Throughout history, mankind has waged a constant war with starvation. From the time of the first hunter-gatherers, through the early cultivation of crops and all the way to our modern, industrialized farming techniques, we humans have been working to ensure that we can survive the next winter, when no crops are growing and animals hide in their burrows. To our ancestors, this was a great challenge, unlike today. For that reason, the idea of being a “prepper” would seem strange, as they all lived a prepping lifestyle.
Yet somehow, modern western culture has distanced itself from the reality of needing to grow food. As the number of farmers in our midst keeps dwindling and industrialized farming takes over, fewer and fewer people have any idea of where their food comes from. The idea that the grocery store produces meat and vegetables rather than farmers and ranchers growing it, might make for a good joke, but the ignorance behind it is outright frightening.
The United States is the number one food producing nation in the world; yet we do it with a very small percentage of our overall population. Farming, fishing, forestry and related activities account for only 1.8% of the overall workforce. Those people not only produce the food that we eat here at home, but much that is exported overseas.
We depend on this small portion of our population, plus the others who work in the food service industry, to keep the rest of us fed. The rest of us don’t even bother thinking about it. After all, there’s always food in the grocery store… lots of food. There always has been and there always will be, right?
But what if they can’t? What if, for some reason, the farmers in this country can’t produce the food needed to feed our population, let alone all the other countries in the world that buy $159 billion in American food products? What will we do then?
We may very well be facing that problem in the very near future, a top one percent farmer warns. Between late planting of grains, especially corn, in 2019 and an unusually dry growing season, US grain harvests were low in 2019. This is on top of low production of vegetables due to the ongoing droughts in Southern California.
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What this means is that the “excess” food in the “pipeline” has all disappeared in a period of about four months. While we are not yet in trouble, we’re teetering right on the edge. All it would take to put us into food shortage, is for a low harvest level in 2020, either through drought, natural disasters, an early winter destroying crops or another late planting season.
We’re Not Hearing About It
Should there be actual shortages of food, there would be a need for some sort of food rationing. That would be a function of the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), who would be responsible for putting some sorts of controls in place, ensuring that the food which our farmers are producing would be properly allocated, so that everyone’s needs would be met.
What’s scarier than the potential of food shortages in the near future, is that we’re not hearing about it. Nor does it seem that the USDA is hearing anything about it. Nothing is being done to prepare for potential shortages, because the people who should be dealing with that don’t have any idea of what is going on. They seem to be kept in the dark and nobody seems to know who is hiding that news.
This means that when the food shortages begin to manifest, nobody is going to be ready for it. Government bureaucrats and major producers up and down the line will be caught with a sudden need to do something, but without the time to plan out what should be done.
Can The Food Run Short?
There are places in the world today where food shortages are the norm. I’ve had church pastors from other countries in my home, who have told me about the people they bury, even children, because they’ve starved to death. This is a very real problem in a number of different countries. It’s not something made up by non-profit organizations, to try and get your money.
Are we going to run into that problem here in the USA? We could, but we probably won’t. As a country, we produce something like 180 billion tons of food per year. Of that, about a third actually goes to waste, not ending up on anyone’s dining room table.
The reason for this waste, is that, as a country, we are very focused on the appearance of our food. That began just after the time of World War II, coinciding with electric refrigerators becoming commonplace. Even with their faults, those early electric refrigerators were so much more efficient than iceboxes, that it made a difference in how our food looked, especially produce. No longer did homemakers have to concern themselves with brown spots on produce; it would be consumed before that happened.
With that being the case, homemakers became more selective in their purchases, passing over imperfect produce, in favor of better looking specimens. Noticing this, grocers stopped putting less than perfect produce on the shelves, opting to throw it away and make their selection look better. This then worked its way back to the farm, so that now there’s a lot of food which goes from the farm right to the landfill, rather than trucking it to the store.
Please note that there is nothing wrong with all this food that gets thrown away. In most cases, the flaws are superficial, mere cosmetic blemishes. I’m not talking about food that has spoiled, just food that doesn’t’ look so good.
With so much food that doesn’t ever get eaten, our farms would have to suffer severe shortages, before it became a shortage in the grocery store. The ones who would most likely be affected by such shortages would be our overseas customers, who buy some $160 billion worth of American food per year.
Related: How $5 A Week Can Get Your Family 295 Pounds Of Food
When Food Runs Short
This isn’t to say that it would be impossible for there to be serious food shortages in our country. The amount of food our farmers produce annually is dependent on a lot of separate factors. Should just one of those factors fall short, we might suddenly find ourselves in the position where productivity on the farms is drastically reduced.
There are a number of things I can think of, off hand, which could bring that about, ranging from severe weather to government regulation. Some of these regulations are being pushed for in Washington, without anyone taking into account the ultimate effect of those regulations.
Should the food supply begin to run short, we would first see it as a rise in prices at the store. The only effect that would have on most of us is a more costly grocery bill. We’d pay it and complain, tightening our belts elsewhere in our budgets, so that we could buy the same as we’ve always done.
But there would be those who couldn’t afford to spend more on their grocery bills; those people would suffer. Oh, they wouldn’t starve, but they would need to change their eating habits, so that they didn’t. More than anything, rather than buying fresh, they would have to settle for less favorable choices, perhaps even eating the food that is currently being thrown away.
It Could All Stop Tomorrow
While it would take a lot to shut down our farms or lower the amount they produce to levels where we would see shortages, there is one thing that could shut down food supplies in a day. That’s any sort of damage to our nation’s trucking industry.
The food production and food service industries depend on trucking, more so than many other industries. Without our nation’s trucking industry taking food from the farm to the various processing facilities and then from those to the stores, the supermarket shelves would empty in a day.
As I sit here writing this, that’s happening in Wyoming. Severe winter weather has made the roads all but impassible, with over 200 miles of Interstate 80 closed down. This is making it difficult for truckers to make their deliveries, which in turn has led to empty shelves in the stores. Should this situation last for more than a few days, things could get serious for the inhabitants of that state.
