How to create jobs by eating differently
Creating jobs has become a popular political debate in recent months. It’s no secret that more people working means more people buying, more tax money collected, and a stronger economy. The first step to fixing the problem is to define the problem. Lack of jobs is not a problem, but a bad economy is. Creating jobs is the solution to kick-start a struggling economy, not a problem to be solved. I’m sure we’d all love to get paid without having to work! That being said, how do we kick-start the solution of creating more jobs? Let’s start by sustaining our own existence.
We exist because we eat, so job creation could easily be supplemented by changing what we eat. One reason that commercial farming is so profitable is because the farming is mostly done by machine. Organic farms typically employ over double the employees that commercial farms do per square acre. According to the EPA, 960,000 people in the US currently describe themselves as farmers. Going all organic in the US would double that, creating one million jobs. Considering that 14 million people are currently out of work, we still have some work to do. But, that’s a pretty good start, isn’t it?
Organic farming also promotes local farming, as organic food is without preservatives and will not be able to travel 15,000 miles on a boat and truck before it gets to you. Food will be grown in America, by Americans, and shipped to Americans by Americans. It makes you feel pretty patriotic, doesn’t it? The United States has the climate to grow just about every type of fruit, vegetable, or livestock. Even tropical fruits can be cultivated in Hawaii.
According to the federal census, we imported over $9 billion worth of food in June of 2011. $9 billion! In one month! The yearly totals at that time were up almost $10 billion when compared to the same time frame in 2010. Growing all of our food domestically would allow us to give each unemployed citizen $692/person per month, indefinitely. That’s almost $1,400 per household of two adults or about $500 per month more than welfare for a family of four. Even if we didn’t create jobs for everyone, we at least saved enough money to bail out welfare indefinitely, pay back the Chinese (at least partially), or buy something “really nice” for ourselves.
Speaking of “really nice,” do you know what no imports on food gives us? For starters, it gives us a significant decrease in energy consumption, making for a greener planet, and decreasing our dependence on foreign oil. Damn, this just keeps getting better.
What else can we fix? How about Medicare? The reason why Medicare is such a drain on our economy is because we allow people to eat shit for their entire lives only to pay for their medical bills and expensive prescriptions when they ultimately come down with a diet-related medical condition. That five-dollar footlong or super-value meal might be a cheap lunch today, but it will likely cost you $100/month for Lipitor in the future. Paying more money now on fresher and better tasting food is much better than paying for it later in a chalky, foul-tasting, pill that will give you diarrhea, headaches, and impotency. Wouldn’t you agree?
Plus, you might actually feel better.
Lewd Food 