Ever get that sinking feeling when your food is running over the grocery store scanner and that price total keeps going up and up? And then you give them that silly club card and it only saves you a couple cents, but only AFTER you take that ice cream back to the frozen food section and the rib-eyes back to the cooler? And then you have to put up with all that targeted junk mail they send to you as a result of being in that not-so-exclusive club?
Millions of Americans are experiencing that sinking feeling these days. What happened to the price of milk? Is corn really that expensive? How come rice ain’t so cheap anymore?
The economists say it’s all about supply and demand. That’s true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story, which is that the SUPPLY is being distorted by an unholy alliance of big agribusinesses interests and their lobbyists and a bunch of Midwest congressmen trying to buy votes. It’s time we DEMAND a change in policy, because it has helped to result in a huge transfer of wealth from the poor, who spend more of their money on consumption, to the corporate interests at home and the oil cartels overseas.
Because of federal mandates, they’re throwing tons of corn and wheat into the production of energy, which has sent the costs of these basic foodstuffs soaring. Supply and demand. There is less food for human consumption because it is being consumed as energy. For the first time, the cost of energy and the cost of food is linked directly, so when oil goes up, food goes up. The basic well-being of our citizenry is at the whim of the commodity traders who make their buck whether the price goes up or down.
How did this happen? Why are we kidding ourselves that using food for energy is a good thing when it (1) prolongs our dependence on oil at the expense of moving toward alternatives, (2) creates a cash crunch for the poor, who get hit at the grocer AND at the gas station and (3) increases instability overseas by sending those huddled masses into hysteria due to a lack of staples like rice and corn?
We’ve got to develop the BLUEPRINT !
My name is Phinit Cheamak. I am a CNA and Home Health Aide. I have cared for a patient through this union for five years. My parents are in Thailand and are rice farmers. They need a rice harvesting machine and that costs thousands of dollars. What I make at this job is pitiful; and our governor is getting ready not only to strip our patients of their right to our services; but we are next in line to receive I.O.U's and to lose our livlihood altogether.
ReplyDeleteI have been accepted to a nursing school and hope within a year to be an LVN. I am one of the lucky ones. However, I contacted the phone number listed on my union brochure today to see about obtaining a school loan; and guess what? They aren't issuing them anymore!! California is going down the tubes...it seems. We need to band together and send a serious message to our governor. Of course, forcing farmers like my parents to use their crops for fuel is terrible. They are lucky that they are still eating. Pretty soon they will be too old to work the fields. If they don't get a harvesting machine soon; they will not be able to harvest this year's crop! We, here in America, have no idea what poor really is, and how others around the globe suffer..so that we can eat everyday.
Thanks for listening.
Phinit Cheamak
www.peacethroughart.net
(I have some beautiful pictures of my parent's rice farm on my website)