The same could happen nationwide, should the electrical grid go down or some sort of nationwide quarantine be put in place due to pandemic. It wouldn’t matter what farmers could produce then, as it would only be available to people living locally. Those who lived in states where there wasn’t any food grown or even in cities that were far from the farms and processing plants, had better have their pantries stocked, or they’ll find themselves on very short rations.
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While the scenarios about the possible disruption in our food distribution networks is accurate during times of crisis, there’s absolutely no indication that it’s actually happening here and now.
As I travel frequently coast to coast, the supermarkets and alternative shopping options are full and plentiful.
If you’re talking about the phenomenon of of ‘food deserts’ that are growing in certain areas, that’s due to business/profit decisions by corporations, not a breakdown of the distribution network.
Obviously, we prep for the scenarios when/if that ever changes. But given the evidence all around me, I take the warning that’s the basis of this article with a grain of salt.
Claude asked the question, “Have you started to notice that supermarket shelves are emptier than they used to be?” No I haven’t. Shelves are just as full as they’ve always been. What I have noticed is that food prices keep going up and up and sometimes even spiking sharply. And the packaging seems to be getting smaller all the time so that you’re paying more and getting less. A few short years back an 8-kilo bag of rice cost around 7 bucks. Now it’s closer to 10 and it’s only going to get worse from here on in. Simple case of supply and demand. Population keeps increasing and so does the pressure on the farmers to keep producing. There’s only so much arable land and as more and more people keep being born they need a place to live so as population increases more farmland keeps getting swallowed up to make room for more homes. A vicious circle.The urth can only support a finite amount of people and we’re probably rapidly approaching the tipping point where no matter how much they try, farmers will not be able to produce enough food to adequately feed the global population. The extreme weather patterns don’t help either. Even now untold millions go to bed hungry every night. And almost a billion people don’t even have access to clean drinking water. Certainly going to be an interesting future. As strange as it sounds I’m glad I only have about 20 years left. And as regards food shortages we as preppers have already prepared for them. Food and water should have been the first things on our list. If not never too late to start.
Armin: While I agree with your post that food prices are climbing, I disagree as to the cause.
Government interference with the marketplace is the cause of increasing food prices. People from more crowded counties to the south of this county moved here because they liked the green vistas and open space that the farms provided. However, after moving here they found to their dismay that Farmer Brown did not go out about 10:00 o’clock in the morning with a wicker basket on his arm and pick his strawberries one by one. Strawberries are still the major cash crop in this county. Like all other farming in the U.S., strawberry farming is an industrial activity. When the field are ripe, busloads of temporary workers arrive before it is light. They discharge up to hundreds of workers to be ready to start picking as soon as it is light enough to distinguish a ripe berry from an unripe berry. Trucks pulling ports-potties are arriving before dawn to place them in the fields so that time isn’t lost by the workers having to go somewhere else for relief. It is also a sanitary measure imposed by the government because in times gone by, the workers relieved themselves in the fields where they were working. The collecting trailers pulled by diesel tractors are being positioned in the rows in the pre-dawn morning. Produce trucks are positioned at the ends of rows to empty the collecting trailers and haul the berries to the packing houses. As soon as it is light the workers start picking and all the mechanical equipment starts to work.
The city dwellers were aghast. All that noise, all the dust, all the diesel fumes before it was even light. It disturbed their sleep. Their kiddies woke up cranky. They went and bitched to the county supervisors. Instead of telling them the farms were there first and to suck it up, the sups counted votes and imposed restrictions on how soon the farmers could start etc. etc. Politicians with little or no farming experience were telling the farmer how to farm and enforcing it with code violations.
Result: Cost of strawberries is no longer 19¢ a basket but 69¢ a basket or more.
Same thing is happening with hemp. Our local farmers are trying to supply a demand for industrial hemp. It smells when it is ripe. Oh the agony! It is okay to smell hemp when burning it in your living room, but heavens to murgatroid, who wants to smell it when it is growing? The same thing is happening that happened with strawberries. Pols are once again deeming themselves to be farm experts. Farming is still the biggest income producing industry in this county. There is no other industry to speak of. The official policy is to encourage “clean” industry and actively discourage “dirty” industry. R R Donnelly, at the time the largest printing company in the U.S. wanted to locate a printing plant in this county to provide printing to SoCal. The printing industry at that time and to this day still provide a decent salary to the workers. An ink company was going to locate an ink plant next to the printing plant to provide ink for it. A total of about 1200 workers. With all the restrictions that were imposed Donnelly and the printing ink company relocated to Nevada. The exact same thing happened just a few months ago. Amazon wanted to locate a distribution center in the county that would have again provided over 1.000 jobs. After months of negotiation, Amazon told the city where they were planning to put the center that they were no longer interested and were going somewhere else. The city insists that the conditions they imposed, including building a fire station and stocking it with the appropriate equipment were reasonable with city imposed standards at Amazon’s cost.
Some bean counter who check the appropriate figures reported that along with population that took a slight decline gross production for the county declined for the third straight year. Hmmm. Wonder why. Inquiring minds want to know if politically imposed restrictions on farming might have played a part in reduced gross production for this county.
California is one of the states leading the charge on raising the minimum wage. Socialist “economists” insist that such raises have minimal or no effect on prices and the cost of living. They only look at the retail clerks at the end of a long line of employees who handle the product before it is handed to you at the checkout stand. From the farm worker picking the product or killing the animal, to the truckers who drive the product to its various stations along the way to the check-out stand to the warehouse worker who checks it into the warehouse and the picker who picks it to ship to the clerk handling the paper work to the buyer for the store that orders the product all are influenced by the minimum wage increase. End result: SURPRISE ! ! ! It costs more when you go to reach for your wallet.
In the last couple of years, the clean air folks mandated that the only trucks that could haul imports from the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach had to meet the strict new requirements on emissions from diesel trucks. No old truck in the PofLA and Long Beach, nosiree. Only clean diesel trucks allowed thank you. So if you were a solo trucker and had an older truck, either you gave up hauling from P/LA/LB or you went in deep hock and bought a new tractor. Of course that also meant that you got next to nothing for your old tractor as there were so many of them on the market that nobody wanted. Guess what that did to food prices and other prices as you reached for your credit card at the checkout counter.
