An Abundance of Scarcity: Buh-Bye, Dollar Burgers, Hello, Weeds?

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen's proposed overhaul of our financial markets was unveiled on Monday, a day too early to qualify as an April Fool's Day prank, but it was a joke, nonetheless. Forget about voodoo economics; this is doodoo economics. No wonder the rest of the world is turning up its nose at our once-almighty dollar as if it were dipped in dung. Paulsen's proposals do nothing to address the mortgage mess, and they won't prevent the next free market free-for-all, either--or freefall.

The foreclosure fiasco's left a landscape littered with pre-fab ghost towns, a NeverLand of never-lived-in condos and sorry-we-had-to-split-levels. Folks are drowning in debt, our consumer-fueled economy's lurching into obsolescence, but the Powers That Used To Be can barely bring themselves to say the "R" word.

More daring, less deluded folks are tossing around the "D" word. My favorite economics columnist, David R. Francis, wrote a column last week entitled "Recession is a Given. Can We Avoid Depression?"

Francis cites economist Robert Parks' recent remark in an e-mail to colleagues "that there was more than a 60 percent probability the current financial meltdown in the United States would lead to the "Bush depression." Parks' pessimism sent tremors down the it's-not-our-faultline from K Street to Wall Street. But while the Federal Reserve's frantically trying to jumpstart our stalling economy, Parks thinks the Fed's interest rate cuts aren't gonna cut it:

Mr. Parks, however, doubts the cuts will do much to boost the economy. Rather, he sees a further steep fall in housing prices, continued major deficits in the federal budget and in the international trade balance, a tumbling dollar, and a weak stock market leading to a genuine depression with 30 to 35 percent unemployment, greater poverty, more loss of homes, plunging bond and stock prices, even some starvation.

Starvation. Crazy talk from some crackpot Cassandra? Consider the source:

Parks, now a Pace University finance professor (for years he was chief economist at three Wall Street firms), says he has never predicted a depression before. His e-mail to press acquaintances sparked a lot of interest, as Parks was daring to express publicly the financial community's worst nightmare.

Here in New York, the newly needy are showing up at food banks and soup kitchens in droves, just when donations are dropping to the lowest they've been in decades. Same thing's happening all over the country, according to the Wall Street Journal, and there's a global food crisis brewing beyond our borders, from Argentina to Africa. The World Bank estimates that 33 countries are facing social unrest fueled by higher food and energy prices.

Are we facing an upheaval here at home? For many tapped-out Americans, rising food and fuel costs are catastrophic. But for "the food-should-cost-more cadre," as food writer Kim Severson calls us in today's NY Times, the demise of the dollar burger would be cause for celebration. Admittedly, we're in the minority in a culture that views low-cost food "as a national triumph."

As Ephraim Leibtag of the USDA's Economic Research Service tells Severson, "If you think that mass production and vast distribution predicated on cheap energy is a good system, then the dollar hamburger is a good thing."

Severson cites the hopes of folks like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters that the advent of not-so-cheap fast foods could help level the playing field for locally grown fruits and vegetables and pasture-raised meat and dairy products:

...if American staples like soda, fast-food hamburgers and frozen dinners don't seem like such a bargain anymore, the American eating public might turn its attention to ingredients like local fruits and vegetables, and milk and meat from animals that eat grass. It turns out that those foods, already favorites of the critics of industrial food, have also dodged recent price increases.

Logic would dictate that arguing against cheap food would be the wrong move when the Consumer Price Index puts food costs at about 4.5 percent more this year than last. But for locavores, small growers, activist chefs and others, higher grocery bills might be just the thing to bring about the change they desire.

Higher food costs, they say, could push pasture-raised milk and meat past its boutique status, make organic food more accessible and spark a national conversation about why inexpensive food is not really such a bargain after all.

Oh, and while we're at it, could we have a chat about the high cost of cheap oil, too, now that it's not so cheap? A congressional committee held a hearing yesterday to ask the heads of our five largest oil companies how they can justify raking in record profits and receiving $18 billion in tax breaks at a time when average Americans are struggling to fill their gas tanks and independent truckers are seeing their profits vanish.

