Posted on 10/04/2020 3:50:36 PM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
The head of the UN World Food Program repeatedly warned us that we would soon be facing “famines of biblical proportions”, and his predictions are now starting to become a reality. We have already seen food riots in some parts of Africa, and it isn’t too much of a surprise that certain portions of Asia are really hurting right now. But I have to admit that I was kind of shocked when I came across an article about the “hunger crisis” that has erupted in Latin America.
According to Bloomberg, “a resurgence of poverty is bringing a vicious wave of hunger in a region that was supposed to have mostly eradicated that kind of malnutrition decades ago”. We are being told that food shortages are becoming acute from Mexico City all the way down to the southern tip of South America, and those that are the poorest are being hit the hardest.
Let me ask you a question.
What would you do if you didn’t have any food to feed your family?
Fortunately, for the vast majority of my readers that is just a hypothetical question. But for many families in Latin America, the unthinkable is now actually happening…
He couldn’t feed his family. Matilde Alonso knew it was true but couldn’t believe it. The pandemic had just hit Guatemala in full force and Alonso, a 34-year-old construction worker, was suddenly jobless.
He sat up all alone till late that night, his mind racing, and fought back tears. He had six mouths to feed, no income and no hope of receiving anything beyond the most meager of crisis-support checks — some $130 — from the cash-strapped government.
I once had a friend that is a hardcore prepper tell me that his worst nightmare would be for his daughter to tell him that she was hungry and he didn’t have anything to give her.
Many of us can’t even imagine being in Matilde Alonso’s shoes. Sadly, this is going to be happening to even more families soon, because the UN World Food Program is projecting that the number of people facing “severe food insecurity” in Latin American and Caribbean nations will rise by a whopping 270 percent in the months ahead.
Thankfully, for the moment the United States is in far better shape. But there have been serious shortages of certain items throughout this pandemic, and many grocery stores have had a very difficult time trying to keep their shelves full.
For example, during my most recent trip to my local grocery store I noticed more empty shelves than I had ever seen before, and that greatly alarmed me.
And now we are being told that grocery stores all over the country are attempting to stockpile goods in an attempt “to avoid shortages during a second wave of coronavirus”…
Grocery stores across the United States are stocking up on products to avoid shortages during a second wave of coronavirus.
Household products — including paper towels and Clorox wipes — have been difficult to find at times during the pandemic, and if grocery stores aren’t stocked up and prepared for second wave this winter, runs on products and shortages could happen again.
hen even CNN starts admitting that more shortages are coming, that is a sign that it is very late in the game.
And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that some chains are actually putting together “pandemic pallets” in anticipation of more shortages…
According to the Wall Street Journal, Associated Food Stores has recently started building “pandemic pallets” to ensure cleaning and sanitizing products are readily available in its warehouses to prepare for high demand through the end of the year.
“We will never again operate our business as unprepared for something like this,” Darin Peirce, vice president of retail operations for the cooperative of more than 400 stores told the outlet. If grocery stores sense something is coming and are preparing for another “wave” of this scamdemic, it may be something worth taking note of.
Most of these grocery chains believe that another wave of COVID-19 is the worst case scenario that they could possibly be facing. Sadly, that isn’t even close to the truth.
We have entered a time when global food supplies are going to become increasingly stressed, and it is going to be absolutely critical to keep U.S. food production at the highest levels possible.
Unfortunately, U.S. farmers have been going bankrupt in staggering numbers during this downturn, and the federal assistance that was supposed to help them survive has mostly gone to “large, industrialized farms”…
Five months into the pandemic, farmers say the federal payments have done little to keep them afloat, as these favor large, industrialized farms over smaller family farms. In fact, initial payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program – which provided $16 billion in direct support and $3 billion in purchases – revealed an uneven distribution of financial aid.
An NBC News analysis of the first 700,000 payments showed how corporate farms and foreign-owned operations received over $1.2 billion in coronavirus relief – or over 20 percent of the money – with average payments of almost $95,000. Smaller farms, meanwhile, had average payments of around $300. The figures did not take into account other struggling farmers who are ineligible for assistance.