So, yeah, food does cost more. I have only touched on two government actions that influence the cost of the what formerly was a half gallon of ice cream and now is a quart and a half of ice cream that costs 50¢ to $1 more per reduced size container.
A guy named Malthus back in the 18th century predicted that with the burgeoning population of the world, we would all be soon starving to death. I don’t have the exact number of years he predicted when the world would be starving, but most likely it was twenty years thence because that seems to be the standard timer period for all the disaster doomsayers.
Since Mr. Malthus’ dire prediction, there have been numerous fellow doomsayers predicting famine, global conflict, cannibalism. the extinction of the human race, soil just unable to produce crops due to overuse — you name it, someone has predicted it causing a lack of sufficient food. The whole phenomenon strongly resembles the doomsayers predicting the end of the world due to global warming, ignoring the Roman Warming Period and the Medieval Warming Period in recent history going back a couple thousand years. They compare temperatures that existed during the Little Ice Age rather than comparing estimates of temperature during the two warming periods I mentioned. Much like comparing lemons and grapefruit. Yeah, they are both round, yellow citrus, but the resemblance ends there.
I suspect as the glaciers started receding in Northern Europe and North America and parenthetically, I suppose in Asia and Russia, there were doomsayers running around predicting that the earth would soon be uninhabitable, perhaps offering human sacrifices to appease the gods who were making the ice fields shrink. Good thing we have moved past that today because we might have a real problem finding virgins to sacrifice, especially in Hollywood.
So might there be regional food shortages due to transportation problems or more likely political problems? No doubt. There have been in the past and as someone smarter than I said history repeats itself. Will there be disruptions due to a warming trend? Sure. Will there be benefits that accrue? Many “experts” think so. Just think. The Brits will be able to grow wine grapes in Jolly Old Blighty once again as the Romans did when they were civilizing the Picts and Angles. Well, at least the Romans thought they were civilizing them. The Picts and Angles had a different view.
Chuck,
The factors you list certainly do lead to higher costs, but the overwhelming bulk of higher costs is simply increasing the money supply by the FED/banks which is the real cause of inflation. More and more funny money chasing the same amount of goods is the definition of inflation. And that is exactly what we have today.
When a house in California (or a lot of places, but this is the extreme) that sold for $75,000 in 1960 now fetches $750,000 is it’s almost same condition, the reason is inflation. The new buyer obtains a huge mortgage, 90%+ of which is merely a book keeping entry on the bank’s books, and hundreds of thousands of new dollars are created on the spot. Those new dollars float out into the economy, diluting the value of those already in existence and higher prices for EVERYTHING result.
Much of the later costs, such as increase in wages, etc, lag behind the inflation from new money, and to many APPEAR to be the cause, but they aren’t. They are the result.
The root cause is the increase in the supply of money.
TnAndy: I wholeheartedly agree with your post. I wanted to limit my post to a couple of lesser understood causes of food inflation. There is no doubt that fiat money with printing presses running at top speed 24/7 have had a far more significant impact on everything, not just food. For your example, my house in SoCal cost $30,000 in 1967 (a year before the base line dollar against which inflation is measured) An identical floor plan in this tract last year sold for $700,000. There is no way that house is worth that much. nor my house for that matter, yet when I sell, I will sell for that much or even more as that sale was last year and housing has again taken another leap forward in this town. The local ATM is no longer dispensing only $20s if you take out more than $100. It now spits out $100s with the smaller amounts made up in $20s. Now that is scary.
Not to advise you Chuck, but if you paid 30k for it and can sell it for 700+, that is a huge leap forward in purchasing power even for the insanity that is the real estate market there. Personally, I would sell out, take the 250k or 500k(married) + your original cost basis deduction and move the heck out of California.
Couple hundred grand will buy you a pretty nice home around here or a small farm.
Tn: I keep telling LLC that. In AZ, that kind of money you can buy a few acres of a ranch with thousands of acres of lease land attached. And, best of all, most ranchers, the neighbors, are preppers. Gun ownership is encouraged by most sheriff’s department. Libs moving here usually run off after a year or so. Once that gentle woodland critter, Wile E., eats their cats and dogs, and then goes after the kids, they have second thoughts. But, mountain ground, garden year-long (if you have the water) Mexico is close so trading it usually cheap (gas was (American money) 35c/gallon not long ago. Coffee, tea, fruit. Just do not stay near the border. On either side, anti-mojados (mojado means wet-back) are plating very pretty gardens along the fence of cactus–which are food here. niio and a thumbs up!
LCC: Home values are supposed to match median income. I don’t see that there, or anywhere. Most banking companies are made of liberals. Every time we hear of a bank robbery where the vault is included, think bank fraud. But, yeah, that’s a sign banks know what’s coming. Wiemar Tepublic.
Every war bride in the family from WWII on hearing about minimum wage was shocked and said, Wiemar Republic. It’s how Nazis took power, walking over the bodies of starving Germans.Call it the Mexican economy. 1912, the peso was valued at $1.86 USD. Socialists took over and by 1935 about, $4,000.00 pesos to one UDS, and FDR was already busy wrecking the dollar. that happened after the Cristeros revolt in the 20s. Inflation destroyed the money, so Mexicans fleeing the slaughter could no longer escape to the US. niio
Really ? A thumbs down when I took the time to explain what inflation is, what causes it, and who it behind it ??
And your response is s thumbs down, but you can’t articulate a coherent rebuttal ?
Typical internet chickenshit.
Someone may have clicked a thumbs down by mistake. Once the thumb is clicked, you can’t change your mind. The best you can do is click thumbs up 2x.
