Buying the Farm

Let me begin with a full disclosure. I own a few hundred dollars worth of Valcent Technologies stock (it used to be much more valuable). With that out of the way, let's talk about buying the farm.

With a lot of Americans (and non-Americans) out of a job, consider farming. The world population is still growing at a realtively good clip, farm land has not been expanding, farmers (at least in the U.S.) seem to be retiring and in short supply, and in the U.S. it promises to be a key export for years to come, especially as our dollar gets trashed. Just a thought.

Now I say this not because I have a few hundred in Valcent stock. I originally bought it because it is into using algae as an alternative fuel stock - something I still believe is a leading contender for the future. And Valcent has a promising, yet still in development, technology for growing algae. Admittedly, the technology seemed more promising when gas was $4 a gallon, but we will return there eventually.

What excites me more about the stock now is their verticle growing system. It is expensive on a square foot basis, but if their claims on using significantly less water, having no nutrient runoff to the oceans and growth rates prove accurate, this is an excellent product. I happen to be in New Hampshire where we got six inches of rain in June but in places like Australia where they have drought conditions, a system that uses a fifth of the water is vital. Again, I own a few hundred dollars of the stock, so I do stand to make some (not) significant dollars if the stock goes up. It would have to go up many fold to get back to where I bought it on the algae bet (which could still come through with Obama). You never know, but one thing is for sure (beyond taxes and death) - people need to eat!!

By the way, here is a nice piece by Graham Summers at Seeking Alpha providing a good bit more detail on the food and farming issues we face. Judging by the comments, it is quite a contentious issue, but again, we all have to eat. Who can contend with that?

http://seekingalpha.com/article/144675-the-real-crisis-is-food-beginning-of-the-bull-for-agriculture?source=email

Tough week so I will say goodnight with this.