WHICH YOU YOU RATHER HAVE???????

Thanks to the great point of view written by Ron Gardner in last week's Alden Advertiser, reprinted here with his permission.

"Dear Editor:
The debate over Wal-Mart leads me to present a point of view to consider. In the Sunday, July 15, 2007 Buffalo News, page 6 was an article under the heading, Nature Watch by Gerry Rising. His article was about the cost of production of ethanol, but he makes a couple of points that could affect all of us. He states "...over the past decade the earth's crop land was reduced by 20% and for every acre of corn that is used to produce ethanol, takes that acre out of food production."

That may be the least of the problems. The changing weather patterns could easily cause farm production to drop to a point that farms could not feed the populace. A war in the Middle East could cut off foreign oil imports to the USA, thus causing farm production to stop. Any crops that could be produced would be unable to reach the supermarkets. Continually turning valuable farm land into housing and putting farm land under blacktop can only have a negative affect on maintaining food production and keeping food prices down. Will Mr Rising's 20% turn into 50% in less than ten years? Will war be "OK" if it's over food? No matter who you are, rich or poor, we all depend on the farmer. Which would you rather have, a productive farm nearby or a Chinese outlet store?