“The urth can only support a finite amount of people and we’re probably rapidly approaching the tipping point where no matter how much they try, farmers will not be able to produce enough food to adequately feed the global population. ”
Uh No, I believe you have accepted some doomsday thinking on this. Check out this article in an Austrian Economics based organization’s online magazine (they quit printing physical magazine after a handful of decades and increased their reach):
https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-that-the-world-is-facing-a-population-crisis/
U: I agree, but have you any idea how close most are to starvation? Not just 3rd world, but right here. New York, 2 day supply of food. LA no better. When the maize blight hit in the 70s, a lot of Americans went hungry. A lot of people around the world who depended on US and Aussie corn went hungry. This isn’t doomsday, but a warning. GMO crops are forbidden i a lot of nations because there are diseases creeping into them that never affected those types of food before. There are too many who see bio-terrorism as the means to destroy nations. Arizona raised the minimum wage. the cost of living rose t match, and taxes will follow as people demand higher pay. meanwhile, anyone who depends on a fixed income is screwed, just like those earning the minimum. niio
I’ve noticed that the selection is less…I asked about it and was told that there wasn’t the demand for certain products and they were redoing the section to reflect what their best sellers were. Oddly, it was the expensive name brands…
and, many interstates were so badly constructed, unless constantly maintained, they become impassable. When in PA, major shopping time was late fall. Cases of food were bought. the freezer filled. And when I could have a garden, we canned hundreds of quarts. Usually pickled ’cause the stepson could make a meal of them 🙂 Here, at home back in Arizona, we’re 25 miles from the closest good stores, but the brush still has plenty to gnaw on. In a month, a lot of things will be in bloom. right now, I’m picking radishes, mostly black Schifferstadt, and collards, onions and so on. Before summer, moringa, potato onions, garlic, kohlrabi, brussels sprouts, garbanzo beans, peas (some are ready now), and some potatoes. sweet potatoes and so on. One thing comes out, something goes in, and all is mulched heavily which is the fertility of the soil. niio
I’ve bought some of those “freeze dried” buckets of food to stash away, not sure how tasty they will be in a few years.
I’m working more towards growing my own food with chickens and rabbits as a meat supply.
While things are still ok at the moment, I have plenty but when the crap hits the fan it will be interesting to see how these preps play out.
what are they packed in? CO2 is good, nitrogen best. Both beat out vacuum packed. Any issues with rabbits or chickens, look for ClergyLady’s posts and ask. She’s been raising them longer than most of have been alive. Whe the clover hay fields got a little old, Dad would sow turnips and so on in them in late summer. Cattle grazed there all winter, then hogs went in with them for the summer. The chickens had their own ‘lawn’ when was fenced in sections. When one section looked ragged, they went to the next. This saved a bundle on feed. We raised hundreds of friers and roasters on pasture. When we moved to town, we let the hens out in the yard for a few hours every afternoon. You’ll make it. You’re a survivor. niio
Have you tried the freeze dried food yet? Better to try it now than to find out that you’ve sunk all your money and hope into something you and your family can’t stand to eat. Be sure you’ve got at least some canned food, too, for variety. And some water or something to treat it with. Best of luck!
I am a 67 yr old farmer and can see the
meteorite headed for earth. We are facing
multiple issues in production of raw grains
and other Ag produce. It would only take a 25%
reduction in supply grown in any given to change the face of our existence. With storms, floods
and government bungling, this isn’t a joke.
Watch carefully, we are closer than you think!
I am a 67 yr old farmer and can see the
meteorite headed for earth. We are facing
multiple issues in production of raw grains
and other Ag produce. It would only take a 25%
reduction in supply grown in any given year to change the face of our existence. With storms, floods and government bungling, this isn’t a joke.
Watch carefully, we are closer than you think!
One thing to think about that has not been mentioned. As the overseas countries food supply starts to diminish because of the US not sending our food overseas, the stronger nations overseas may try to come and get what they want
Possible, but most will be too busy fighting revolts. Australia is a bigger breadbasket, and for most, a lot closer and weaker than the US. A strong people, but all too often their government goes slack. to make matters worse, they have a lot fewer people to guard the coasts than we do and outlawed private gun ownership. then were raiding mosque after mosque and finding horded weapons. Masses of them. niio
Plant gardens, raise animals to eat and produce eggs, hunt wild game and stock with fish and pressure cook foods. Great skills to make a lifestyle. Put up food no matter what, stock up on supplies you use daily and when hard times arise, you are much more prepared than before. It’s a lifestyle not just a knee jerk reaction. Hence the reason why all of us visit this website and many others. There is never an imminent danger, just the unknown that might occur when we least expect it. Don’t live with the inevitable, just live prepared.
The sad thing is that the people who are most likely to be among the first to be affected by higher prices and less availability of the fruits and vegetables are among the least able to grow their own food, namely city dwellers and low income families.
What I’d like to see is a government program aimed at enabling people to set up “grow stations” either in their homes or on a balcony. There are many vegetables and some fruits that can be grown in planters, but if you don’t have the knowledge and raw materials the task can seem daunting.
If the US government not only pays for seeds and seedlings, but growing mediums, planters and grow lights, AND provides training or at least information on how to do it, more people would be likely to at least try. SNAP does pay for vegetable seeds, but the cost of the rest of it can keep a lot of people from being able to grow anything.
For those who don’t have SNAP, there could be a catalog of items for growing food that they could buy at wholesale prices, rather than the outrageous prices often seen from retailers. Free pamphlets on growing, canning and freezing used to be available from the government – now if you can find them, you have to pay.
Our government wastes billions of dollars on stupid $#!+ every year. Wouldn’t it be nice to do something constructive with some of this money?
Oh boy, another welfare program. It is not governments job to feed people, it is the individualsresponsibility to feed themselves. It does not cost much to buy the materials to start growing their own food. And if we are talking about balcony growing then the space is limited and so will be the amount of seed needed to purchase. Seeds are cheap, and I’m sure the individual can find a couple wheel barrels of dirt on an empty vacant lot some where. Don’t need more government programs.
wannabe: You’re 100%, not the government’s job; it’s religious houses. 1/3 of all church/synagogue income is to go to take care of the poor and the traveler. Most do a pretty good job of it.
I make my own dirt 🙂 Plenty of woody stuff in a trench, and a few truckloads of coffee grounds for a winter mulch to help keep frost off the plants. Come late spring, the grounds need to be covered with mulch, tho, or the roots get overheated. Sustainable seeds and rare seeds both have free shipping for seeds. niio
Wannabe: Yes, you are right…there are way too many government programs with little to show in results. However, there are also a lot of people who depend upon these programs to survive. Regardless of your opinion on the people or the programs, that’s just how it is.
My proposal would be a multi prong approach.
