Jim Martin,

You make an interesting, yet puzzling, comment regarding the free market. A substantial portion of current food inflation in the U.S. is due to the unfree (subsidized) corn/ethanol market, yet you appear to be advocating more bureaucratic interference.

South Korea has a free market; North Korea does not. South Korea is rich and North Korea is starving. South Africa has interfered relatively little with land ownership and is, by African standards, rich. Neighboring Zimbabwe has seized land owned by wealthy farmers and is starving. Switzerland is rich; Belarus is poor. Singapore is rich; Burma is poor. Hong Kong is rich; Taiwan is rich; China was much poorer; now that China has adopted an economic policy more like that of Hong Kong and Taiwan, moving toward more economic freedom, China is rapidly catching up. Russia has far more land and more natural resources than Canada, yet Canada has far more wealth and far more economic freedom. It could be just a coincidence, but somehow I doubt it.

If you really want to do your bit to help the situation, shop at your local farmer's market. You'll get better food than you'll find in WalMart and you'll help that endangered species, the small farmer. While you're there, talk to the farmers. Ask them if they think the agricultural economy is suffering from too much freedom or from too much government interference in the form of burdensome regulations, high taxes, and subsidies to agri-business.

Kent