John Hofmeister, the president of Shell Oil, smugly told ABC News, "When our costs are too high for Shell, we make choices about what not to do. And one choice that consumers could make is to drive less."

Sure, because, you know, we've got such great mass transit. And we've built all those communities where walking or biking to work is a real option. Oh, wait! That was just a dream I had. Nevermind.

Sadly, an awful lot of folks can only get where they need to go by car. So they can't cut back on their gas consumption. I guess, to paraphrase Mr. Hofmeister, one choice that consumers could make is to eat less.

Or at least to buy less food. What better way to offset the high cost of your commute than to save on your food bills by eating weeds? It's high time for lawn-loving suburbanites to just say "whoa!" to Roundup and start harvesting those delicious and nutritious weeds they've been treating like trash.

Not sure what's edible? Martha Stewart's got a "wild edibles" guide in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. Sure, life as we know it is ending, but there's a whole new world of possibilities opening up right before your eyes! So go forage for food in your front yard--it's a good thing.

Follow Kerry Trueman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kerrytrueman

Comments

[ConstanceReader]

Congratulations on your lifestyle change, JoDeeVa, but I think you missed the article's point that minimalizing one's life the way you have is simply and plainly not an option for most Americans.

Most of us do not live in places with Oregon's excellent mass transit and can not afford to move to such a place, and can not live walking or biking distance from our jobs because we can't afford housing prices in those areas. Most people who have access to farmers markets (or Whole Foods or other boutique markets that can prefer local sources) can not afford the much higher prices at those markets. Many of those who live in apartments do not have patio/balcony, much less yard, space to do any gardening, even if they were permitted to do so by management.

As I have learned from my own lifestyle changes in the past seven years, choosing to live the "simple" life is anything but simple. The will to change may be limitless but the economic resources required to do so are not.

[harleanc]

Alas, the lack of vision that has plagued this country ever since we first woke up to the energy crisis in the 70s (and promptly fell back to sleep) has resulted in a suburban sprawl and wasteful approach to infrastructure that has stranded too many people in the "boonies" as we used to say. Living in NYC sans car for years (I don't even know how to drive) taught me to think differently about transportation and that's serving me well now. I now live in a midwestern city near a university, and am conditioned to walk 15 min in the winter to pick up some groceries, and to bike to my chores whenever weather permits. The first time my husband tied up a big box of groceries on the back of his bike, all the checkers and shoppers turned to stare at this bizarre site in a walkable village where people nevertheless hop in their cars to drive a quarter mile. We've all got to start thinking differently about transportation, working at home, growing our own food or buying locally, and living a more sustainable lifestyle.

[JoDeeVa]

15 years ago I left the angst of suburban L.A. for a visit to more friendly environs of Oregon, with which I fell in love. I am now happily ensconced in the beauty of living here. I quit commuting by car, given the opportunity to use excellent mass transit, bike or walk. I live, work and play within a 5-10 mile radius, shop locally (at the Farmer's Market, in season) & grow organic vegetables/herbs, NOT a lawn. (NO need for environmentally harmful RoundUp!)

I took a chance moving and changing my lifestyle. For those who are able to do the same, it is worth the gamble. If not, everyone can still make changes that impact their lives. Shop locally, grow gardens on patios, use mass-transit where possible, WALK places, BE OPEN to a more minimal existence, without all "THE STUFF!" Know your food-chain..ever drive I-5 north-to-s­outh/vice-­versa? It's a rude awakening to see all the semi-trucks, ferrying goods up/ down the pacific coast! I enjoy life more & should a financial/social cataclysm hit, I believe life will be more humanely manageable here. Granted, I'm an optimist, but without rose-colored glasses. And, I'm not blind to living life differently, making changes when needed. It's not that hard..you don't have to eat weeds (but, some are pretty tasty). Change IS a good thing!

Thanks Kerry, for your strong advocacy of living locally, with an eye on minimal consumerism.