-Teaching people how to grow food and why they should.
-Giving people the raw materials either free or at discounted prices.
-Further educating people about nutrition and raw food preparation.
-Further developing food availability by working with Civic organizations, schools, churches and communities by expanding on existing community gardens and working with area grocers and convenience stores to provide fresh produce to areas in need.
There are many people in the cities who simply don’t have access to vacant lots full of dirt. The lots belong to somebody – to show up and start taking dirt is considered trespassing. Also, the dirt in these locations may be contaminated with chemicals, asbestos, etc.
There are many senior citizens and people with disabilities who would like to participate in a growing program if one were available in their area. These folks likely would need physical assistance in obtaining some of the materials needed….a sort of “Seeds on Wheels” program providing home delivery of larger items.
The trick to any government program is honest stewardship at a local level…key word here is honest, and to be frank there is just too much opportunity for crooked people to benefit themselves the way programs are currently administered.
Still, I think there is merit to the concept.
Miz Kitty: Need you ask? Liberals act like it’s a game of monopoly. We eat butter, not soy grease. last year at this time here, butter was 260/lb. this year, it’s still a dollar more. the minimum wage grew, so the cost of living jumps to match. the taxes are higher, and anyone on fixed income or the minimum wage lost big time. As fuel prices rise, so will the cost of everything until it levels out. States and the nation benefit because they get a flood of cash and can pay off debts with money worth a lot less. that’s the reason behind minimum wage, to feed our blood into their pork barrel. Net result, anyone who can go to Mexico to buy, will. But, they’re going to see a rise in costs as well, because the PRI, sister party to the dems, uses it to control people. It sends more over the border, but that’s their relief valve. The people who do go are mostly ones who would protest the PRI’s greed. niio
We just spent a week in winter camp on the banks of the Rio Grande living off what we had in the back of the truck, cooking one meal a day, having a great time, snow wind and rain and abundant sunshine. Driving home we crossed a suburb with all its strip shopping centers and were freaking out that at 3 p.m. Saturday all of the restaurants were packed. Did they invent a new meal between lunch and dinner? There is so much freaking food in America, and the system is so crazy. The big problem for farmers lately hasn’t been soil loss, weather, disease, insects but that the trade war with China has kept them shut out of the market selling soy beans to feed Chinese hogs! The article brings up the truth that food security for us depends on transportation. We can have local problems, but the country is so big stuff is always moving somewhere. As the trucking infrastructure becomes tech in nature with driverless vehicles dominating it is easy to see a real threat developing, all those fat unhealthy financially struggling drivers I see at the truck stops are a helluva lot more reliable than a computer, and a lot more fun to drink a beer with. Most of ’em you can’t stop with a virus.
I read a lot about running out of cropland and Malthus and too many dang people, but look at how much of our agriculture is for non essential crops like strawberries, almonds, ethanol and Chinese pig food. When I was a kid in Texas there were row crops everywhere, you could drive all day and never be out of the fields. That is all gone now, not because of soil loss or urban sprawl or any kind of disaster at all, simply because it’s cheaper to grow stuff south of the border, all the way down to Chile. Most of that crop and grazing land has become huge private ranches functioning as hunting resorts for the wealthy, that’s where the money is.
Love reading this site, always good articles and smart engaging comments, thanks to all.
Mike: I say the same with what you write. The USDA has come against feeding soy to animals. Males especially develop a lot of health issues on it. Soy is toxic raw for humans and hogs. They have to cook it before it can be eaten. Australia is switching from soy exports to canna root (achira). S. America the same. China doesn’t want GMO soy, and the USDA under Obama ignored that. With the new dam, they can raise enough open pollinated to keep people fed, and most Chinese do not eat much soy. It was a famine food and never meant to be the sole thing. Female animals forced to live on it will birth deformed young. Yet, the dems follow Hitler, a vegetarian, and still insist eating meat is evil 🙂 Medical practitioners are shouting they lie!
Back in the 50s and 60s SF authors detailed the problems with driverless vehicles. Those are still valid. Computer malfunctions or loss of computer, terrorism, and so on. Even Woody Allen got into it, showing what’s going to happen in a movie. Driverless is futuristic. It’s touted as something cool and new, and is going to be the biggest cause of accidents and highway deaths since the dnc took over road construction.
No aggie is worthless. A farmer or rancher needs cash to operate. Cover crops for soil tilth and as a fertilizer are booming. Look up Gabe Brown, in S. Dakota. 16” a year in moisture, but doesn’t need to irrigate. No fertilizer bought. Few weeds, so little herbicide is needed. No pesticides on crops or cattle. Get the black back in the soil, Dr. Carver said, and farmers will again be wealthy as they were in generations past. Now, modern farmers are proving him right.
We all need to do like Penna and N. Jersey, and protect farms and ranches from developers. Even NYC still has farms in the city limits because the city (not the state) did that. The state buys development rights at their value, and because the land is protected, the value drops and with it, taxes. Friends and family not able to get on the program (dems run Penna right now) are paying from 1,000-to-20,000 per acre in taxes on farms. But, though dem governors can’t force farmers to pay full taxes, they can and have grabbed farms to make green space–in Penna, which is still mostly forested. Dems destroy, not build. AZ has a law, any land used in commercial aggie, 50c+ per acre. niio
IvyMike: Hit the nail on the head. This county used to be famous for it lima beans, walnuts, sugar beets and oranges. Now it is strawberries, blueberries, avocados, and lemons with a few boutique vineyards thrown in. Navel oranges are still are still a significant crop. Oh, and apparently hemp is becoming a significant crop. That said, for some reason most of our avocados go to Japan and the avocados we eat come up from Mexico. I don’t understand the economics of that but it seems to work. While the San Joaquin valley has acres and acres of vineyards, during most of the year our grapes come from Chile. The single biggest importer of mangoes from Mexico has his headquarters in this county. If you are eating an imported mango here in the states, he brought it in from Mexico.
If I were a freelance trucker, I would be looking to develop small shippers rather than looking at the large shippers. And if I were in my twenties, I would eschew long distance trucking like the plague. The large shippers and trucking companies are the ones who will be going to drone trucks the soonest.
