It Strikes Me Funny PT 4: It’s not like we don’t know - Food Freedom Day? WTHeck?

Here in Canada and the US we know debt and oil price$ are going North.

We know food price$ are going North and one day we’ll have to cook more meals to save $$$.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, where snow-covered Canadians have time to calculate which day our grocery bills will be paid off, some of us know that Feb. 12 was Food Freedom Day 2011, “the date by which the average Canadian has earned enough money to pay for groceries for the entire year.” (Feb. 14, London Free Press)


["Long-term training needed to live under our means"]

Right now there are a few factors that are keeping that date from being pushed quickly into March.

According to economists, they are the following:

The high Canadian dollar

the high proportion of food costs unrelated to crop prices such as marketing and transportation

intense retail competition

However, crop prices will eventually buffet Food Freedom Day.

Here’s why:

North American crop prices - for corn , wheat and soybeans - are surging.

A high percentage of foods contain corn, corn syrup, corn starch, wheat and soy.

Our meat stocks - beef, pork and poultry - get stuffed to the eyeballs with corn and soy.

So, as you already likely know, Food Freedom Day won’t likely be celebrated on Feb. 12 in 2012.

It strikes me funny that many North Americans pay any attention to such odd conventions, i.e., Food Freedom Day, Tax Free Day (the date by which we have earned enough to pay off our taxes), Mortgage Free Day, Christmas Bills Free Day, Golf Membership Free Day, Cable Bill Free Day, etc.

It’s funny (funny “odd”, not funny “haha”) because those dates are more about willing deception than whimsical convention.

How can we say to ourselves that we’ve earned enough to pay off our groceries when some payments are made by credit card and personal debt is going through the roof? How can we be free from taxes when national debt is higher than it’s ever been (in Canada and the US) in human history? How can anyone celebrate Mortgage Free Day when their line of credit is growing faster than the mortgage is declining?

Some of us are such maroons.

These things we know, and long-term training is needed to get many North Americans even close to living under their means.

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Please click here to read Pt 3 It’s not like we don’t know.

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