Is Farming the New Black?

[think365]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

That's because there's a big pile of venture capital money that's been deployed to rent out $100 bicycles for $8 a day.

Hmmm... Sounds like you have inside information. Is this the new iTulip investment idea EJ was talking about a few days ago HERE ?
Will you be investing??

[c1ue]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Hmmm... Sounds like you have inside information. Is this the new iTulip investment idea EJ was talking about a few days ago HERE ?
Will you be investing??

No inside info, but a lot of ground pounding experience. I've seen these for-rent bicycle kiosks in more than a half dozen major cities, and San Francisco just announced another.

Put another way: if the kiosks aren't paying rent - and it is not clear that they do - then the daily rent is 8% of the capital cost of the bicycle, and probably over 5% of the annual maintenance cost. If you were offered a product which would return 5% just for 1 day's use, wouldn't you invest too?

Sadly, the idea isn't even original. In Europe, this was first put forward as a way to benefit the public. They simply offered up the bikes for free.

In America, there ain't no free lunch (on bicycles).

[lektrode]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

....In America, there ain't no free lunch (on bicycles).

maybe not completely free, but in some places it seems like a pretty good deal (for The Public) ?

esp when the local .gov is leading the way with intelligently designed biking transport policies and quite comprehensive
Public transport system that allows/encourages bikes to interface with bus/lightrail service

truly remarkable when stuff like this actually works FOR The Public (for a real change we can believe in)

[don]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Not sure about Joan Baez, but Ted Turner & Jane Fonda have thousands of acres sheltered under the "Conservationist" tax exemption.

Things have devolved . . .

Residents lined up for the monthly Feed the Need food distribution at the Dyer County fairgrounds

y SHERYL GAY STOLBERG DYERSBURG, Tenn. — As a self-described “true Southern man” — and reluctant recipient of food stamps — Dustin Rigsby, a struggling mechanic, hunts deer, doves and squirrels to help feed his family. He shops for grocery bargains, cooks budget-stretching stews and limits himself to one meal a day.

Tarnisha Adams, who left her job skinning hogs at a slaughterhouse when she became ill with cancer, gets $352 a month in food stamps for herself and three college-age sons. She buys discount meat and canned vegetables, cheaper than fresh. Like Mr. Rigsby, she eats once a day — “if I eat,” she said.

When Congress officially returns to Washington next week, the diets of families like the Rigsbys and the Adamses will be caught up in a debate over deficit reduction. Republicans, alarmed by a rise in food stamp enrollment, are pushing to revamp and scale down the program. Democrats are resisting the cuts.

No matter what Congress decides, benefits will be reduced in November, when a provision in the 2009 stimulus bill expires.

Yet as lawmakers cast the fight in terms of spending, nonpartisan budget analysts and hunger relief advocates warn of a spike in “food insecurity” among Americans who, as Mr. Rigsby said recently, “look like we are fine,” but live on the edge of poverty, skipping meals and rationing food.

Surrounded by corn and soybean farms — including one owned by the local Republican congressman, Representative Stephen Fincher — Dyersburg, about 75 miles north of Memphis, provides an eye-opening view into Washington’s food stamp debate. Mr. Fincher, who was elected in 2010 on a Tea Party wave and collected nearly $3.5 million in farm subsidies from the government from 1999 to 2012, recently voted for a farm bill that omitted food stamps.

The home of the $3.5M man Representative Stephen Fincher of Tennessee

“The role of citizens, of Christianity, of humanity, is to take care of each other, not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country,” Mr. Fincher, whose office did not respond to interview requests, said after his vote in May. In response to a Democrat who invoked the Bible during the food stamp debate in Congress, Mr. Fincher cited his own biblical phrase. “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture released a 2012 survey showing that nearly 49 million Americans were living in “food insecure” households — meaning, in the bureaucratic language of the agency, that some family members lacked “consistent access throughout the year to adequate food.” In short, many Americans went hungry. The agency found the figures essentially unchanged since the economic downturn began in 2008, but substantially higher than during the previous decade.

Experts say the problem is particularly acute in rural regions like Dyersburg, a city of 17,000 on the banks of the Forked Deer River in West Tennessee. More than half the counties with the highest concentration of food insecurity are rural, according to an analysis by Feeding America, the nation’s largest network of food banks. In Dyer County, it found, 19.4 percent of residents were “food insecure” in 2011, compared with 16.4 percent nationwide.

Over all, nearly 48 million Americans now receive food stamps, an $80 billion-a-year program that is increasingly the target of conservatives. Robert Rector, a scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation, argues that the food stamp program should be overhauled so that benefits are tied to work, much as welfare was revamped under President Bill Clinton. He advocates mandatory drug testing for food stamp recipients — a position that draws support from Mr. Rigsby, who dreams of becoming a game warden and said it irritated him to see people “mooch off the system.”