Yesterday I watched an hour long program on AI on NHK. Japan is going for AI in a big way. They have always been mesmerized by robots and because of their demographics, are embracing robotics and AI much more rapidly than the U.S. They are even using robotics in senior care facilities. They use interactive robots that conduct calisthenic classes for the seniors, robots that deliver food trays to the rooms and robotic monitors in the rooms that interact with the patient. It was very interesting to see how they have developed robotic senior care. They have found that people respond to a humanoid interactive robot talking to them much better than they do PA announcements over a speaker.
Of course we had the Brave New World types predicting that soon no one will have to work for a living that all production will be handled by robots. Personally, I think that they are from the same group decrying global warming and food shortages.
That said, however, there is no question that many repetitive, fairly simple tasks like pulling merchandise in a warehouse and packaging it for shipping will be done by robots and AI. If I were working in an Amazon warehouse, I would be going to school learning about how to repair robots or how to program them. I sure wouldn’t count on retiring from Amazon unless I were already in my 60s. China, of all places, is already using robots and AI to deliver packages. There was a short segment about how that is working in the big cities in China. Of course, all programs like that only show the models that are working. They never show the dismal flops of which I am sure there are many. Musk’s self-driving Teslas are having a little bit of a problem handling the many challenges of city driving. I can see using automatic driving on interstate highways, but I think there is just too much judgment involved in city driving. For instance, some of us can tell when a driver in the lane next to us is getting ready to pull a lane change into a space that is too small. I don’t think a robot is ready to handle that yet. That intuition is based on years of driving experience that is almost impossible to instantaneously implant in a robot’s artificial intelligence. Perhaps when the robot has been driving for 50 years, it will have acquired that intuitive knowledge but not with the experience it presently has acquired.
Having just driven across the whole state of Texas I can report that you could replace at least half the drivers around here with HAL the crazy robot and not be any worse off, especially if HAL wasn’t pulling a 53′ cube at 75 MPH while sexting.
On the topic of survival and gardening, anyone have experience growing pigeon pea? It’s in a lot of African/Caribbean recipes, and I’ve read it has been popular in the American South, haven’t found any hardiness info on it but it appears to produce well in summer heat.
Pigeon peas? they’re a tropical. Same climate but more water than cowpeas. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/pigeon-peas/pigeon-pea-growing-information.htm
Immature cowpeas are used in place of them.Cowpeas will keep pumping nitrogen in the soil even when making beans. Donno about pigeon peas. Did you plant any garbanzo beans? Plant in the frost, like green peas, and harvest in the heat. they’re used in place of pigeon peas when picked green. I use them for a green manure/cover crop. store-bought are fine for that. BTW, it’s not the HAL drivers to worry about, but those Texas zephyrs when trying to pass a tandem trailer 🙂 1 almost put me in the median strip a few years ago.niio
This is all fascinating. I am new here and new to prepping…my FIL sent me an article from this website and for the last two weeks, I have been reading and reading. And learning!
I live in SoCal. I now have a months supply of food and working on building up my pet food supply and my water supply. Love to read everyone’s comments.
CAGal
Welcome to our happy (dysfunctional!) family!
Sounds like you’re off to a good start. You can learn a lot from this website…not only the articles, but the other people who post here.
Be sure to check out the “resource library” and the back articles.
Water is another important resource; we die in three days without it. Be sure to make that a priority in your prepping.
Seeds and learning to grow edibles is also important. I’m always referring people to Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds…they have a free catalog available and lots of great and unusual plants to choose from. Lots of ornamental edibles, too, if you have nosy HOA’s or other neighbors who might object to a front yard veggie garden. I love the subversive aspect of growing food under people’s noses, too!?
Best of luck to you and I hope to see future posts from you.
Miss Kitty,
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who enjoys aggravating the neighbors with growing food under their noses! I’m currently an Ag Science major and wanting to study small scale sustainable agriculture. One piece of advice for you, CAGal, is to look into food forests. They may take a little help in the beginning and require a decent amount of water (I reside in the Midwest , so water hasn’t been much of an issue so far), but they are well worth it. Mine just got started this year, but I can already see good results and plan on planting sand cherries with my established pears and peaches this spring. Amkha seed is also a very fine distributor and there is also Johnson Seed in Kansas City that specializes in heirloom varieties.
Miss Kitty,
Quick question for you…I am buying a book on canning and preserving, is there one in particular you would suggest? There are so many variations and editions, that it’s confusing on which is the best. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Many thanks.
I’m afraid that my canning/preserving experience is nil…I hope to correct that in the future, and there are a lot of excellent resources for learning just about any skill you can think of. The internet is a valuable tool, and there are a lot of instructional videos on YouTube.
One book I can comfortably recommend is “The Prepper’s Cookbook” by Tess Pennington. It has an extensive chapter on canning and other preservation methods as well as a list of suggested items to stock up on, a brief summary of nutrition requirements, suggested meals and a bunch of recipes for both combining stored food items and for foods to prepare and store ahead of time. It has a lot of information that you will find useful, and it points out that storing food can save your family money, which is an excellent excuse to give if anyone questions why you have 14 quart jars of dry oatmeal in your hall closet and cans of pork and beans stored under the guest room bed.
For now, for me, the best way to proceed is to concentrate on commercially canned product just to get the basics covered. I’m still learning how to grow food, and I have a very limited space, so right now it’s more of a hopefully edible experiment just to learn basic skills. Last year I grew cherry tomatoes…after a bad experience with horned worm I didn’t grow any for a long time… and while they did well the yield wasn’t what I had hoped. This year I’m growing slicing tomatoes and I hope they are as good as the cherry tomatoes were flavor wise. Store bought can’t hold a candle to home grown! Also will be trying a dwarf okra, as much for the exotic appearance as the fruit, some sort of legumes, chives, snap peas and sweet potato. My balcony is on the top floor facing South, so it has full sun from sunup until about 4 pm, and it gets HOT! Oddly,
my peppers didn’t even sprout last year, so this year I’m attempting to get seedlings started without their dying off like last year.
There are also resources here at “Ask a Prepper”…archived articles and free books to view/download.
