ribit,
re: "If ya are a workin class peasant like myself, and ya have to make a choice, buy the beans."
You probably used the same logic (if you thought about it at all) for not buying gold ten years ago. You were wrong then. It'll be a number of years, but I'm pretty sure you'll find you're wrong again now.
Fortunately, we live in a nation where few people's ability to invest is impeded by their need for food. Almost everyone can invest if that's a goal.
You're a proponent of buying food. That's fine - in the short run. I've got a bit of it myself. But the problem with food is that it's NOT an investment. Over time, it goes bad - like your car... your house... and your dollars. It doesn't get better the longer you hold it; it gets worse.
Gold is in a healthy long-term uptrend - at a time when not much else is. Fortunately, it is in a short-term downtrend and is pretty badly oversold. That makes it an even stronger than usual BUY, imo.
Gold is currently $1663/oz.

Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months