Story at-a-glance
- It’s becoming increasingly clear that severe food shortages are going to be inevitable, more or less worldwide, and whatever food is available will continue to go up in price
- The cost of agricultural inputs such as diesel and fertilizers is skyrocketing due to shortages — caused by a combination of intentional and coincidental events — and those costs will be reflected in consumer food prices come fall and next year
- Mysterious fires, alleged bird flu outbreaks and other inexplicable events are killing off livestock and destroying crucial infrastructure. Since the end of April 2021, at least 96 farms, food processing plants and food distribution centers across the U.S. have been damaged or destroyed
- The global food price index had risen 58.5% above the 2014-2016 average as of April 2022, due to a convergence of post-pandemic global demand, extreme weather, tightening food stocks, high energy prices, supply chain bottlenecks, export restrictions, taxes and the Russia-Ukraine conflict
- Combined, all of these factors set us up for guaranteed food shortages, food inflation and, potentially, famine in some places, so now is the time to prepare
Two years ago in May 2020, I predicted the COVID-19 pandemic would be followed by famine, thanks to the intentional shutdown of businesses and global supply lines.1
Depending on where you live, you’re now starting to see shortages to a greater or lesser degree. But regardless of how things appear right now, expect changes, potentially drastic ones, over the coming months and into 2023, because that’s when the diminished yields from this current growing season will become apparent.
With each passing week, it’s becoming increasingly clear that severe food shortages are going to be inevitable, more or less worldwide, and whatever food is available will continue to go up in price.
The cost of agricultural inputs such as diesel and fertilizers is skyrocketing due to shortages — caused by a combination of intentional and coincidental events — and those costs will be reflected in consumer food prices come fall and next year.
On top of that, mysterious fires, alleged bird flu outbreaks and other inexplicable events are killing off livestock and destroying crucial infrastructure. Since the end of April 2021, at least 96 farms, food processing plants and food distribution centers across the U.S. have been damaged or destroyed by fire (see below).2,3
An estimated 10,000 cattle also perished in Ulysses, Kansas, in mid-June 2022,4 under mysterious circumstances. The official claim is that the cattle died from heat stress, but that seems highly unlikely. Heat could conceivably kill some weaker cattle, but 10,000 on the same day?
Recorded temperatures were said to be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the loss,5 but other states have also had 100-degree temperatures, with no recorded cattle deaths.
Combined, all of these factors set us up for guaranteed food shortages, food inflation and, potentially, famine in some places. If you’re still sitting on the fence, I would urge you to get off it and begin preparations. Those who fail to prepare are likely to find themselves in an incredibly difficult situation this fall and next year. Don’t let that be you.
How Bad Is It?
In May 2022, a number of experts started speaking out about the inevitability of coming food shortages. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned of “the specter of a global food shortage in coming months” unless international action is taken,6 and The Economist featured “The Coming Food Catastrophe” on its cover.7
During the 2022 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told attendees that “the anxiety about access to food at a reasonable price globally is hitting the roof,”8 and President Biden, in March 2022, told reporters that food shortages are “going to be real.”9
A May 30, 2022, Reuters report10 showed the global food price index had risen 58.5% above the 2014-2016 average as of April 2022, due to a convergence of “post-pandemic global demand, extreme weather, tightening food stocks, high energy prices, supply chain bottlenecks … export restrictions and taxes” combined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Together, Russia and Ukraine account for as much as 12% of all globally traded calories,11 making the timing of the conflict a particularly perilous one for the world. Not surprisingly, countries that are heavily reliant on imports have seen the steepest food price increases.
In early April 2022, Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv Shah and Sara Menker, founder of Gro Intelligence, published an op-ed12 in The New York Times blaming “Putin’s war” for the looming food crisis but, clearly, we were already on the path toward global famine long before Putin entered Ukraine.
Weather, for example — whether natural or manufactured — plays an important role. As noted by Shah and Menker, “historic drought” plagues many parts of the world, including the U.S. Midwest, Brazil, Argentina, North Africa, the Middle East13 and India.14 Meanwhile, China’s agricultural lands are drowning under the “heaviest rains in 60 years.”15
How Bad Will It Get?
While it’s difficult to predict just how bad it will get in any given area, it seems safe to say that everyone should prepare for some degree of food shortages, regardless of where you live, as we’re staring at a perfect storm of confounding factors that are global in nature and therefore can cause far-reaching and somewhat unpredictable ripple effects.
As noted by David Wallace-Wells in a June 7, 2022, New York Times op-ed, referring to the price index charts published by Reuters and Shah and Menker:16
“… one thing charts like these do not obviously signal is mass starvation. And yet, according to David Beasley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina who now leads the U.N. World Food Program [WFP], that is what they imply:
[T]he possibility that, as a result of an ongoing food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, climate change and the continuing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, 323 million people are ‘marching toward starvation’ as we speak, with 49 million ‘literally at famine’s door’ …
[It] is worth keeping in mind that 49 million is not the number facing ‘acute food insecurity,’ to use the W.F.P.’s technical category distinction.
That number is the much higher one: at least 323 million, which is up, Beasley says, from 276 million before the war, 135 million before the pandemic and 80 million when he joined the W.F.P. in 2017 — a fourfold increase in a single leadership term. Forty-nine million is just the number of those at most immediate risk of death.
Before the war, ‘I was already warning the world that 2022 and 2023 could be the worst two years in the humanitarian world since World War II,’ Beasley says, speaking with me from Rome on last Friday.
