Food prices - Scaremongering? (Warning - Potential Political Content!)

Thanks for the links to Adam Smith - I think many people will value that - even much longer after this thread is exhausted.

Rosie - I hope I'm as agile and fit as you when I get to be all grown up. I'm already 'down-sizing' my technology and there you are, running around this forum! I look forward to reading many more of your posts of your adventures in your garden!

 

I should send one of Adam Smiths books to Obama. Maybe he would have time to read it when golfing or on a holiday.

 

Mrs Vinces' idea, No course, I've taught myself, expert duck plucker and filleter now!

 

A Scot...That says it all !!! And yes I did read it and found it interesting.

 

I am also a displaced national but a happy alien in God's Own Garden!
(Speaking of which, i'm going to start doing some seeds etc, ready for the p/t in Feb. to reduce the veg bills this year.)

 

Never mind Lad we cannot choose where we are born ! Ever tried being a Southerner in Yorkshire ? A revelation I can assure you but was quite young at the time . LoL

 

Yes, I can. I was given quite a rough ride for my 'poncey' accent when I first came to Yorkshire back in the very early 1980s. Even now, people say I sound 'quite posh"!

 

-OxfordNick, post #77, page 4
After your post I sent an email to Kurt Timmermeister asking if he had a pdf of his book for sale. I just got a wonderful reply from him but sadly no pdf version is available. He sounds just the kind of guy you'd want on your side.

 

There's a bold claim in the news that up to half the world's food is wasted.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20968076

IF that's true, then it means that for every nation on earth, on average, as much food is wasted as is consumed.

Now I think its a safe bet that the average wont apply. Poorer nations I expect will waste less than half, so that means some nations must waste more than half. I find that quite staggering, and it supports my belief that the world isn't yet overcrowded, it is just overcrowded with greedy wasteful people (and I'm probably as bad as most). It also supports my claim that food is too cheap, at least in the richer countries. If we can afford to throw away as much as we use, then surely we can afford to pay twice as much for our food. It shouldn't have to be that way though. I suspect most of the food is not wasted by individuals, but by the retailers and even the producers. Not sure what can be done about that though unless laws are changed and at the same time culture changes.

 

I waste precisely none. Not a bean.
My worms get any stuff that's inedible plus a lot more besides.

 

I was raised by frugel parents who lived through the depression in America. Many things stay with me as her habit of household thriftiness. Like for instance, if you unwrap bar soap from the store and let it dry out it lasts longer when you wash with it. And learning to use, and re-invent a meat roast. Any veggies can be pureed into a soup. Any veggie can be put into potato pancakes. I remember growing up how the meat bones were free from the butcher, today, they coast, even the marrow bones are now priced out.