I found links to a series of videos taken by a family that moved from Europe to America in the 1970's. What a story! The series is named God's Country. It will take a week to watch all these videos if you just watch one when you are taking a stint at your computer. Part 3 is almost ten minutes long so that will give you an idea what you are getting into when you click on my link.
You will see parts one through nine on the right side of your You Tube viewer page. Watch any and all that you choose and leave a comment on what you think. It is a very interesting report of starting a farm in Minnesota in the 70's and reporting more what happened during the 80's.
A friend sent a much deeper piece on the future of agriculture, climate, and the world called The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It also is very interesting and intriguing but takes us from the farming in the 70's in Minnesota shown in God's Country to what God might have in store for us. Neither one is required viewing of course, unless you are a very curious person like I am! Your comments and email also will be appreciated on this deep subject. It's all just "food for thought."
CBS Sunday Morning had several good pieces yesterday. I really liked this one on Columbus Ohio, "The World's Marketplace." You can see other stories on this list of links. The Fiesta dinnerware and the Goya Brands were very interesting to me, too. I got hooked on that program when Charles Kuralt travelled America in an RV. Yesterday was one of the better shows since those times.
I had a good early question this morning from a young farmer in Virginia who was considering putting Capture insecticide on his no-till corn on corn. He already has 2 X 2 fertilizer on the planter where he puts down nitrogen, sulfur, boron and zinc off the side of his highly weathered soils.
I told him to go for it.
Ed
Email Replies on the Four Horsemen already!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I wonder if there is a followup story? LA
Thanks for the forward! I like facts. Two or three off the cuff comments,world wheat carryout in days of use is near a record at 109 days,wheat prices are very depressed(near corn prices). As the price of grain increases the incentive to produce increases exponentially. My father remembers charts and graphs shown to them in the 50's, the world famine date was 1972. It seems we are in the end always cursed with plenty.(my Dads term also) I believe that economic incentive will drive additional developments in world crop production and total world production acres. Economic disincentive would seem to be the main risk? PR
God's Country is actually a documentary by Louis Malle. It was split in 10-minute parts because that was the maximum duration allowed by YouTube at the time for personal uploads, but it's a full length feature originally.
ReplyDeleteI love his Zazie in the Metro but you may know him from the more popular Au Revoir Les Enfants.
God's Country belongs rightfully in the folklore collection of the Library of Congress. I wonder if there's a new Alan Lomax or Edward S. Curtis who could update us on the fate of Glencoe, MN and its people in 2012.
Thanks for the info, anonymous! I did not know that. I can see the full length picture in segments for uploading, makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI have only seen two segments so far. The other link has been keeping me busy, it's a hot topic!
"First of all Ed, I believe many bad things are in front of us. Do I live life scared? Not at all. Am I a pessimist? Absolutely not.
There are quite a few things aligning which is going to make this decade a total debacle. I am quite concerned with the sun being dead center of the galaxy on December 21st. I am of the opinion we have either a severe cold snap early which does in this crop in early September or we have a tsunami somewhere in the world which does catastrophic damage.
We will see the end of the ethanol mandate due to the fact we cannot grow food fast enough to feed the entire world. We will see interest rates rise because the FED will have to combat inflation at some point. In doing so, the banks will all go under because they hold massive amounts of treasuries and will have no buyers to take them off of their balance sheets. I can promise you the first day the FED raises interest rates, every single dollar I have will be pulled from the bank and put in my house. These banks will go under and you will have zero recourse because the FED will be bankrupt also due to having all of these treasuries and no buyers. In the mean time, before rates are raised commodities will scream higher until we have civil unrest because very few can afford energy and food. Choices will be made and many will die because of starvation, cold, or civil wars. If I was a farmer, I would be scared to death. Ethanol will go away which will take prices to the toilet. Couple that problem with not enough food and folks will be doing everything in their power to steal that food from your fields and bins. I would guess we are three to six years away from all of this unfolding.
I don't know who survives in the end, but it will not be a world you want to live in unless you are flush with money, ammunition, canned goods, and water. "