Global Food Shortage/ Crisis, Insecurity, Rising Cost of Food: Largest Natural & Human Disasters P6

Global Food Shortage/ Crisis, Insecurity, Rising Cost of Food: Largest Natural & Human Disasters P6: People fighting over bread

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Well, we move on in the series to the possibility of a global food shortage or crisis.  We will see what our food insecurity is.  We also touch on the rising cost of food today.  This is part 6 of the “Largest Natural & Human Disasters” series.

Up to this point, I hope you guys and gals have realized that all of the different scenarios that I have been writing about in this series are just guesses as to what is possible, not what is going to happen.  If you ever find a “survival expert” of which I don’t claim to be one, that says that they know when, where, if, or what will happen when a certain disaster occurs, you probably need to stop listening to that person because they are full of “hot air.”

Global Food Shortage is a possibility for a number of reasons.  This includes the fact that the modern agricultural system is unsustainable, the population is growing in other large countries, and the masses are dependent on the few that produce food.

A little bit like the economic problem that we face, a food shortage is a possibility that involves the entire globe.  Our entire system is intertwined with everyone else.  Everyone has just a few key items that are produced and the rest is imported.

This means that a food shortage can be caused by a political conflict between states, or a regional disaster.  If you look at the unsustainable way we use power, petroleum products, and other practices, you would see something that is almost inevitable during a power outage, economic crisis, pandemic, etc.  That is the problem with all of these disasters; they all cause a cascading effect of other disasters.

There are a couple different levels of food shortage that is possible:

• First is the possibility of some regional disaster that happens, or similar issue that interrupts normal supply to the customers.  Due to supply and demand, price goes up.  People complain but eat.  It is funny that I say this, because it is already happening, but due more to inflationary influences, not shortage.
• Next is the possibility of shortage to the point that the people with the money can’t get certain things.  If we were to look at their finances, we would say that they are all wealthy people, but either the physical means of getting certain items to them is broken, or they simply are below the minimum bid on that item.  They are wealthy, but not quite enough.  At this point, how do you think the people in poverty are doing?
• In both of these circumstances, the people in poverty have two routes.  One group will barely make it, or not make it.  They may starve to death even, because it happens even today when we are considered to be in an abundant market.  The other is that they will rely more on the government handouts to eat better than those making “a decent living.”
• The next scenario is a full-out shortage.  Like what happened during the great depression.  What do I see happening during this shortage?  Without going into environment specifics, because I have already talked about how I think urban versus rural settings will cope with disaster in general, lets look at a few.  First, you will start seeing people in charity lines.  People that we think otherwise would be able to work and eat, would be getting whatever food they could.  Next, we may see squirrels disappear from parks and streets.  They may thin out in the forests.  Then we could see raccoon and skunks go away in populated areas.  Deer would be thinning out.  This goes for elk and buffalo as well.  Foxes, swine, and even coyotes and wolves could be disappearing a little.  We will see gardens showing up all over the place.  Some will flourish while many others will fail, because they have poor soil, and the gardeners have little experience because they didn’t believe that the unlikely disaster was even possible.   People start getting sick when they can’t take in enough calories.  Not only do gardens show up, but so do garden thieves.  You will not only have to grow, but also protect your garden.  People with theft in mind will show up in this situation.

Global Food Shortage/ Crisis, Insecurity, Rising Cost of Food: Largest Natural & Human Disasters P6: Standing in Soup Lines

On a global scale, I am sure that a few countries can weather the storm for a little while, and other countries will attempt to gain a competitive advantage.  “Food Contracts” will be drafted similar to what China unofficially did in the past.  China and India will pay near full price, and at least half of that in advance to countries that would normally supply us.  We may do the same.  There is the possibility for land conquering to occur at this time.  Some war is possible or even probable over the food-producing land.  Countries will do whatever it takes to gain “food sovereignty” over the other powers.

In the U.S. specifically, we have an abundance of land still, but if we don’t stop killing the soil and microbes and nematodes that provide for plant life, we will come up extremely short-handed.  Right now, we basically are good at making wheat, barley, corn, and soybeans.  We could feed ourselves to a decent extent for a while, but the problem here is that we are still nutrient deficient, and will be living on GMOs and ammonia pentathlete.  As we continue to deplete our soil and wreck our land culture, our ability for agriculture suffers, and we are in the same boat.

What can we all do right now, before this happens?  Build a food store first.  While doing this start gardening.  Gardening will grow our skills and allow us to build up our stores that much more.  We can get rid of GMOs in our diets and stop using pesticides and herbicides.  As we garden properly, we will learn that we can BUILD our soil, instead of depleting it.

Get some basic security in place to protect our homesteads.  Learn how to dehydrate, can, and prepare food.  Learn how to store and cure meats.

If you haven’t noticed, not only are many of the disasters intertwined to the point of a domino effect, but many of them have the same ways to be prepared and survive.  These all seem to be similar to what I preach on basic preps, so we can be ready for them to some degree as we learn the basics.