Speak Out 10/7/13

Green energy vs. milk prices

While only a couple of the national news media sources have put out just a small sound bite about milk possibly reaching $6 a gallon or more because of Congresses inability to pass a farm bill. There's an even darker and unmentioned cause for this spike in prices and it's because the farmers are now having to give up their food sources for their animals--the corn that they used to feed them, the soy bean meal and the forage and waste from the corn. Much of this now is going into what we call "green energy." You know that wonderful stuff you pump into your gas tank? That's right--ethanol is made from the waste of corn, made from corn itself and we're now getting bio-diesel made from soy beans. And, we ask ourselves -- you take from one and give to another --what happens to the price as farmers have to share even higher priced feeds? Yes, America, isn't the "green agenda" just wonderful for your pocketbook? Not only at the pump, but as you turn and look at your children standing like Oliver Twist asking may I have more, please, holding up their empty bowls waiting for a little milk. Sorry I make things sound so dark, but cost-of-living allowances no longer use food or fuel in their basis for allowing the higher cost to be actually reflected as damaging to the elderly and those on social security. So, think about it, America, is Congress really working for you or just some special interest that you have no say so over anymore? Think about that at the voting box next time you pull the lever and look at your bottom line at the end of the month after you buy groceries. I shake my head just like anybody else would.