There are many great quotes in this movie like the one from Voltaire, “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” So you know what I mean when I say it is dangerous to be right in the United States. One of the many ways the U.S. government is wrong is in how it goes about regulating the economy and, more specifically, how it regulates food production. All great empires in history have fallen primarily because they failed at food production. Here in the twenty-first century we have a front row seat to the collapse of the American empire.
An American example of the importance of food to the security of a nation occurred in the nineteenth century when the U.S. military went up against the Plains Indians. The U.S. military was stopped cold and manifest destiny had to wait until the buffalo, the food supply of the native Americans, was wiped out. In public schools we are led to believe we were able to prevail over the native Americans because of superior weapons. Not really. Muskets were inaccurate, unreliable and took forever to reload. The bow and arrow was the more efficient weapon, much faster to reload and just as deadly. But when your food is gone, weapons don’t matter anymore. As the title of the movie suggests, secure production of high quality food is critical to national security.
Another great point about basic economics comes from Jean Baptiste Say. Products pay for other products. Money is just the conduit. Creation of more money just creates more inflation and ultimately less consumption and less production. Abundance of products is more important to an economy than abundance of money. Government economic policy over the last century has been more concerned about money than production. In many cases, farmers have been paid not to produce.
This video is loaded with fascinating historical film clips documenting government regulation of farming and food production. One is struck by the insanity of policies that set prices below the cost of production, then fixed that by subsidies. As we have seen in practice, those subsidies go to the food industry that produces the lowest quality plastic swill.
This video is a bit long, over two hours, and doesn’t provide any clear solutions or suggestions. It does contain a lot of detailed information that will interest the student of history. While the mainstream wrings its hands over global warming and gun control, the much bigger crisis is revealed by the average age of American farmers. Because government policy has made it impossible to do well on the farm, many have dropped out of farming—young people are not up for impossible careers. The average age of the American farmer is approaching sixty. Now that’s a crisis. The thumb is UP for this video.
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Caleb Copeland says
Hi, I’m curious to find out how I can view this film. I worked on it a bit in 2008-2009 and lost touch with the filmmaker, Mr. Roberson. I was sad to discover he passed away about a year ago. If you can help me track down a copy of the film or if it is hosted online somewhere, I would appreciate an email: calebenji@gmail.com.
Thank you!!
David says
Who publishes or owns the copyright to this now?