The UN conference on food security, which China boycotted, determined that the world has about 70 days of food left, and that even if the war ended today, there would be catastrophic food shortages this fall (Northern Hemisphere). Food crop planting is down about 40% in the U.S. on a year-by-year basis, so it appears life will get hard this winter. Financial experts predict gasoline prices to average $6 a gallon by September. I saw no predictions for diesel. Any opinions?
Given the down market, I called my financial guy and asked what I should be buying. He said "Canned goods and ammunition".....
Only recently I have seen store shelves without the items I usually buy, so certain shortages are happening right now. That's probably how it will happen...a little at a time. First you substitute and then nothing. Still it's hard to believe.
I read that we are about 10 weeks from being out of wheat, according to the UN. “The world has just 10 weeks' worth of wheat. The UN has been warned that global wheat inventories have fallen to their lowest level since 2008 as food supplies are rocked by a “one-in-a-generation occurrence”. Wheat shortage poised to drive up global food costs even more.” If even close to true, this is pretty scary news. Just think how much of the food that almost everyone eats has some form of wheat in it. We are maybe getting close to the biblical prediction of a loaf of bread costing a full day’s wages . Who all here is stocking up in preparations for more shortages happening and prices increasing as this year continues ?
I'm afraid we have more to worry about than this or that freedom. I grew up on a farm (southeast high altitude Idaho) that produced potatoes, some barley and wheat, and alfalla to feed the beef cattle during winter. Absolutely NOTHING!!! would have grown on that farm without irrigation provided by canals and ditches dug immediately after the area was settled. All of the crops had to have water several times each month. "Changing the water" several times each day was the main thing during the summer months. Now we read about the droughts in the west, esp. the southwest. Good luck with the 'freedoms.'
That is the report I referred to at the beginning of the thread. Usually there is at least a six-month surplus to allow for some crop issues. This year there is a deficit, as the existing supplies will not carry us through to the next harvest in some regions, so there will be famine among the most needy nations. Food riots are already starting in Iran, and there is some screaming in China even though China has "prepped" for the upcoming catastrophe. I wouldn't expect many to talk about their stores on such an open, unsecure forum as this.
Here is a link to a couple of novices who decided to live off the land for a year and only use and eat what they could procure, grow or make themselves. While many of us, like @Mary Stetler, @Faye Fox, and others have already done most of what these people discovered, not all of us still do those things as we've aged. I suspect, however, that we could do it all again if we had to. Link to homesteaders channel
I tried to talk to my monthly lunch group about prepping a while back. One actually started--a Liberal!. One said we could all come to my place. I said, Oh no. I will teach you how to find food. Shoot. I remember when my daughter had me try a worm inside a goldenrod gall. I was swee! and gross. But surprising for an emergency. So many issues. Electricity down you lose the contents of you freezer. Not enough water. How do you hydrate your dried food? I have a small group of people who get together for a wild food dinner once or twice a year. But it is very small compared to the population. I hope cities are preparing.
This mentality infuriates me, especially when they say it out loud to (a) test the waters, and (b) think they have given themselves permissions.
I was just looking at the list of food processing (and related news), and the list is almost up to 100 places that have either burned down, or had some sort of factory accident that destroyed the food plant or the food that they process. Two places actually were hit my airplanes crashing into the buildings. The one where the chicken and egg farm just caught fire and totally burned the whole thing down was one of the largest farms in the United States. The last one, a day or so ago, was a large warehouse in Wisconsin, and today, I am seeing pictures on Twitter news about cattle literally dying in the feedlot, around 3,000 black angus (which is prime beef). Some of this we probably never hear about if it only makes local news, so there are probably even more “accidents” happening at food processing plants, and unless someone reports it on social media, only the local area hears about it. The truckers are reporting that shippers are not sending out loads cross-country because of the shipping costs, and some truckers have simply stopped driving because they can’t afford the diesel to haul the loads. It is a no-win situation. If the company pays enough for shipping for the trucker to make money on the delivery, then it is too expensive for them to ship, and if they do not pay that much, then the trucker can’t afford the fuel to deliver the shipment. Stock markets are crashing, and that is a bad sign , too.
I still wonder if the fires are part of a cyber attack on us by Russia, China, or Iran. Of course, some conspiracy buffs claim we may be attacking ourselves. I think the most likely scenario is that we are being attacked and the government is silent on it to prevent panic. The grid will be next.