Why YOUR Food Prices Are Going UP

   The drip system is finally in! That took a while. Now we are going to have to learn how to manage it. I just found out a neighbor had to replace all his drip hose because they didn't flush them properly and they all clogged up. I don't want to do that. These systems are amazing, but it is not magic. It is going to take some old fashioned smarts and elbow grease to make it run well. 

   I know that doesn't look like much to you, but watching cotton seedlings come out of the ground is a beautiful sight to me. Once this cool spell is over the cotton will really start growing. I already pulled soil samples so I can apply the right amount of fertilizer in a few weeks.
   I stopped watering the oats. They started to lodge, or fall over, in this week's wind. I will give them a quick drink this next week and then wait to harvest them.

Why YOUR Food Costs Are Going UP

By Paul H. Betancourt

April 2014

            You may have noticed this in your grocery store. A few weeks ago a friend sent me a report saying that food prices have gone up 19% since the first of the year. I know one thing-I would hate to be feeding a teenager with these food prices. I know how much food I hovered up when I was that age. Mom still tells stories. Now, there are just Sheryl and I. I go to the store to pick up a few things and it’s $35! There’s no meat, just some fruit, veggies and coffee creamer. Sheryl even bakes our own bread at home.

            There are two factors driving food prices up and they are both self-inflicted. First, after years of complaining about crop subsidies we finally cut them off in the new farm bill. I understand all the criticisms on crop subsidies. As conservatives we weaned ourselves off these programs. But, what most people didn’t understand is that crop subsidies were a de facto cheap food policy. By encouraging farmers to overproduce we artificially created excess supply which, in the absence of increased demand, lowers process. Now that we have stopped encouraging increased supply, guess what? Prices go up.

            The other thing we have done is cut back farm production in one of the  most productive places in the world, Central California. The current low rainfall is aggravated by poor water policy. Driven by politics state and federal water managers seem content to dry up the Valley’s West Side and let water run out to the ocean. The sad irony is that at the same time your doctor is telling you to eat more fruits and vegetables we strangling the one region in the country that is a powerhouse in fruit and vegetable production; the country’s salad bowl, California’s San Joaquin Valley.

            I want to be very specific here. Our food prices are going up and it is not due to the vagaries of nature. Our food prices are going up because of poor government policy. While they fiddle, with all the good intentions in the world, we suffer the consequences of their decisions. We deserve better.