“People have a lot of misimpressions about hunger in America,” said Maura Daly, a Feeding America spokeswoman. “People think it’s associated with homelessness when, in fact, it is working poor families, it’s kids, it’s the disabled.” Hunger is often invisible, she said, and in rural areas it is even more so.

Hunger was easy to see on a recent morning in Dyersburg. Hundreds of people, many of them food stamp recipients, lined up at the county fairgrounds for boxes of free food — 21,000 pounds of meat, potatoes, grains and produce — that had been trucked in from a food bank in Memphis. About 80 volunteers set up an assembly line in a warehouse to distribute the food.

Mr. Rigsby said his family would find a way to make do. “The way I was raised,” he said, “it’s, ‘Be thankful for what you’ve got.’ We’re not the worst case out there. But somebody else? How is this going to affect them?

[DSpencer]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Things have devolved . . .

Residents lined up for the monthly Feed the Need food distribution at the Dyer County fairgrounds

y SHERYL GAY STOLBERG DYERSBURG, Tenn. — As a self-described “true Southern man” — and reluctant recipient of food stamps — Dustin Rigsby, a struggling mechanic, hunts deer, doves and squirrels to help feed his family. He shops for grocery bargains, cooks budget-stretching stews and limits himself to one meal a day.

Tarnisha Adams, who left her job skinning hogs at a slaughterhouse when she became ill with cancer, gets $352 a month in food stamps for herself and three college-age sons. She buys discount meat and canned vegetables, cheaper than fresh. Like Mr. Rigsby, she eats once a day — “if I eat,” she said.

Does anyone in that picture look "food insecure" to you? And why does this woman have to feed her three "college-age" sons? Is that phrase used to imply they are in college? Where I come from an 18+ year old is commonly referred to as an adult. If nothing else, wouldn't they get their own food stamps?

I can only assume these stories are written for people so far removed from this type of situation that they actually seem credible. Go work as a cashier at a grocery in a middle class to poor area. What you are likely to see is:

1. They buy more meat than any non-subsidized poor person could afford.
2. They buy much more coca-cola and doritos than "budget stretching stew" ingredients.
3. They still have money left over for a separate order of cigarettes, beer and lottery tickets paid for with the cash they saved by not having to buy groceries.

[don]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Gee, not a word on the gentleman farmer.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

I can only assume these stories are written for people so far removed from this type of situation that they actually seem credible. Go work as a cashier at a grocery in a middle class to poor area. What you are likely to see is:

1. They buy more meat than any non-subsidized poor person could afford.
2. They buy much more coca-cola and doritos than "budget stretching stew" ingredients.
3. They still have money left over for a separate order of cigarettes, beer and lottery tickets paid for with the cash they saved by not having to buy groceries.

You're ignoring the calories per dollar calculation.

I think if you do the calories per dollar math, you'll have a goddamn hard time beating Coca-Cola and Doritos and the discounted fatty beef. They're dirt cheap and full of calories.

You confuse me sometimes. You reject religion. And yet you feel free to go moralizing like a 17th century Puritan about what FREE INDIVIDUALS should be doing with their money.

[shiny!]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Just because people are fat or obese doesn't mean they aren't starving for nutrients. Living on PB&J on white bread, Macaroni & Cheese and soda pop will make people both malnourished and fat. There are more and more neighborhoods where all the grocery stores have shut down. People living in those neighborhoods have no places to buy food except expensive convenience stores and fast food restaurants.

Quite a few of my neighbors have their power cut off every few days because they can't afford electricity. One of my neighbors was walking to Jack-in-the-Box once a day for a burger. It was all he could afford. This guy is hardworking and honest, and he was going HUNGRY. I offered to buy him some milk, eggs and potatoes. He said not to because his power was shut off. He couldn't cook without electricity, and the dairy food would have gone bad without refrigeration. I gave him a bag of chips and a box of cookies and neary cried when he started shoving that junk into his mouth. He was starving. So now I give him odd jobs around my house, feed him when he comes over and send him home with some cash and non-perishible food. Whenever he has $20 I drive him to the power company so he can put the money on his electric account, which keeps his air conditioner running for a few days.

FIRE propaganda would have us believe that poor people deserve their suffering because they're lazy and stupid. But there are a lot of decent, proud people who have had their jobs, wealth and dignity stolen by FIRE. And a lot of stupid and/or broken people who need protection from exploitation, not condemnation from people with well-fed bellies. I think we should save a great deal of condemnation for the greedy sociopaths of Wall Street and their greedy, sociopathic puppets in Washington. They destroyed our economy, our society is disintigrating, and they're laughing all the way to the bank.

[don]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Some Food Stamp issues:

Food stamps, like the school milk program, is a boon to the food industry.

