Big Brood

I was wandering around wondering about my grocery bills and I ran across this great piece from the UIUC Farm Gate. The summary:

“The relationship between corn, ethanol, and gasoline prices has resulted from the federal ethanol production mandates, and they will have an impact on corn prices particularly if a short corn crop results from weather issues. The reduction in production will raise corn prices to levels that ethanol refineries cannot afford to operate, and either the ethanol production mandates will have to be relaxed or refineries will have to be heavily subsidized to be able to buy corn at nearly $8 projected prices.”

This article really hits home with us because, of course, we worry about fuel prices, food prices and our environment. It appears as if La Niña is likely to cause some drought conditions in the U.S. this year, leading to higher corn prices. NOAA’s drought monitor seems to back this up.

Corn prices are also higher this year because of government mandates around ethanol and a generally “greener” focus on ethanol in our country. All of this comes together to push commodity prices up. That is, farmers who want a better crop to sell, will sell corn because of its higher price. That leaves less land available for wheat and soy beans, which also pushes their prices higher.

In the end, the combination of government mandated use of ethanol, our focus on corn-based ethanol and looming drought conditions mean higher prices for our groceries based on these commodities. Also, don’t forget that much of our corn goes to feed our beef.

Have you seen the effect in your grocery bill yet? Do you see any counter-trends?

I found this great post on Yahoo Finance today about David Bach’s Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying. I’m really looking forward to this book as it fits right down our alley of trying to work better with our money and also decrease our impact on the environment.

If the summary is any indication, we may be doing most of these things anyway but it’ll be interestig to see if we can pick up some tidbits. David Bach’s The Automatic Millionaire : A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich was one of the first books I read after I had my “epiphany”. I really enjoyed it and will probably do a book review on it at some point.

It’s also interesting to read the negative comments about this article. Most of them attack global warming theory. The odd thing about this is that David Bach is not advocating some sort of “socialist” method for reducing greenhouse gases. He’s merely helping some people to think about their own personal impact. Whether it effects greenhouse gas or not is a secondary issue to me. I want to reduce MY impact because I believe it is the most respectful thing to do with the environment, which is a gift that we’ve been given. My consumerism is just another manifestation of the sins of greed and envy and when I waste what I could save that comes from pride.

What do you think about Going Green, Live Rich? Is it just another focus on greed or is it really trying to solve a problem?

Ways to get more fiber in your diet was brought up recently on a yahoo group I subscribe to.  Here is our basic bean recipe. 

I make a big pot of brown rice to serve with this. 

Crock-pot Refried beans

3 cups dry pinto beans

8 1/2 cups water

1 onion diced

1/2 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and minced (I use two dried chile’s from last years garden but I am sure anything would work, even red pepper flakes or ground cayenne pepper)

3 cloves garlic minced

1/2 tsp cumin

2 tsp salt (sea salt is best but any will work)

1/2 tsp pepper

Preparation:

Rinse beans in colander.  Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.  Cover and cook on Medium-high for 8 hours.

Drain out most of the water, Mash beans with potato masher (I use our immersion blender), adding back some of the liquid to desired consistency.  Will keep well in fridge for up to 1 week and will freeze well.  You can also add diced kielbasa or andouille sausage if you want meat in it.

Gander has this in his lunch on most days with the rice and some homemade yogurt, it keeps him full.  Oh, and the occasional chocolate chip cookie (his favorite!)