Throughout this horrific pet food contamination issue and subsequent recall (the one that you'd need to be sealed away in a cave to have not heard about here in the USA), there has been one burning question in my mind that hasn't gotten very much press:
WHY is the USA *importing* Wheat???
Aren't we the 'breadbasket' of the world? Don't we have the capacity to feed the entire world, if we needed to? In this age of international terrorism tensions, with such emphasis here in the USA on 'Homeland Security,' why are we importing food products that we have the capacity to grow ourselves? How prevalent is this and where is the food coming from?
Apparently, I am not the only one asking this, and the USA's National Association of Wheat Growers has an answer to all of these questions.
NOTE: While researching this post, I also found a few interesting articles on the topic of America's Breadbasket and the pitfalls of overfarming and genetics: one an easy read and one a more scientific/difficult read. Both are about 10 years old, but still topical. In the last decade Organic farming has certainly gotten a huge boost, and that is changing the horizon, already.
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