Food stamps are a public subsidy for low paying jobs. The world's largest retail corporation, Walmart, is a case in point.

Enlisted soldiers' families receive food stamps, a national disgrace.

Food stamps mollify the growing underclass. The alternative may be less pleasant.

[shiny!]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Some Food Stamp issues:

Food stamps, like the school milk program, is a boon to the food industry.

Food stamps are a public subsidy for low paying jobs. The world's largest retail corporation, Walmart, is a case in point.

Enlisted soldiers' families receive food stamps, a national disgrace.

Food stamps mollify the growing underclass. The alternative may be less pleasant.

Same goes for unemployment benefits. The government's printing press can keep the growing underclass supplied with food stamps and unemployment benefits forever, but when that money loses its purchasing power things will get ugly. But I don't think TPTB have anything to fear. Even if the police weren't stocked to the gills with riot control weapons, starving people can only sustain a revolution for a few days before they are overcome with weakness.

[Woodsman]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Score one for reggie's thesis:

“[b]y subverting the internet at every level to make it a vast, multi-layered and robust surveillance platform, the NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract.”

http://www.discourse.net/2013/09/enc...y-is-falliing/

[rhess595]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Check out the documentary "Food, Inc". This movement is based on a healthy survival instinct.

[don]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

Same goes for unemployment benefits. The government's printing press can keep the growing underclass supplied with food stamps and unemployment benefits forever, but when that money loses its purchasing power things will get ugly. But I don't think TPTB have anything to fear. Even if the police weren't stocked to the gills with riot control weapons, starving people can only sustain a revolution for a few days before they are overcome with weakness.

The growing underclass in America has no leadership (and the state will do all it can to keep it that way). More likely if bread and circuses are curtailed they'll be more street level criminality. America's insatiable drug economy may take up the slack.

Is there solace in the privatizing of the food stamp program? - to the Bank of America, who naturally outsource the work to India - another virtuous circle of FIRE.

[DSpencer]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

You're ignoring the calories per dollar calculation.

I think if you do the calories per dollar math, you'll have a goddamn hard time beating Coca-Cola and Doritos and the discounted fatty beef. They're dirt cheap and full of calories.

You confuse me sometimes. You reject religion. And yet you feel free to go moralizing like a 17th century Puritan about what FREE INDIVIDUALS should be doing with their money.

Maybe I should have been more clear, but my "moralizing" relates to people spending food stamp money. Which is NOT their money in any normal sense. That was the whole point, that people getting these subsidies were not eating healthy stews they were eating junk.

Let's be honest, this whole "calories per dollar" thing is a half truth at best:

First, as shiny! points out, many people are fat but have poor nutrition. Meaning they are eating too many calories and not enough nutrient rich food.
Second, this implies that people are actually reading labels and doing the math to figure out calories per dollar. I bet many people on food stamps couldn't answer the math question of calories per dollar even if they tried. Half the cashiers at Walmart can't even figure out correct change if the power goes out. And that's just subtraction.
Third, if they were actually maximizing calories per dollar there are better ways to do it. A bag of rice or a jar of peanut butter has more calories per dollar. It's cheaper and healthier to eat PB&J.
Fourth, the real reason is obvious. These foods are convenient and scientifically engineered to be delicious.
Bonus: How many calories are in cigarettes and lottery tickets?

I really don't care what free individuals do with THEIR money. This is about people using my money to buy food, live a ridiculous and unhealthy lifestyle and then also expect me to pay for medical care when the extra 100 pounds wears out their body. Is that really so Puritanical?

BTW, I'm really not some evil person that hates the poor. I just think we have a terrible system that doesn't generally help people. It just keeps people poor and dependent forever. If we are going to do food stamps I'd at least prefer the WIC system where there are certain approved items that don't include 2 liters of coke.

[shiny!]

Re: Is Farming the New Black?

BTW, I'm really not some evil person that hates the poor. I just think we have a terrible system that doesn't generally help people. It just keeps people poor and dependent forever.

Agree.

If we are going to do food stamps I'd at least prefer the WIC system where there are certain approved items that don't include 2 liters of coke.

This is good sense, but could be tricky to do well. Especially when every food manufacturer special interest tries to wield influence to be incuded on the included list. (Money talks)

Fresh fruits and veggies, meat, milk and eggs are a no-brainer. For a long time I thought food stamps should allow purchases of unrefined foods like dried rice and beans, but not processed junk food. Then my neighbor explained how he can't cook without electricity, so my "good nutrition intention" is unworkable for many.

We could start reaching... discuss how to get a solar oven to every household... but the more we try to accomodate the increasing needs of the increasing poor without addressing the reasons why we have so many poor, unemployed people, we're only treating the symptoms while the disease rages on.