"Seven Years of Great Plenty" ... and then what?

Of course, the Bible said it best, but we really must be prepared as a nation for bad times as well as good times. The New York Times has been getting plenty of responses to their stories on how food prices are rising, but the one we found particularly sensible comes to us from Kathy Ozer, Executive Director of the National Family Farm Coalition. The full article is available at Need for Grain Reserves.

"As a group representing family farmers, we feel that it is just as urgent that the United States re-establishes Strategic Grain Reserves just as we have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

"So far, the current farm bill has completely overlooked this critical issue. We are just one drought away from seeing $10 per bushel corn, with absolutely no plans in place to deal with this calamity! Most civilizations have had reserves.

"Leaving our food security to the whims of the global markets is a recipe for disaster, but this is the situation we find ourselves in since Congress got rid of our last reserves in the 1996 “freedom to farm” bill.

"A reserve would also help stabilize prices so that farmers would not have to suffer $1.50 corn and $3 wheat, as what happened when prices collapsed after the 1996 farm bill. Farmers then had to be bailed out with expensive subsidy payments.

"Ten-dollar corn is a threat to our food system, but $2 corn should be every bit as unacceptable."