Agriculture is Soooooooo...Boring

This morning Foodie read a front page piece in the NYTimes on-line by Alexei Barrionuevo and Jeff Bailey headlined: Alarm Growing on Storm's Cost for Agriculture.  This afternoon when Foodie went to Blog the piece it had vanished. She found it again on the International Herald Trib for tomorrow's edition, then found it in the NYT Business Section--it was not even a headline under Business on the NYTimes homepage, yet "Sears Holdings Replaces Chief Executive" was. Foodie was puzzled, attempting to keep her suspicions at bay.

Okay--several points. One, no one wants to read about agriculture--the very word "agriculture" puts most people to sleep, right? It's like reading about, say, the fine points of levee engineering when the sun is shining and it's April and the beignets at Cafe du Monde are especially tasty. Until those same levees fail and your B&B  is up to its roofbeams in filthy water. Or until somebody has no food, or sees on tv thousands of people with nothing to eat for days.  Or drink. Maybe then the subject takes on some legs.

Oh and if stocks fall.  And if prices rise in the supermarket, at restaurants..... That too, could make a dent. ( Incidentally the bankruptcy law recently passed by Congress may cause incredible trouble for new or rebuilding small businesses like burger joints, high end restaurants, cafes, bakeries, any place that serves or sells food in New Orleans or along the Coast.)

Here's a key paragraph from the NYT article:

"In all, the hurricane will cause an estimated $2 billion in damage to farmers nationwide, according to an early analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation. The estimate includes $1 billion in direct losses, as well as $500 million in higher fuel and energy prices." This news comes at a time when the US was attempting to lower subsidies paid to farmers, in response to calls from abroad to" open more export markets to American farmers and to comply with international free trade agreements."

Meanwhile the US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns tried to assure international customers that "ships were moving again" carrying grain and soybeans. Yet others pointed out that the ports, including the Port of New Orleans, have unsafe working conditions and very few returned workers.

( Photo: Mississippi River grain barges---image from www.painetworks.com.)

Comments

[KathyF]

BBC radio talked about this yesterday. They said nothing is moving down the Mississippi, just when the harvest is going on and there would normally be non-stop barge traffic along the Mississippi. Now there are submerged boats under water that prevent anything from moving.

I remember the many times I crossed the Mississippi, looking over the rails at the barges. It always sorta took away the romance of the river--no steamboats, just ugly barges.

But those ugly barges were, of course, a lifeline for farmers and those of us who like to eat.