Reading those numbers greatly frustrated me, because family farms have always been so critical to our success as a nation.
U.S. farm bankruptcies hit an eight-year high last year, and they are on pace to go even higher this year.
This should deeply alarm all of us, because we are going to need as much food production as possible during the years to come.
In 2020, we have just seen one major disaster after another all over the world, and many of these disasters have directly affected global food production. For example, in my previous articles I haven’t even mentioned the historic flooding that has been going on in China for months that is wiping out crops on a massive scale…
Experts from the global financial services group Nomura said that although the flooding is among the worst that China has experienced since 1998, it could still get worse in the weeks to come, with the nation poised to lose $1.7 billion in agricultural production.
However, since the start of the monsoon season, the area of flooded croplands have almost doubled. Nomura’s estimates also do not include the potential loss of wheat, corn and other major crops. Therefore, China could be facing a far greater economic loss than current projections.
On my news headlines website, I am going to start posting stories like this on a daily basis so that people can keep up with what is really going on out there.
We really are facing a very serious global food crisis, and the number of people without sufficient food is only going to grow as the months roll along.
For now, most Americans still have plenty of food, and we should be very thankful for that.
But everyone should be able to see that global conditions are rapidly changing, and we should all be using this window of opportunity to prepare, because very, very challenging times are ahead of us.
Not so much aluminum, but the coating on the inside of the cans which is done . . . . . in china.
I am currently eating “prepper food” from my test shelf. It’s two cans of ready-to-eat soup. Both expired exactly five years ago. Both taste good.
This seems like the time for me to regain that storage space and restock it with fresh cans, but I’ve answered my question on keeping cans beyond expiration. Other than the test shelf, I rotate my storage, so I don’t need to know if food is okay more than 5 years after expiration. Acidic foods (usually tomato-based) can eat through the can and are very obviously bad around 2-3 years beyond expiration. Canned tuna can also be risky after a few years and is very obviously (open it outside!) bad. Otherwise, shelf life for modern canned foods is very long.
Generic recipe: One can of ready-to-eat soup plus one pound of pasta or rice. It’s not gourmet, but it’s adequate and allows for a lot of cheap and easy variety calories. I have better in storage, of course, but I can eat for $2 a day on that recipe.
Random thought after reading the article. (Yes, I KNOW - we’re only supposed to read the headlines, LOL!)
“For example, during my most recent trip to my local grocery store I noticed more empty shelves than I had ever seen before, and that greatly alarmed me.”
Yes, during the initial phase of panic-hoarding we saw, I noted some shortages too. BUT is there some reason Americans NEED a bread aisle with HUNDREDS of choices in bread...and usually an in-store Bakery on top of that? How about the cereal aisle, with 1,000 cereal choices - most loaded with sugar? How about the Produce department with every veg and fruit under the sun, already pre-cut and washed for you? Do we NEED 20 choices of Ketchup or Hot Sauce? How about frozen foods? Do we need 12 choices of frozen potatoes cut into different shapes? OMG! Frozen pizza takes up one full aisle of freezer cases at my local Walmart! Do we NEED 30 choices/brands of Bratwurst? Well, maybe in Wisconsin, LOL!
“For now, most Americans still have plenty of food, and we should be very thankful for that.”
The amount of food WASTED by Americans is the thing people should be worrying about! It’s massive - and sinful, IMHO.
“In the United States, food WASTE is estimated at between 30–40 percent of the food supply. This figure, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of 31 percent food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 BILLION POUNDS and $161 BILLION DOLLARS worth of food in 2010.”
https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/food-loss-and-waste
And, as usual, Mother Government has no IDEA what to do about food waste - or any other problems we have. Grrrr!
And if you’re going to waste food, at least COMPOST it and make soil!
More on food waste:
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs
https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/
https://www.rubicon.com/blog/food-waste-facts/
I equate food shortages with gasoline shortages. I’m not going to worry about not having fuel until NASCAR cancels races. I’m not going to worry about food insecurity until Americans have eliminated food waste. As long as I have my garden, can bake bread from scratch and can still hunt and fish, I’m not going to worry about food shortages for me and mine. THESE are the skills we should be teaching people, versus keeping them dependent upon Hot Pockets and Pop Tarts, Fer Pete’s Sake!
