I saw it again in 1968 when I had a meeting in Chicago, staying at the downtown Sherman House, and Martin Luther King was killed. When my wife and I went out from a stroll in the evening we saw about 2 km south of us flames reaching high in the sky, buildings set ablaze by angry Afro-Americans.

I can envision that in the not too distant future food stores will be empty either because sufficient diesel fuel is no longer available or there is a shortage of basic necessities. Remember, we are only nine meals away from starvation, because our grocery stores have just a three day supply.

I believe we have indeed entered a new phase. Who would have even imagined that an entire corn crop would be ruined by rain? Yet that’s what’s happening. Just think about it: the prairies inundated, wiping out the food on which the world depends: now the USA must not only import extra amounts of edibles, but oil too. It seems that America cannot win anywhere anymore.

I have often traveled through Minnesota and Iowa, from our daughter in St. Paul to our son in northwest Iowa: monotonous scenery, with only corn fields and, here and there, spanking new Ethanol plants, with mountains of ‘maize’ ready for processing. The present flood is a sure sign that this sort of syn-fuel is indeed an accursed substance and Satan-inspired, as is the entire Bush administration.

With one stroke of a Noah’s Flood-like rain, this scenario has utterly changed; with all the eggs in the ‘corn-basket’ the prospect of insufficient cereals for the world is increasingly likely.

Africa will be the immediate victim. There corn is the main diet. Already-- thanks to that megalomaniac Mugabe--farming in Zimbabwe has collapsed. Drought in Ethiopia will cause mega-starvation there.

Is wheat going to be next? An alarming news item caught my attention last week. According to the May 1, 2008 USA Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Credit Corporation inventory report there were then 24.1 million bushels of wheat in their storage. With a recent sale of 18.37 million bushels, only 5.7 million bushels will remain in the CCC bins. Unfortunately the U.S. has nothing else in its emergency pantry either. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no other grains or any other body-sustaining item stored away, so all that is available is 5.7 million bushels of wheat, enough to make a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America. I repeat: “There is only enough wheat in reserve to make a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.” So perhaps my alarm cry is warranted.

This lack of care shows America’s true colours: the USA has some 800 million barrels of oil, the so-called Strategic Fuel Reserve, but no Strategic Food Reserve. Apparently waging war is more important than feeding people.

Blame mega farming, utterly dependent on ample fuel. No Oil, No Food. It’s about time we change our way of growing provisions. Nobel economist Amartya Sen has discovered, confirmed by dozens of other surveys, that there is an inverse relationship between the size of farms and the amount of crops they produce per hectare. The smaller they are, the greater the yield.

A recent study of farming in Turkey, for example, found that farms of less than one hectare are twenty times as productive as farms of over ten hectares or 25 acres, even though small producers are less likely to own machinery, less likely to have capital or access to credit, and less likely to know about the latest techniques.

Small plots are more productive, because small farmers use more labour per hectare than big farmers, as their workforce largely consists of members of their own families. With more labour, farmers can cultivate their land more intensively: they spend more time terracing and building irrigation systems; they sow again immediately after the harvest; they might grow several different crops in the same field. Instead of oil power, we need body power. Genesis 3:19 says that “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your food.” In other words we shouldn't grow stuff using air-conditioned $200,000 tractors.

My advice: start your own garden: the most efficient way to provide the best for your family. It’s not too late.