‘I’m trying to tell everybody how bad it is — how bad it’s going to be. And then, the next week, I’m like, you know, wipe that clean — it’s worse than what I was saying’ … Beasley believes that 2023 could take a still darker turn.
This year’s price crisis could be succeeded by a genuine supply crisis, in which food is pushed out of reach for many millions not just by price but by ongoing structural conditions (including the failure to plant next year’s harvest in Ukraine and the surge in the price of fertilizer, which can be one-third or more of farmers’ total annual cost), and the world could experience the once-unthinkable: a true shortfall of food.”
According to Menker, the current problem is “not cyclical” but rather “seismic” — “It’s not a moment in time that’s going to pass.”17 Wallace-Wells writes:18
“She cites a longer list of causes, including not just the demand shocks caused by the pandemic and related supply-chain issues but ‘a record number of supply shocks’ that are ‘all climate related,’ such as the rebound of China’s pig population from swine flu and the resulting increase in demand for feed, the problem of public debt in poor countries, the spillover effect of the price of one commodity driving up another and that driving up a third, and so on.
‘Any one of those issues on their own would be considered a big market event. But when you have five of them happening at the same time, that’s what makes it seismic,’ she says.
Russia and Ukraine’s transformation into ‘bread baskets of the world’ was ‘the agricultural miracle of the last sort of 30 years,’ she says, invalidating cataclysmic predictions made by people like Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome.
To take that supply off the market — ‘it’s not an inconsequential fuel to the fire,’ she says. As for the ultimate scale of the impact? ‘I think it’s going to be as big as we make it.'”
Globalization Is a Failed Model
That said, Wallace-Wells points out that agricultural economists appear somewhat more optimistic, as “most food is consumed domestically, not traded on international markets.” So, in many areas, there may be substitutes available for shortages.
According to agricultural economists, “at baseline, there is no true global food shortage, only that unassuming-sounding ‘price crisis,'” Wallace-Wells says,19 and price problems are fixable. It can take time, however, that many won’t have. Personally, I’m not so sure relying on agricultural economists’ optimism is a good idea.
Even though a lot of food is produced and consumed locally, farmers everywhere are struggling with soaring overhead and shortages of required inputs. And, if local farmers can’t grow food because of it, there won’t be any substitutes available when imports lag.
As by Daniel Greenfield with the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council notes, globalization has left the United States extremely vulnerable, as globalization “globalizes the ineptitude of the global order”:20
“Globalization advocates … just recreated Marxist central planning with a somewhat more flexible global model in which massive corporations bridged global barriers to create the most efficient possible means of moving goods and services around the planet …
What an interdependent world really means is Algerian Jihadists shooting up Paris, gang members from El Salvador beheading Americans within sight of Washington D.C., tampon and car shortages caused by a war in Ukraine …
The technocratic new world order of megacorporations consolidating markets and then doling out products with just-in-time inventory systems now flows through a broken supply chain. Rising inflation and international disruptions makes it all but impossible for even the big companies to plan ahead, and so they produce less and shrug at the shortages.
We’re in a wartime economy because our system has become too vast and too inflexible to adjust to chaos. Biden keeps trotting out the Defense Production Act for everything until, given time, the entire economy has been Sovietized. The more that the government tries to impose stability on the chaos, the less responsive and productive the dominant players become.
Market consolidation due to government regulations has left a handful of companies sitting atop the market. When one of them, like Abbott for baby formula, has a hiccup, the results are catastrophic …
Behind all the brands on the product shelves is a creaky Soviet system in which a handful of massive enterprises interconnected with the state lazily crank out low-quality products from vast supply chains that they no longer control and feel little competitive pressure to perform better …
Under stress, the failure points are all too obvious, and what is less obvious is that the system has no intention of repairing any of them … An out-of-touch elite responds to problems with meaningless reassurances, glib jokes and wokeness. Like Soviet propaganda, the only thing corporate statements communicate is the vast distance between the lives of those running the system and those caught inside its gears …
Biden and the Democrats have been eager to blame companies for ‘profiteering’ from the inflation created by federal spending … The Democrats were the biggest champions of globalization. Their regulations led to record market consolidation and domestic job cuts.
Corporations were pressured to export dirty Republican jobs to China and keep the ‘clean’ Democrat office jobs at home. The devastation wreaked havoc on the working class and the middle class, and rebuilt our entire economy to be dependent on China and a worldwide supply chain only globalists could believe was bulletproof … After selling off American economic sovereignty, globalists proved unable to maintain global stability.”
Don’t Panic. Prepare
While the prognosis is grim, panic is not the appropriate response. Taking clear-headed action to get prepared would be far better. Once you’ve shored up some basic supplies and backups, you’ll feel more at ease, knowing you’re prepared to handle whatever crises crop up next.
As for how to prepare and what to stock up on, that’s going to depend on your individual situation, location and financial means. A person living in the country surrounded by farmers and clean, freshwater brooks is facing a very different situation from someone living in a concrete jungle.
So, assess your surroundings and personal situation. Then, go through and determine how you can solve some of your most pressing needs, such as:
• Securing a potable water source and the means to purify less-than-ideal water sources — Examples include stocking up on water purification tablets or drops, and/or independent water filtration systems such as Berkey that can filter out pathogens and other impurities (meaning a filtration system that is not tied to the tap in your home, in case pumps go down and you have no tap water).
Even a small survival water filtration system is better than nothing, as drinking contaminated water can result in serious illness and/or death. Having a rain barrel connected to your gutter downspout is a good idea. You can use it to water your garden, and in a worst-case scenario, you have a source of fresh water to drink, cook and take sponge baths in.