I know this particular author is creating a market for ‘something’ based upon fear. Not quite sure what that is, though.
*STEPS OFF SOAPBOX* :)
Buy a fresh pumpkin now. Double duty it by drawing a Jack ‘O Lantern face instead of carving it. You’ll have a decoration for Halloween and by the time Thanksgiving rolls around toss it in the oven for your pies. Yeah, yeah, there are carving pumpkins and pie pumpkins, whatever. Carving pumpkins are more watery and not as flavorful as pie pumpkins but add more spice and enjoy.
I have a couple cans of pumpkin and cranberry sauce leftover from last year in the pantry so that’s good. But it will probably be chicken from the freezer instead of turkey and ham this year.
Our local grocery store has always been at the end of the supply chain, I have to plan months ahead for the holidays. Had to order Karo syrup and molasses online one year. They plain don’t stock Karo, ever! Yes, I could have made some homemade Karo but was annoyed. Celery and eggs are never stocked during the holidays. Haven’t seen a head of cauliflower or a can of pork ‘n beans in 15 years or longer here. Milk will be stolen out of your cart because they never order enough. For years, not just the pandemic shortages, customers haven’t bothered to look at meat prices (I do) but just grab what they can get. I had to do what seemed like a drug deal to get some fish once. Called ahead to meet the guy at the back out of sight and then argued with him I needed more than one kilo, uh, pound. The cashier and bag boy were all surprised they had fish.
Since Feb., we have been going to Walmart (3 towns over) to do curbside pick up since our local grocery doesn’t have that service. Walmart is much larger and has a better supply however they’re also out of many things. I’ve talked to them for months about not having yeast so may have to look online. Tried to start a grocery order a few days ago but, as usual, of the 40 items they let me click on, 33 showed up as out of stock even though it showed they were in stock in the menu. Of course, we have to settle on the wrong size or a brand or flavor we don’t like or some such just to get something, anything. I did score celery last month but couldn’t get eggs. Couldn’t get corn husks for holiday tamales last time, either.
I too, have eaten "expired date " soups and other canned goods; rotating canned foods should make such an experiment less likely, or necessary.
I do limit my food storage canned goods to the fully canned goods for storage; most 'store brand' goods are retort fully canned goods.
On the other hand, there are the convenience "E Z Open" canned goods, with the pull tab on top
and those I limit to two to three years past expiration, no longer than that.
After three years, the only thing protecting your canned goods is a thin layer of die pressed metal,
and a thin membrane of plastic can inner coating, protecting your food from botulism.
Botulism is a spore producing bacteria that is difficult to detect, even in clinical laboratories, and requires several days of testing.
If botulism is suspected, after the fact, treatment is to induce vomiting and bowel movements to clear out the digestive tract.
Discard any dented or bulged canned goods from your long term food storage; and yes, canned goods with high acidity need additional caution and rotation.
Good suggestion about extending canned goods with pasta; now if only someone would invent long term storage canned cheese (!).
If one were to do a search, they would find that in January 26 to January 29, 2021, there is a World Economic Forum they themselves have entitled, “The Great Reset”.
While I believe there are increasing catastrophes, and that they will continue to increase, I also think it's reasonable to expect that we will see more and more fear-mongering articles leading up to this summit as the globalists amp up the fear factor to get people to surrender sovereignty and freedom for the new world order.
That’s an appalling amount of wasted food.
You learn not to waste it so much when it’s harder to come by, IOW, you grow it your self and you can it yourself.
You make sure you scrape every last bit of your hard earned food out of those jars.
That’s true!
I also wanted to add to my rant:
“Oh, you want Steak and Lobster? Well, too bad! I’m making you Tuna Noodle Casserole and if you’re LUCKY, you’ll get crushed potato chips on top!”
LOL!
Ah-HA! Slice your own fruit!
