What we need is more Insurance.

Especially during this economically troubled time, we need Food Insurance.

It works like this. For $X per month you will be able to go to the grocery store and buy the food you want, but instead of purchasing the food, all you will have to do is show your insurance card. Then at the end of the month the insurance company will send you a statement showing how much you really own the grocery store.

Of course you will be able to purchase higher or lower deductibles and different levels of co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums. And then at the end of each year, the insurance company will tell you how much it will cost to participate in the plan for the next year. Why these plans might even become part of expected employer paid perks.

Now it will never do to have the consumer deal directly with the farmer, nay not even with the grocery chains. No more than for people to deal directly with doctors or their practice groups. There must be a new layer. Now this layer will add to the GDP, it will make money -- certainly it must be paid for all the grocery purchases that it reconciles. And it will provide many new jobs for clerks and managers and executives and boards of directors. These companies will go public and sell stock for our retirement plans. They will be able to stand up to the larger chains, forcing them to provide cheaper products.

When christenings, weddings, wakes arrive and we are not in a position to afford them at the moment, we will have our food insurance to depend on. Oh, I feel better already. How about it?