• Buy shelf-stable and nonperishable foods in bulk — Freeze dried foods, for example, have a shelf life of 25 years or more. Canned foods and dry staples such as rice and beans can also stay viable long past their expiration date under the right conditions.
Other good options include canned salmon, canned cod livers, sardines in water (avoid ones preserved in vegetable oil), nuts, powdered milk and whey and other nutritional powders you can mix with water.
Ideally, you’ll want to store food in a cool, dark place with low humidity. Bulk packs of rice and beans are best stored in a sealed food-grade bucket with some oxygen absorbers. Vacuum sealing food can also extend shelf life.
• Energy backups — To prepare for eventual energy shortages, brownouts, rolling blackouts or a complete shutdown of the power grid, consider one or more power backups, such as gas-powered generators and/or solar generator kits such as Jackery or Inergy. Having backup power can prevent the loss of hundreds of dollars worth of food if your home loses electricity for more than a couple of days.
Scale up and diversify according to what you can afford. Ideally, you’d want more than one system. If all you have is a gas-powered generator, what will you do if there’s a gas shortage and/or if the price skyrockets into double digits? On the other hand, what will you do if the weather is too overcast to recharge your solar battery?
• Cooking backups — You also need some way to cook water and food during a blackout. Here, options include (but are not limited to) solar cookers, which require neither electricity nor fire, small rocket stoves, propane-powered camping stoves and 12-volt pots and pans that you can plug into a backup battery.
• Start a garden and learn some basic skills — The more food you can produce at home, the better off you’ll be. At bare minimum, stock up on sprouting seeds and grow some sprouts. They’re little powerhouses when it comes to nutrition, they’re easy to grow and are ready to eat in days rather than months.
If you have the space, consider starting a garden, and if local regulations allow, you can add chickens for a steady supply of eggs. (Just remember that they too may need additional feed.)
Also, start learning some basic food storage skills such as canning and pickling. While it can feel intimidating at first, it’s really not that difficult. For example, raw, unwashed, homegrown eggs can be preserved in lime water — 1 ounce of lime (calcium hydroxide, aka “pickling lime”) to 1 quart of water — thereby extending their shelf life to about two years without refrigeration.21
The lime water basically seals the eggs to prevent them from spoiling. Before using the eggs, be sure to wash the lime off. This does not work with commercial eggs, however, as the protective coating, called “bloom,” is stripped off during washing.
Fermented vegetables are also easy to make and will allow you to store the proceeds from your garden for long periods of time. For inspiration, check out my fermented veggie recipe. In the video below, I explain the benefits of using starter culture and kinetic culture jar lids. They’re not a necessity, but will cut the odor released as the veggies ferment.
Expect Drastic Changes
Remember, The Great Reset includes the recreation of the global food system. That’s why we can be so sure that none of the current problems will be effectively addressed or counteracted.
They intend for the current food system to fall apart, so they can then “solve” the problem by introducing a new system based on patented lab-grown synthetic and genetically engineered foods, along with digital identity, carbon footprint tracking and a programmable centralized digital currency to track not only what you eat but also everything else you do.
The end game is total control of the global population, and this will require the destruction and dismantling of current systems, including the food system. The only way out of this intentional chaos is to become more self-sufficient and create alternative parallel systems locally, outside of the globalists control.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
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To be fair it was the choice of the vast majority to reject family farming and leave the homestead in order to pursue material gain and financial security.
What food production on the individual and family level requires is a presence at a specific parcel of land, 365 days of the year.
Feeding an entire population based on the surplus created by 2% of the population is a guarantee for failure- this was always in the cards. Making it 100% dependent upon artificial inputs only magnified the problem. Divorcing everyone who regulates, legislates or speculates in the production of food from Nature and the processes involved made it a certainty.
A recent comment from a USDA spokesman about the bird flu and the rising price of eggs put a spotlight on just how ignorant these people are of even the most fundamental realities.
To paraphrase- I wish I’d saved the exact words-they said that they were going to ramp up egg production “around the clock”.
Chickens are not machines. They do not lay eggs 24 hours a day, in fact regardless of light, temperature, feed or conditions, chickens lay eggs in a very narrow daily window with few exceptions. If the very agency dedicated to food production at the National level doesn’t understand this, what else are they unaware of?
+1000
Capitalism, bruh. You got to get dat money. It’s how we pay for the Big Mac American dream.
BTW, good little instructional short video for new or old gardeners wishing to learn how to improve their soil.
On the upside, once food gets scarce enough the herd will begin thinning itself. Nobody will get out of this unscathed.
Just Sayin’
Right you are, there will be a whole lot of character being built in the near future. Would recommend getting a good hatchet, a person can do many things with a hatchet.
That may be one of the best ambush sequences ever filmed. It never gets old.
Twice as many die by knife than gun.
A hatchet is good
A little sword is better.
Wow, looks like growing fertilizer dependent monocultures might have been a bad idea!
A note of caution about solar energy producing machines like the Jackery and Inergy. They produce an extremely small amount of electricity and take a day to recharge. You are not going to have the “security” they try to instill in you.
If you’re running a few LED lights and a fan they might fit the bill but to think you’re going to power a fridge and anything else is marketing BS.
Understand the power requirements of what ever you plan on running. I all but guarantee you’ll be shocked at what is required ($) to reasonably keep even a fridge going.
