(Nothing but) Flowers

There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
you got it, you got it

We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
we got it, we got it

There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
you've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
you've got it, you've got it

And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention
you got it, you got it

Don't leave me stranded here
I can't get used to this lifestyle

Thomas Friedman, a champion of a $4.40/gallon gasoline price floor, while he zips around Manhattan in his Prius, would be tickled to that know that high gas prices are forcing people to eat more organic locally-grown food, grow their own vegetables and stay at home more often to enjoy the company of their own family.

As it stands now, the cost of gasoline is having an effect on all sectors of the economy but none more so than where we would most likely feel it the most: food prices.

Fertilizers, pesticides and fuel for farm equipment account for 14 percent of farm budgets nationally.

Between the second quarter of last year and the same time this year, farmers paid 65 percent more for fertilizer, 5 percent more for pesticides and 46 percent more for fuel, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And that does not even factor in the cost of fuel for processing food and shipping the food to market. What all this has resulted in is a 53% increase in the price of eggs, a 25% increase in bread prices and a 19% increase in milk prices.

But more collateral benefits abound also as people are clipping coupons, carpooling with neighbors to their local organic-only store and bartering different home-grown vegetable goods with those same neighbors…. you know, participating in what Friedman would consider “good” behavior. It all has such an idyllic and charmingly pre-civilization feel to it.

And why stop there? With the price of gasoline predicted to rise past 5 and 6 dollars, we will be able to cut meat and dairy products completely out of our diet because they just cost too much to produce and possibly just get rid of that car altogether. Its all good.

And maybe, just maybe if gas starts creeping up towards and past 7 dollars we can start razing shopping centers and bull-dozing housing developments that are currently setting on more population-dense arable land. You do like camping-out, dontcha?

The title of the post and the lyrics were taken from a Talking Heads song, one of our favorites, of the same name. I think they rather agreed with our sentiments expressed above on civilization devolution, but you can be the judge.