As with any new skills, get the minimal equipment needed to get your feet wet…a mistake that a lot of people make is to run out and buy all sorts of top of the line stuff, then if they don’t have a knack or a liking for the project, the stuff winds up in the garage awaiting the next yard sale. For that matter, yard sales, thrift stores, flea markets and bulletin boards are a good place to check for the basic equipment you need. If someone is moving or cleaning out a home for a relative, a lot of times you can get free stuff if you’re willing to haul it away by a certain time, and if you have storage, it’s a great way to get items to use, trade, and sell. Barter is often talked about in this forum as a possible way to get needed items in a shtf situation, and even broken items can either be repurposed or stripped for useable parts for another project.
Sorry for wandering off topic, but hopefully you’ve gotten some ideas for your prepping journey!?
Wow, thank you for all this information! I just made my first batch of orange marmalade this week and loved it! Am looking forward to trying some more but I am like you, relying on store bought canned food for now. I will definitely check out the Preppers Cookbook…where I live, I can grow almost anything due to the Mediterranean climate but I confess, tomatoes are my biggest challenge! One year, we had a cherry tomato bush that went crazy though, and they were delicious! I think I just can’t get the consistent heat the tomatoes need. Sounds like your balcony is perfect though! Plan to go to a flea market this weekend and see if I can find a cheap canning pot and rack. Definitely love the idea of getting the items for free or cheap, will check into that as well.
Thanks again for your ideas and suggestions, most appreciated!!
Xx
Mix Kitty! How-do? You’re not off-topic and always good to learn from you. If folks ask about canning and I don’t know, I aim them at ClergyLady, our resident expert.
Your peppers and mine. Were it not for chilis in buckets and one survivor outside, I wouldn’t have had fresh chilis. 3 packs of tomatoes seeds, busted. I wound up buying a few plants. Right now, winter radishes are coming on. Brussels sprouts. Sweet potatoes are growing LARGE slips in dirt. We’re gettign some chilis on the chimayo and sandia, tho they got hit by frost–they do better in cold weather. One cherry tom is loaded with bloom and fruit. Purple (aka blueberry type) tomatillos started to bloom almost as soon as they had true leaves. We’re giving away collard greens, too much even for us even with a dog that loves them. Kohlrabi have been producing most of the winter here and should thru summer. I’m trying to start a new garden trench and hit caliche a shot way down. It’s not called desert concrete for nothing 🙂 I watred in some sulfur pellets to help soften it, then will make use of the sledge hammer. niio
CAGal: Ball Blue Book on canning and preserving is a standard for generations. Plenty of recipes and how-to. Countryside Small stock magazine is available on-line free and has tons of stuff on prepping from the dirt up to solar and wind power. It’s reader-driven, everyone who posts an article is doing what they write about, and write from easily understood English.
We buy a lot of bail jars, the newer ones (Ball stopped making them in the 50s). The glass is heavy and lasts for generations. Rubber rings are cheaper than metal lids, but, rings are reusable, lids aren’t. but, we only use them for waterbath. the bail must be left up till the jar is removed from the water or pressure might crack the jar.
If you can, buy dry ice to put in stored grains and flour. If you’re doing a food forest, something good, plant honey mesquite if it’ll produce in your area. Light, cool shade for the garden and plenty of nitrogen, as well as the beans, which are high-energy. do not plant Chilean, the hybrids, or Juliana, all of which aren’t good stating, and Juliana is bitter. niio
More fantastic information, thank you!
What a great idea about the mesquite tree! I grew up in south Texas-San Antonio, and had one growing in my front yard, used to get thorns in my feet from it! Learned to smoke sitting in it…(thank goodness that habit didn’t stick!!!) But totally forgot about it as a good drought food source! There is a similar tree that grows well here called a California pepper tree that if it does well then I think the honey mesquite will too…will look into it.
Will check out the book/mag you mentioned.
Am excited to go to the flea market today and see what I can rummage up for the canning! Hopefully will find a cache of jars and a pot with the rack. Interesting idea abt the dry ice, will look into that. Not yet sure where to store my food as the garage can get hot…trying to find a good spot in the house…
Thanks again Red!
Xx
Long-term storage, between the joists in the inner walls. I’d line with copper, as that kills rodents, insects, and fungus. Mind, companies do not spray food now, so a bay leaf in each bag of beans and rice will help keep out beetles and millers. Those heavy duty plastic bags used to seal food for the freezer, the ones that need to be ‘burned’ to seal, should fit well, then add dry ice, give time to melt, and seal. Some black- or red pepper should keep off rodents for a time, as well as dogs, if it comes to searching houses.Light things, like dried herbs and so on, can go in the beams of the ceiling. If you like juice (Arizona sun tea is 50-50 tea and juice) wash the jugs to store homemade vinegar, which is very high in Vitamin C and trace elements. vinegar should store for several years and be good. grain vinegar, like for Asian rice dough, is fermented. Wash and soak, partially cook, ferment grain and drain vinegar off in a colander. Wet grind (food processor works, blender for dry grain) grain or dry it again to use a hand mill. 1 third corn starch 2 thirds flour for noodles. Cap the vinegar tightly and store in a dark place. If you use bread yeast or natural bacteria, it’ll be cloudy, but it’s miles cheaper, and good tasting, then those little bottles from the store. the dough itself should store well in a fridge for weeks and not grow mold.BTW, black mold in fermenting rice is supposed to be eatable and used to make soy sauce, but I’m too chicken to try it 🙂 niio.
Red, I am replying to this comment as I was unable to reply to your most recent comment, it didn’t let me give it a thumbs up either…?
Anyway, thank you for additional suggestions and ideas on secret storage spots. I found a 5’ shelf today for $5 and put that in the back of a closet on the north side of the house for now. It’s a start…and semi close to the kitchen so I can easily rotate. Plus, found the newest edition of the Ball Blue Book on sale at my grocery store! $10.99!!! ?
So…I am getting there slowly but feel much better already knowing that I can survive a month or so with what I have stored thus far. Baby steps!
Many thanks for your help.
Xx
Posts can lag a few hours behind before they appear here.