I have a Jackery 1000 and a 1500. I love them. They operate my refrigerators fine. I use them to operate hand tools and some kitchen appliances also. I think they are a real asset! Plus they are totally silent, in case you don’t want everyone to know you’re running a generator. I’m thinking you don’t have one and you’re “assuming” you know what the fk you’re talking about.
I also have gas generators. A combo of both is perfect.
Hmmm. My 1500 Honda won’t run my fridge.
Any recommendations for what could run a freezer or 2 to keep the meat? I still need a well and a barn. Farming ain’t cheap.
It might just end up being a rotating “neighborhood” share system for slaughtering and consuming as we eat it, if it gets that bad.
“Buy shelf-stable and nonperishable foods in bulk ”
That is getting harder to do. I have a room full of dehydrated/freeze dried foods in #10 cans and 5 gallon buckets. Acquired that stuff when the going was good. Now it is hard to find stuff from Augason Farms, Mountain House, and Nutristore on Amazon and when you do it is expensive. Even patriot supply went up in price.
I’m glad I’m old because I would rather eat my gun than eat that shit for a year or two then run out and die anyway.
Glorified MRE’s for $$$$$…..no thanks.
I always say, “you gotta eat!”. A lot of my long term storage food I packaged myself, so the cost was low. I figure, I have a shit ton of rice on hand as well a lot of dried soup mixes (aka salt and seasoning). I can go out and shoot my share of wild game (with bow of course), then mix up a concoction of meat, rice, and soup mix, throw in some veggies from the garden, and me and the fam have dinner. Gotta do what you gotta do!
If by 1-2 years we aren’t back to normal as a society (even in terms of 19th century living), well then we are all fucked.
“in the end, we all got it coming” -Clint Eastwood-
If this drags out even a year, civil unrest, breakdown of law and order and many killed. No medical care available, hospitals may shut down for lackof supplies and drugs, etc.
Says someone who was never truly hungry, in true hunger you would eat your shorts.
I tried that crap after the Y2K farce ended, the stuff tasted awful. Donated to a homeless shelter and told them to spice it up and add herbs. I buy canned meats and veg. when on sale. Grocery stores in my area well stocked. Y2K preppers I know aren’t preparing anything, they think this is all hype like 22 yrs ago. Money wasted on useless stuff. Many preppers then are in cemeteries now, their heirs tossed stuff to the curb when cleaning out their stuff..
This is a little different than Y2K. Y2K was overblown from the start and there were some that went to extremes with it. We are dealing with a completely different situation. The elitists want us eating grasshoppers, living in boxes 50 stories up, and owning nothing, but being happy. Sorry, not happening to me and my fam as long as I am alive. If it means eating rice and beans for a year, then so be it.
Winchester: we may have to fight for what we have and protect family. Less than 10% understand the push for tyranny, who the players are or groups pushing globalism, like the W.E.F.. UN,WHO, Claus Schwab, Rothchilds and others. Most are oper. in Geneva, Swit. giving orders to Biden, Trudeau and E.U. prime ministers, other nat. leaders elsewhere, that taking orders from this ilk pushing agenda 2030 incl eating bugs and going without cars and electricity. 90% adults in the U.S. don’t give a hoot much about anything incl their kids, g’kids or their futures. These nihilists will line up for more shots like monkeypox or whatever, willingly go to detention centers when ordered, give up the guns and believe gov. is for their best interests.
Mrs. Ed and I purchased the Harvest Right Large freeze dryer about 5 years ago, and have been putting up complete meals from scratch since we got it. I’ve freeze dried about 1,500 pounds of fresh foods a year since we got it, (it’s rated for ~2,500 #/ year, but I’m at-sea about 6 months a year, and Mrs. Ed is still too intimidated to run it by herself), we vacuum seal it in Mylar bags with O2 packets, and they say it’s good for up to 25 years. I’m not sure about that, but I can say the stuff I did over 5 years ago tastes as good as when I first made it.
The only caveat is to make sure the fat content is as low as you can get it so it doesn’t go rancid. So, for example, when I make taco meat, I rinse the cooked ground beef before adding it back into the pan to add the spices. If I’m doing a Beef Stroganoff, I use tenderloin, as there’s almost no fat in it.
I’ve done Stroganoff, Beef Stew, Spaghetti Sauce with burger, Clam Sauce, Alfredo Sauce with Prawns, Gumbo, in addition to raw eggs, multiple kinds of blanched veggies, cooked & shredded chicken, Clam Chowder….. Pretty much anything I want. I’ve cut my own Filet Mignon, and although when you rehydrate it, it looks a little washed out, it grills up almost as good as a fresh one. Raw prawns, salmon and cod fillets rehydrate extremely nicely, and are really versatile…..
I like the fact that I KNOW exactly what’s in my food.
All of these issues are problems that could have been avoided .
50 years ago but destruction of American industry and the sound money backed by hard assets (gold) rather than a debt instrument continuously losing buying power to the benefit of the few and bankrupting the majority .
To just keep up with damaging inflationary policies of the US government from year 2000 to today in 2022 average working tax paying Americans need at least a $70 dollar per hour increase added to the hourly wage of year 2000 . That’s not happening obviously !
Now you know the movements by governments world wide but especially the US to control every aspect of human existence and disarm all but the paid enforcers guarding the elites . Also the purpose of a vaccine program that now obviously was designed to gradually sterilize , disable and kill a significant number of the American population and other nations world wide .
Prepare as best as you can because the shit is going to really hit the fan when EBT cards won’t feed people already in desperate situations !!
