(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) A recent event in the arcane world of finance should give food for thought to one and all, not simply those with an interest in the stock market. The transnational mining giant BHP Billiton has made a hostile takeover bid for the Canadian fertilizer producer (the world’s largest) Potash, a move which if successful would further concentrate the ownership, production and distribution of vital commodities in the hands of a few ultra-powerful corporate entities that can then even more than now dictate demands to governments and their hapless citizenries.

Prices for basic food commodities such as wheat and corn have been rising relentlessly of late: wheat has doubled in only eight weeks and corn futures have risen by some thirty percent. Nearly all agricultural commodity futures have risen dramatically, and although some of this may be due to speculation, it will nevertheless impact the prices you pay when you go to shop for groceries.

Give some thought to this. Give some thought as to the long range implications of this sort of concentration of pricing power in the hands of a few transnational companies controlled by the finance oligarchs who are turning the entire world into their fiefdom. There is a great deal of truly frightening and freedom-threatening legislation proposed worldwide, along with judicial decisions blatantly favoring the soulless corporate monsters that are turning agriculture into a deranged factory system that benefits very few. Look at the UN’s dreaded Codex Alimentarius if you have the time, patience and perseverance to slog through this 192-page “procedural manual” (now in its nineteenth edition!) written in nearly incomprehensible legalese, much like the two thousand page “health care” bill that even one of its legislative sponsor/authors admitted he hadn’t read! The senator in question, according to Montana’s Flathead Beacon claimed: “I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language. We hire experts.”

The faceless bureaucrats who write these bills—the “experts”—dance to the tune composed for them by the policy makers in think tanks who in turn dance upon the strings pulled by the true powers, who are to be found in finance. John and Jane Q. Public need only acquiesce in the assumption that they are simply not sufficiently intelligent to manage their own lives, never mind a society; their “benevolent betters” will take charge on their behalf. Allow this to happen and the blameworthy offender when all goes bad can be found merely by looking in a mirror.

It is quite possible that those who wish to maintain at least some control over their food supply by growing a bit, by joining co-ops, by attending farmers markets and the like will soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law, given that laws are no longer the brainchild of the “commoners,” but rather the Frankensteinian creations of mad social scientists who “know what’s best for everyone.”

Sure they do: they know what’s best for the interests of those who make it possible for the beaten-down taxpayer to pay them exorbitant salaries, which means to their way of thinking for their own best interests. Those interests are most assuredly not yours: know this and act accordingly. Laws must be changed, repealed, legislators changed, judicial usurpation of authority curtailed on the public front. Privately, one must grow what one can, even if this constitutes civil disobedience for a period (though this is a matter of conscience and prudence), and one must learn what is best to grow.

Food is a basic necessity and it is best to do what one can to provide it in situ when possible. There exist a number of providers of open-pollinated seeds, for example, seeds which produce crops from which seed can be harvested to plant again the following year, seeds which are not the “intellectual property” of a corporation, seeds which have not had their God-given genetic code tampered with by profit-seekers; patronize these firms.

Think carefully about the food you eat, think carefully about becoming active in its production and in protecting your rights to do so; this is the Catholic way.