« October 2008 | Main | March 2009 »
I want to thank this lady for all the link-backs and a wonderful blog site. Please visit her at http://causematters.wordpress.com/. Michele's blog site is entitled Gate to Plate and would be very helpful to anyone wanting to learn more about agriculture and what it really takes to raise food for so many people.
One of my recent searches was for "how many acres to produce alcohol". This is a hard question to answer because land varies in it's production but here it goes.
If a parcel of land produces 100 bushels of corn per acre it will produce 250 gallons of alcohol. A bushel of corn generally will produce 2.5 gallons of alcohol. However some land will produce more corn and some less, this is an example.
Keep in mind the by product of the distillation process 'brewers grain', in used in cow feed and is not wasted. Try feeding the by-product of gasoline to something! No don't - it would die!
Gasoline and crude oil are much cheaper than a year ago, the stock market is still reeling and many consumers are having trouble making ends meet. What gets us into trouble? Most of us like what we believe to be the good things in life and we will spend to get it. Some will do what-ever to get it, even if it's wrong! But here is some of the problem.
I'll start with the banks. In our countries recent past it was common for families to eventually save some money, of course some folk seem to always have money. This savings was usually placed in a savings account at a local bank. This bank would relend this money to others wanting to borrow. The bank would loan a percentage of what it had available from it's reserves. Later the banks could borrow money from a central bank and reloan that money to who ever wanted to borrow. This bank is not a part of the US government, did you know that? Our Federal Reserve is not a US institution!
Although this worked for many decades it didn't provide enough money for power hungery banks wanting to expand so they found a way to sell loans they made for cash. Of course the buyer also made money by paying a smaller percentage of what the loan would actually be worth. For example a US savings bond You might pay $75 dollars for the bond that is worth $100 dollars at the end of the bond's term, say five years, at which time the government will give you $100 dollars for that bond! The banking system's setup is more complex but this is a good example.
Bankers wanting to expand and loan millions instead of thousands now had the means to do so. By selling loans they made to a third party the sky was the only limit. This was the start of our decline. Wall Street was more than happy to buy loans and had billions to do so. Consumers could get nearly any amount they wanted provided they had a job and good credit and the bubble not only started, it grew into a monster - and bailout's won't be enough to control it.
Getting this monster under control will be a long, painful experience few of the younger generation has ever experienced. My dad lived through the market crash of '29' and he related a few pains along the way. Today we have government programs that help but these may run out of money sooner than later and if the Fed's start printing money again to fund these programs we'll have a round of inflation/depression none of us can imagine.
The only way we can survive is to start saving our money and hope the presidents new plan works. Keep in mind this is a similar plan used to turn '29' around but there will be a lot of changes in our future.
I want to tell you about a recent event that happened to me while doing research. I am always looking for ways to diversify my farming operation and adding ear or whole corn production was an option. Now I know most people who read this may have little interest or knowledge of how this process works but I am finding many people are getting more interested in how animals and food is produced, and I am happy and thankful this is happening.
First I want to add some history and a comment. The family farm has given this country ample food for more than a century. This institution is being threatened by large farms and basic greed. This maynot be good for our countries future as these farms operate to make the most money and maynot have the best interest of consumers, animals and productive land at hand. Hence recent news footage of a cow being struck repeatedly by a forklift and other events. Most people I know would not do this.
Now let me finish my ear corn story. I was researching methods for a machine to remove the kernels from the cob. I had a hard time finding US companies who build commercial and food grade machinery to start with and the process was not to be found.
I did come across a Google 'answers' segment that disturbed me. Unfortunatly Google no longer accepts questions on this program. The question the person had asked was 'how do you seperate the kernels from the cob'? The answers were bad! Now many of you have eaten corn on the cob and you understand this is a tasty albeit messy way to eat corn. The ear is picked long before a normal harvest machine or combine would be taken to the field. Some of this early harvesting would be done by hand and there are some large operators running mechanical harvestors. This type harvesting pulls the ear and removes the husks, known by the old timers as a ear corn picker. I was surprised that the people answering these questions would not know this and would tell that a combine would be used to harvest this type crop.
Now the picker used to harvest wet ear corn maybe modified from the old system, I don't know but these machines are very different in design and function. The combine removes the kernel from the cob and the cob goes out the back and on the ground. Why is this important? It just is!