Bob Marley said “A Hungry man is a dangerous man”
With the price of diesel, truckers will not be able to afford to deliver food to the big cities. When the Urbanites cannot even find food to steal, they will really stir up some sh**.
You might be right, but I don’t understand that. Why won’t we denizens of cities just have to pay more to cover the higher cost of diesel? It’s not like we have a choice. The leaves of my squash are now obscuring sunlight to some of my tomatoes. Some farmer I am. Of course, two bushels of tomatoes provides enough calories to live about 48 hours. I have no more ability (or inclination) to raise most of my own food than I have to dig my own iron ore, smelt it and make my own forks.
I doubt that prices could rise far enough to make it profitable for truckers. Why would they run food from Iowa to NYC when they could deliver it to Denver for much less cost? You are prolly in better shape in MN than you would be in MA, as you are closer to a lot of farming areas.
You kidding? New Hampshire is just a stone’s throw from Boston, and it’s lousy with rich maple syrup barons.
I am thinking the massive number of people would overwhelm the produce from the Garden State.
LOL on you reference to the maple syrup barons
Some one said will be worse in N.E. and mid Atlantic area for shortages. Also higher priced heating bills. Too many toll roads too, will deter truckers.
That’s because you’re gardening, not farming. One is a great passtime/hobby/supplement for your household, but it is incomplete for sef-sufficiency. You must have livestock to produce composted manure ino order to build soils and improve fertility.
This isn’t going to happen for single individuals, it is going to have to be families and communities all deciding that they can provide sustenance for themselves outside of the current system. Think Amish.
Heads up for those with no animals.
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I totally get it that family farming works for smart, hardworking people who choose to do it. It undoubtedly has many other benefits, psychologically, physically, morally, spiritually. I don’t think it can be scaled to feed the 350 million residents of the U.S – to say nothing of the ~ 8 billion inhabitants of Earth. That’s not an argument in favor of shipping cilantro to the US from Mexico or oranges from South Africa, nor for over-reliance on fertilizers and pesticides.
You’ve hit the nail on the head.
While I do not believe the 8 billion number, let’s pretend it’s real.
If everyone on Earth was as responsible for feeding themselves as they were for eating the food that other people produced, we’d have far fewer people.
Where does the enabling end? Should everyone be placed on a ventilator to make sure they don’t have to worry about breathing? Should drips be installed in every arm lest people forget to drink fluids?
Industrialization made this situation possible, but it didn’t make it sensible. And now it’s all coming to a head.
Nature bats last.
Weird how Russia has been for years now, encouraging its citizenry to grow gardens…
If The Man With No Name had to raise his own food, we wouldn’t have this place to throw shit at the other monkeys.
TMWNN spends most of his time tending his crops. He is a gentleman farmer trying to become totally self sufficient. My pathetic gardens won’t feed us for a week. But my wife makes a mean salsa from our tomato, onions and peppers harvest.
I have sat on my truck while my wife shopped and watched the urbanites come and go from the super-Walmart; there will be about 35 million Americans left after a couple months (weeks?) without electricity and water. For y’all who think producing food is a piece of puss, you’re gonna starve.
I was up to the Amish countryside Saturday, taking Titus his Giant Flemish Buck and picking up Topsy’s and Flopsy’s litter for $8 each. I paid her $46 and left a bag of rabbit feed, which is going up, since alfalfa is going up! I am thankful we have our own hay to feed the giants.
So do the Amish, though Miriam was happy to take a bag for two of the rabbits, which will bring $12 each for me. Miriam is too cute to describe and I don’t bother trying to take pictures any more.
But, all the women/girls were dressed in solid forest green dresses, obviously cleaned up for Sabbath beginning nightfall (is that how it works?) Even little Miriam was scrubbed clean and she didn’t bring the bunnies in her apron. She is seven now and incredibly smart and charming.
But, no pictures of the kids. I can, however, show you pictures of their amazing crops, grown outside then covered with sheets against hail and storm winds and rain. Imagine how long it takes to do that with the horse and hand tools?
Quality not quantity is why most gardeners do it. The proof is in the tomato .
I go for both by growing way too much. I pick the best and leave the rest for the animals or just till it under.
Yes. Also it’s a break from whatever else we have to do. I just spent an hour weeding the tomatoes. Not a good use of time, from a strictly financial point of view, but the same could be said of going to church or visiting a sick relative.
I look forward to weeding (it’s pouring right now and the garden is loving it) and it is just one of the many parts of gardening that easts time before you can eat what’s in the garden. One of the keys to reducing that particular workload is knowing how to interplant and getting enough composted manure on the base of the plants during each interval to suppress new growth.
Thanks! I use the Two Sisters system: tomatoes + weeds. I just hope the tomatoes grow fast enough to be taller than the weeds. If not, I have to either pluck the weeds and/or go to the farmers’ market and buy what I want from the Hmong families. Those people work their ass off for very little, best as I can tell.
Is your composted manure collected during winter feeding? I hope that’s not a silly question. I am familiar with Salatin’s deep bedding method, but we used to have a feed lot and a hog confinement to provide it, and I don’t want to do either of those.
The truckers may choose to avoid large cities because of mobs going after trucks w/ food, even shooting the driver. Stores will be looted anyway, closed down. People will not risk getting shot working in stores that are robbed by hungry people.
Wait till they can’t get their girly, drive thru, coffee drinks. That will stoke the fires of rebellion if nothing will.
I am not too afraid of the group that cannot decide which restroom to use. It is the urbanites and illegal alien groups that have the bigger capacity for violence.