Sliced Fruit Sold at Walmart Recalled Due to Possible Listeria Contamination’
Do you use Mylar bags for flour and Rice, not sure whether to or not. I have 5 pound buckets to store but not sure to seal them with Mylar. I recall my mother just using the buckets to store Rice and Flour but some preppers suggest use Mylar to store in buckets. Any advice to these newbie prepper?
I store my rice and flour in plastic containers.
My kids started complaining about what I was making for dinner so I told them that the next person who complained about whatI served would get bread and water for dinner.
This was at a time when people were getting blown in to social services for withholding food as punishment, so I didn’t want to go there.
So a few nights later my son, who would eat anything you served him, was the one to complain. He got bread (it was good homemade bread) and water that night.
That was the first and last time that ever happened with the kids.
Worked like a charm.
Thanks for the detailed response. That’s to a large extent what I meant to say, but much more clear.
I’m with you on long-term cheese being an issue. I’ve got unlimited meat (squirrels are cute rats with tails, and I suspect I could get more than one per day even in a famine, where I live. I’ve got sufficient carbs in 30-year cans (thanks https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng ). I’ve got other things that are good for several years, whether MREs, dehyrdated or freeze dried, or just canned. Cheese would be a nice bonus.
Mine, too! If they didn’t want to eat what I made, they had to wait until the next meal, no matter if the rest of us were having (homemade) popcorn with a movie that night, either.
Also, if they wanted snacks such as Fritos or Doritos, or soda (which I NEVER bought!) they had to buy that with their OWN money. I would provide popcorn or fruit as snacks, water or Koolaid to drink. They were VERY good about parceling out foodstuffs they paid for themselves. It was a good economic lesson, as well. Was it WORTH spending your own money on it? If not, why would it be worth mine?
I was SUCH a mean Mom, but I fed a family of five (and at least a few meals each week for a BIL) and also cooked for my Dad, for about HALF what the average family did at the time, between the garden and hunting & fishing and bargain hunting at the grocery store. (And I worked full-time then, too!)
Carry-out or a delivered pizza were HUGE treats about twice a year.
I dunno. The kids seemed to turn out fine and none of them were overweight, and all are very good at being CHEAP, LOL!
commie driven holodomor
just like the Ukraine in the 1930’s
I believe that you are referencing the January meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Davos is the meeting of most of the current political, social, despotic, economic, and 'power players' of the world
in the most highly secretive resort area; the resort having been cleansed of all previous resident visitors.
What is most interesting is a listing of all the attendees, or succinctly, those 'elites' who think that they will determine the upcoming fate of the world's nations and their inter-relationships,
especially involving trade, currency, diseases and natural catastrophes expected, and national political futures.
It is a glorified 'think tank' of elites who formulate plans for us mere mortal proles.
Highly probable that this is all part of the massive “Great Reset of 2021”.
Side note: There is a Central Bank Digital Currencies proposal from the FED coming out soon.
Look up what Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester said in a speech to the Chicago Payment Symposium recently and your mouth just might drop.
I agree that there will be some more fear-mongering articles as "the globalists amp up the fear factor to get people to surrender sovereignty and freedom for the new world order. "
I believe that the USA is specifically within the sights of the Davos meeting, as we are one of the last "Free-thinking" nations who remain a beacon of freedom to the world.
While I am not an alarmist, I believe that we all benefit from following the activities in the international community.
What to expect from Davos: increased use of credit cards instead of currency during a pandemic, gun control emphasized, attempt trade imbalance
especially with upcoming third-world nations, mandatory vaccines, and ignoring the fact that the political BLM (Globalist) international movement that has spread to all continents.
In a word, whatever decreases national sovereignty, independence, and individual freedoms.
Perhaps we should copy their success, especially like in Venezuela
Placing semi-perishables foods which will be used within a short period of time in just a plastic bucket is just fine.
For long term storage (years), most preppers will use mylar bags, vacuum sealed with a desiccant and/or oxygen absorber,
and then transfer to the plastic buckets for the short term, immdiate use.
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