Yes! You are blessed! I’m going to thrift stores for old, ragged sheets for garden shade. they sell them for that. So far, not a lot of luck. this is chichak season, snowbirds, here. Every post you write, I give you a thumbs up because you’re making it. Keep them coming! We want to hear more from you. niio
Glad to meet you. niio
Miss Kitty and Red,
Thank you for your kind words!
I am so fortunate to live in a wonderful climate, I grow kale, herbs and lemons year round. Plus lots of roses. Have a tree bursting with oranges so am planning to make some marmalade ( my first time?)
Maybe make kale chips too. Water is my biggest concern and what I want to become completely proficient at storing…I did read somewhere to not store water on cement, I currently do in my garage…is that correct?
If so, maybe I can get a free pallet and store all my bottles on that. I am hoping to also get a few big water barrels soon.
Thanks again!
CAGal: Soil Ph? Natural soil in this part of Arizona is 8+. Caliche is a major problem. Nothing will root into it even when dying of thirst. Tohono told me, get under the caliche or you waste to much water. their way is to dig trenches, then fill with brush and anything they can find, then cover with soil. I add sulfur to the bottom, first, and a little to the dirt. Top it with coffee grounds (viva Starbucks 🙂 and rake that in for fast topsoil.
Jake Mase (my spelling) up in Phoenix gets free mulch from tree trimmers. He gets it by the truck load, but only after digging the adobe up, then layers it and mixes it. He did so much bragging on Youtube, a couple of times garden raiders took everything ripe.
You’ll have more of a problem with salts than drought. Deserts are like that. With a heavy mulch, salts can be handled and even flushed away.
There’s a water tower being used in the desert, in Ethiopia. Looks enough artsy to fend off the blue nosers, but it gathers dew to water gardens and livestock. https://www.wired.com/2015/01/architecture-and-vision-warkawater/ Smaller ones can be used!
If handy with concrete and can get a swimming pool liner, I’d build a tank. to hide it, it can look like the garage wall. A man down towards sonoita didn’t drill a well for his house, but uses storage tanks. when we had the drought, he was still getting enough rain and dew to water house and gardens. His neighbors, who had wells, were buying their water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNXooT2FVXM
https://jvwcd.org/water/emergency Do not store water containers directly on cement.
this stuff is suggestions! Best of life to you. Thanks for joining us. niio
Miss Kitty,
I’m glad that I’m not the only one who enjoys aggravating the neighbors with growing food under their noses! I’m currently an Ag Science major and wanting to study small scale sustainable agriculture. One piece of advice for you, CAGal, is to look into food forests. They may take a little help in the beginning and require a decent amount of water (I reside in the Midwest , so water hasn’t been much of an issue so far), but they are well worth it. Mine just got started this year, but I can already see good results and plan on planting sand cherries with my established pears and peaches this spring. Amkha seed is also a very fine distributor and there is also Johnson Seed in Kansas City that specializes in heirloom varieties.
MM: How’s the rendezvous season shaping up? I used to raise sand cherries up in Ohio and Penna. Man, they love straight sunshine. I do hidden gardens, mostly for suburbans who need to hide food they raise.Here, no sand cherries because it’s too warm in the valley. Hills, the rabbits and deer mow them down in winter. But, I’m looking for someone with a variety of capuli/capulin cherry. This area is good for them. they don’t mind the heat, dryness, wind, and can bear twice a year (zone 9, Arizona). When I look for seeds for the herbs and wild veggies, I go to JL Hudson Seedsman. in La Honda, CA. I got sago lily and ricegrass from them. JLHUDSONSEEDS.NET niio
MM, Thanks for the suggestion!
Will check it out.
Just as a point of information for everyone, it hasn’t been covered by the MSM much, but there’s a plague of locusts in parts of Africa and Asia going on now. Paired with the ongoing disruption in weather patterns, there are a lot of areas globally that are experiencing or have experienced crop losses. Check out Adapt 2030, The Ice Age Farmer ( online and on YouTube) and Electroverse ( online) for further details if you are interested.
Even though we currently have plenty of food, and so far no major shipping issues here in the US, (and Canada…hi Armin!), it doesn’t mean that going forward we will continue this way. If the current situation globally continues, the food will have to come from somewhere, and prices will surely increase as selection decreases. It’s just supply and demand…if people are willing to pay, they’ll get first pick of what’s available. Goes for governments, too.
If each of us can grow enough to even make one meal a week from, it will alleviate the problem to a degree.
Besides, home grown food always tastes sooo much better than store bought!
And, how much of our food comes out of those parts of Africa and Asia? Like they say, when the American economy shakes, the world drops into poverty. Niio
Too true, Red! Look especially on items like canned and frozen fish, tea and coffee, rice and tropical fruits of all sorts, and some vegetables. Many of these, especially through discount retailers, are produced in Asia, if not specifically China. Since the whole region is being affected by the Corona virus fallout, much production is at a standstill as much because of being unable to ship out finished product and unable to get in supplies as because of the illness itself. It’s a mess, their economy is bottoming out too because of it. Even if the virus dies off when the warmer weather comes around, it’s going to take at least a couple of years to bring the economy close to back to where it was, if then.
All this casts global ripples through the general economy as well as local, and we will all see supply issues for some time even once production and shipping are back on line.
Tough times ahead… aren’t you glad you prep?
Definitely. but, I can pick up coffee and cocoa in Mexico need be. they raise a lot of rice in Kali, yet, and in Mexico. C. America is having a drought situation. the rains haven’t hit like they need, tho the desert regions seem to be doing all right. Bananas went up a nickle a pound for us. Not a lot, but in Mexico that’s equal to a buck more. The wivian tobacco survived another winter and is getting leafy. Peas are in bloom, safflower is getting taller. Rocket is getting bitter, so the rest can go to seed. Salsify will be coming on soon. Potato onions are doing well! Mulberry is leafing out, and I hope I get plenty. this tree acts like it belongs in AZ. the wind doesn’t bother it. A friend is going to ask her neighbor if they want to cut down 3 cypress trees. I want 10 foot lengths for the arbor and will be happy to add the brush to a new garden trench. When summer hit, yucca seed pods are good to eat (cooked or they taste like soap, and raw can be used as, too 🙂 niio