At least 1/4 million illegals, mostly men of fighting age have been pouring across our borders for a year and a half and the government has been dispersing them across the nation. That is a lot of roving bandits just waiting for the opportunity to get what they want. When their EBT card will not provide enough food, they will look to the gringos for their survival.
They too won’t be going to far from their circle. They’ll have a fuel issue as well, stealing most of it of course. But in rural areas unfamiliar vehicles, especially in small groups, will sound the alarm. If rural people tribe up they can easily send them packing or adding to the fertilizing of fields.
If they are willing to walk a thousand miles to get to the land of free stuff, they will be willing to maraud through the rural areas for what they want/need. Tribing up is certainly an answer. Our frontage is a state highway so will need 24 hr watch.
They won’t be walking out to far because everything they are going for will have to be carried. Just how far do you think they’d get before some folks who are opposed to being robbed and violence done to, will meet their ante and up it a hundred fold.
If they are walking they have to carry everything with them. And I’m bet’n they’d run out of ammo before rural folks do…
There is a reason Uncle Schmuel is importing so many of fighting age and I don’t think he has anything good in mind for us.
Trying to paste an image of a pistol held sideways. You get the idea.
Most don’t have guns unless they get them illegally on the streets or stealing. They will be met by homeowners w/ guns. Someone will have to stay up and watch at night, one person stays home in daytime when crime increases, police won’t be around.
Not to worry, they will be armed. The cartels have been exporting people and weapons for a very long time waiting for the right time to act. Who knows, even Uncle Sugar may assist them with some of their basic needs.
My dear Laura, the King’s F’n Deer do not come around eating my fruit, nuts and produce in the daylight so I have plenty of hours protecting my production on pitch black nights and plenty of ways to detect the intruders and solve the problem. I will deal with human predators same as the rest.
Or any take out foods and xxlg sodas.
Burn baby burn.
The Walmart and Publix warehouses for groceries are not in my area. One is 85 mi N., Publix one in Jacksonville Fla appr 4 hrs away driving. People w/ families to feed will go whacko.
Can’t wait for the McDonald’s “BugMac”advertisements.
MMmmmm…….McLovin’ it !!
As long as they can find a way to incorporate significant quantities of synthetic estrogens in the product I am sure its not too far down the road.
And soon when there is no more meat…you can have a McFake burger….yummy!
Wont’ be much of a change then.
So the new thing will be a McBugger?
I do not think we will see much of a food shortage here in the US. It may have a detrimental effect in impoverished countries, but I do not see it getting much worse here.
I have 2 reasons why I believe this. First there are the laws of economics which dictate that when prices increase, supply increases as well because of financial incentive.
The second reason is that the “powers that be” fully understand the repercussions of a food shortage. The public will tolerate higher prices, but they will not tolerate hunger.
Jan. 6 scared the bejesus out of the powers that be, and they will not allow anything to happen which would be a catalyst for the unwashed masses to unite and focus their anger in the direction of their masters.
I actually hope I am wrong about this, because some real suffering and hardship would be a beneficial thing for this country, but I do not think it will happen.
“Jan. 6 scared the bejesus out of the powers that be ” TPTB did Jan. 6. Where have you been ? Off world?
Absolutely. Jan 6 was an FBI operation. The House hasn’t hauled Ray Epps in to testify at their little show trial. Who planted the bombs by the RNC and DNC offices on Jan 5? The FBI, that’s who.
It’s the FBI and the DNC that are Terrorist organizations now.
You do not keep political prisoners because you are not afraid.
What ever happened with Venezuela? Two years ago it was on the verge of mass starvation.
They should have been cannibalizing each other by now.
Crickets…..
Jdog:
Hungry people fight, starving people lay around waiting to die, dreaming about food.
People get hungry, long before they starve.
You make a good point, but this caught my attention-
First there are the laws of economics which dictate that when prices increase, supply increases as well because of financial incentive.
Nature is unmoved by the laws of economics. The biggest problem moving forward is what happens when the inputs becomes economically unfeasible? Agriculture has long been treated as a form of strip mining of resources, starting with the soil. Soil is regenerative, not fixed. Since it has been treated- in big ag monoculture- as little more than an anchor for roots rather than as it’s own biosphere, it has lost all tilth. In order to rebuild that in the absence or price lockout of oil, it will take a minimum of 10 years and then only with considerable effort and reallocation of other resources.
I don’t see any other outcome but the collapse of Industrial Agriculture on a global scale.
Of course it does.
And that’s why 100% of all recalls for the past 16 years have been from Big Ag operations.
Because up is down.
That article is wishful thinking and industrial biased BS.
Except that it requires more land to provide the feed for the industrial farm. It requires mega doses of antibiotics to keep the flock from dying in the cramped living conditions. It requires machinery and energy (coal, gas). It requires huge buildings and the resources to build them…………
I have little doubt that article was a bought and paid for by BIG AG.
You make two great points HSF (one from above and one from farther up the thread):
MANY people fail to understand this concept. It is a 365 day annual comittment.
Anyone can grow some squash, beans, arugula, and thyme in their back yard.
Now, make me 10,000 squash plants (or 100K or 1M). How much acreage is necessary? How much manure should I add pre-plant? Is it available? Where? How will I transport it? What equipment is needed to plant, cultivate, harvest, etc.? What is the cost of this equipment? Will water be necessary? If so how much and how will I water? How will harvest be accomplished and once harvested, will they go straight to a dist/store I have formed a relationship with or will I get a low price by taking them to the co-op? And on and on and on….
I have been saying that the “farmers” around here growing crops like soy or corn are not really “farming”. They should be called growers and they are using what I call, “Outdoor-inground-hydro” (the ((now dead)) soil is nothing more than a rooting medium to them – like a block of rock wool in a hydro system, it only holds the roots but no longer is a source of nourishment or symbiosis).
Outdoor-inground-hydro is irresponsible. I think hydro is fine for flowers and maybe even lettuce or similar crops IF the customer is told up-front AND it is done in controlled containers.
Using the soil as a container places ZERO value on everything else (living) in that soil. In a plastic container full of water, that concern is non-existent, but once that concept is taken to the soil, it becomes destructive and creates centralized dependency that should be the anithesis of farms and real farmers.
Even if that happened, given the financial incentive, people would start plowing and planting in their back yards, putting up chicken coops, and selling at local farmers markets. There are already a lot of people who you would never expect to be producing food who are for niche markets. Part time duck farmers selling eggs for $6 doz. “Organic” overpriced fruits and vegetables. We have a guy around here who is selling processed chickens guaranteed to naturally and humanly raised for $25 ea ! You would think no one would ever pay $25 for a chicken when you can buy one at the grocery store for $6 but they do.
That shows there is a market for overpriced food.
10 years? Maybe from abused land. We are actually lucky in that the land we bought had gone feral and the biodiversity is off the charts and a good amount of it is usable. I think we can be highly productive in under 5. UA ag extension has free soil testing, and I am looking forward to seeing how good or bad it is, when it comes back. That was a pretty good chore, collecting all of it.
They were running a few cows on the back part when we bought it, and that really beat down the sedge grass back there and allowed better stuff to grow, including some wild legumes and better grasses. The danged sweetgums are probably never going to let up, though.
I am surprised how well just brush hogging worked for controlling the undesirable plants, but I won’t have fencing done in time to bother with animals this year. I am cutting my own wood posts with trees that cedars and honey locus that need clearing and my post hole digger is now over 2 months late on back order. I don’t think I am digging 300 holes by myself by hand.
That is such bushtit. I was in the college of Ag in the 90s and it was taught to all that land for crops is not necessarily the suitable land for animals, and vice versa. i.e., one of the major benefits of raising meat is that you can do so on land that is difficult or impossible to grow crops on.
Land such as our farm.
Most people 90% don’t even know who the globalists are or their org. like the UN, Bilderbergers or WEF, WHO,or even Agenda 2030 or know who Claus Schwab is. Most are overseas in Switzerland manipulating national leaders all over the planet. Rothchild family incl. The 90% are the dimwits that scoff at us and call us conspiracy nuts. They are too lazy to read and study what me and others have known about for over forty years.
The only ones to unite are few under 10% many think 5%, the other 90% just don’t care what happens, or even know anything about what informed people know, but they will loot to eat , break into stores and houses in cities, they don’t have a clue who their masters are because all they ever did was call us “conspiracy nuts ” and scoffed at info. people tried to get them to read.
The screw continues to tighten….
Large Chicken Producer Abruptly Announces Closure of Tennessee Plant, Catching Locals Off Guard
One of the nation’s largest vertically integrated chicken producers will be shutting down one of its plants in Campbell County, Tennessee.
George’s Inc. announced it would be closing its Caryville food processing plant, WVLT-TV reported…
George’s did not respond to WVLT-TV’s request for comment. Neither did the company publicly explain the closure.
Because no one wants to eat chicken since crickets hit the market.
Fried cricket
cricket salad
cricket soup
ground cricket
cricket kabobs
cricket pate
cricket soufflé
crickets and chips
it’s all Kosher and packed with proteins. Can be raised in large inexpensive quantities. What’s not to like?
But is it Halal?
Is that all you got, Bubba? Surely there are more ways to serve crickets.
Feed crickets to the chickens. Eat the chickens. Much better plan.
I was thinking catfish and bream love them some crickets and are mighty tasty when cooked up properly.
While the reasons daily are different tis obvious,just prep,simple as!
Once again,I realize folks on a tight budget can’t just overnight fill the house/freezer/grow a garden overnight ect.Just add a few low cost(at moment)items every shopping trip,i.e. rice/canned good/beans ect.,the smalls add up!
You have the space try a small garden whether soil or perhaps a vertical hydro,plenty of info out there to get started.
There is a lot more then just food but without water and food the rest does not matter.
I feel all here on board but if you are new ask ?’s and get on it,even if just starting out at moment you can build up your supplies of goods and knowledge!
As always,prepper cat is with you:
Rumor has it there is also a prepper puppy on board now!
What I tell people when yammer’n about being prep’d for an emergency, any kind of emergency. They should have at minimum two weeks to a months supply of food.
All this will do is buy you a bit of time and not put yourself in danger trying to compete with a few thousand others vying for the same stuff. And, if you are lucky enough to actually get and pay for your stuff, you may be relieved of it all in the parking lot. Best not be there.
Often get comments of ‘I can’t afford to get a couple weeks supply of groceries” No need to buy all at once. When you go shopping buy a couple extra cans or bags of dry goods. Stick that on a shelf and don’t use it. Over the span of a few months you’ll have a well stocked cupboard and won’t hardly feel any financial pain. Just have to start is all.
Simple survival unit I made.
1 four drawer filing cabinet. Takes up about 4 sq.ft.
2 drawers full of canned goods. 1 drawer full of pasta, rice, beans and assorted dry goods. 1 drawer full of tea, coffee, honey, sugar, PB, spices and five kilos of 100g chocolate bars.
The filing cabinet is rodent proof. Did have to seal the drain holes in the bottom of the unit to be sure. Duct taped the drawer joints to keep insects out. All food is sealed but still don’t want bugs in there.
I’ll be adding a second one when I find another free cabinet.
Total cost (free filing cabinet) about $1000cad.
Figure there is enough in there to feed me well for 4-6 months. Much longer on rations and supplemented by garden, chickens and hunting.
If I can do that on a fixed and very limited income, there is no excuse for anyone not to prepare at least this much.
Also, make sure it is food you WANT to eat. Little is more depressing than poor food long term and little else lifts spirits like a good meal.
Chocolate bars are a nice addition, especially if you have any women and/or children around.
NO! Those are for me. 🙂
The next cabinet gets more goodies for comfort and trade.
A piece of chocolate or candy can change your mood if you are feeling down. Having a few bags of Werther’s, some chocolate and other goodies will make life a lot more bearable during the coming shitstorm. Good for trade too.
A man who has chocolate, tampons/pads and herbal teas will do well with the ladies in the crash. Throw in a hot scented bubble bath and fluffy bathrobe, you are King.
Another good option if you live near a big city are used pharmaceutical containers. They are usually sold on Craigs and have air tight screw top lids. You can also buy screw on airtight lids for 5 gal. buckets at your home improvement store.
It was a lot cheaper to do it before convid, but it is not too late until TSHTF. I like to keep an ample supply of grits and oatmeal. Oatmeal can be made without heating and while not as tasty, still provides carbs and fiber. Grits require heating to fully absorb the liquid, but can take on pretty much any flavor you add to them. I am counting on the neighbors’ ponds to provide the protein we will need for a few months, grits will make the base along with some chicken stock and some herbs from the garden and it’s a meal.
It will be as bad as we allow it to get particularly if we a dependent of processed foods and produce that comes from far away from our homes. Think local, buy local, grow local.
Don’t ferget the potent potables.
A few cases of vodka, gin, whiskey, rum, and a couple of racks of wine will ensure clean drinks and sociability when the hard times demands it.
Prost.
Yes, but long term, build a still. It is easy.
A bit harder to master running it, but easy once you get the hang of it.
Sugar + multivitamins + yeast makes an awful beer. Distill for vodka.
My eyes are toast so my hobby of build’n CBG’s is about finished. Can’t see the lines on wood anymore and 1/4″ wide lines don’t make for good building when trying to cut frets into an fretboard.
So ponder’n this yesterday while sit’n in the sun slaking the thirst with a nice pale ale… I had a stroke of genius, well maybe just the stroke. Why not learn to brew my own ale. And, if I get fairly good at it I figure it’ll come in handy. Imo, its like being a cook in the prison… NOBODY messes with the cooks.
So if any of the brew masters here can give me a good heads up and direction to go, so I’m not wasting energy chasing rabbits, I’d appreciate it. My spam mail is [email protected], shoot me a email and I’ll respond with my regular email address. Thx
Loopy and some others had a good discussion about home brewing since convid hit. You could look for his comments to find the thread
Found and bookmarked… Thx
Three small cages and you could raise your rabbits beside your still, protected by the dogs you’ll need.
A lot of folks think the US Govt is behind these events.
Does anyone remember the rumor jihadists were driving around the US 20 years ago setting fires in national forests? Speaking of- Does anyone remember the rumor Antifa was setting fires?
What if all these “accidents” in the food and manufacturing and fuel and infrastructure realm are the most visible parts of a war quietly being fought behind the scenes by intelligence services?
Russia, for instance, has had mysterious fires at their energy and chemical concerns since the Ukraine war started. I would put that on Ukrainian US-trained saboteurs. America is having mysterious fires at food and manufacturing concerns. Power is going down. Fuel shortages. Herds dropping dead. Shortages, outages, failures. China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, etc all got an interest in seeing us hurting. You can’t harden all the infrastructure.
Obviously, some of these are just accidents, like that plane that crashed into a food factory-it was right in the flight path to the airport. But it’s hard to believe all 97+ incidents since Jan 2021 are Uh-Ohs.
So what if we’re seeing coordinated attacks by foreign intel services against us to cause chaos in a time when we’re weak? A shortage here, a power outage there, a bridge collapse over there. Just nicks and cuts, little slices to nudge us to the desired end.
On the fence here.
My community is getting shaky. Neighbors, full of rage, on the edge. Seeing signs of stress everywhere, most do not bother to look let alone observe.
Expanding the garden. Lots of canned foods on hand.
Not planning to bug out, but red states are appealing.
Consider a low profile van with solar, LiFePO4 cells, refer and small trailer or a 3/4 to Ton diesel pre DEF and a large trailer for more serious moves.
Do not mention firearms anymore, red flag laws are an excuse to smash and grab.
The hangman is here for us, cheers!
Got me thinking. I travel with a guy from Lowell Mass. He is a night guy, worked late shifts, talks with anyone, always has change or small bills to give.
He got me to look at people a little differently.
I take a woman to the food pantry, she has no car, no job, helps in the garden and cleans the house every week or so.
She gives me her compost for the chickens. If you want to survive in tough times, poor people share. You just have to expect some interesting behavior from time to time.
Doubt you’ll see this, but I just saw it. You’re kind of a saint. And you’re absolutely right. In all seriousness- God Bless You for being one of the better ones.
Lemme guess? Wheely bad?? All kidding aside it will be TWO FOOL years before you will feel the FOOL effect.