Posted on 02/09/2009 12:36:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny
Yahoo ran an interesting article this morning indicating a rise in the number of survivalist communities cropping up around the country. I have been wondering myself how much of the recent energy crisis is causing people to do things like stockpile food and water, grow their own vegetables, etc. Could it be that there are many people out there stockpiling and their increased buying has caused food prices to increase? Its an interesting theory, but I believe increased food prices have more to do with rising fuel prices as cost-to-market costs have increased and grocers are simply passing those increases along to the consumer. A recent stroll through the camping section of Wal-Mart did give me pause - what kinds of things are prudent to have on hand in the event of a worldwide shortage of food and/or fuel? Survivalist in Training
Ive been interested in survival stories since I was a kid, which is funny considering I grew up in a city. Maybe thats why the idea of living off the land appealed to me. My grandfather and I frequently took camping trips along the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Smoky Mountains. Looking back, some of the best times we had were when we stayed at campgrounds without electricity hookups, because it forced us to use what we had to get by. My grandfather was well-prepared with a camp stove and lanterns (which ran off propane), and when the sun went to bed we usually did along with it. We played cards for entertainment, and in the absence of televisions, games, etc. we shared many great conversations. Survivalist in the Neighborhood
>>>>Global Food Catastrophe 2009
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Food_Water/090212.catastrophic.food.fall.html<<<<
Granny, Holly and Stan Deyo have a very interesting site that I check daily...
http://www.millennium-ark.net/index1.html
>>>>>>>>Stashes of cloth will also be first aid necesary.<<<<<<
Be sure you have your pressure canner to sterilize them - 15# pressure for 45 minutes and you can have many rolls of sterile bandages - and tools for first aid too (no plastic though)
>>>>>Superglue is also something that can be used in emergency to seal wounds<<<<<<<
Yep. works great - I had a goat that got her ear shredded by a dog... Super Glued it as it would have been hundreds of stitches - works great. just blot the blood first and get the flesh coated and together quickly - holds great and healed extremely well..... It is used in some surgical procedures in the hospital too.
Wasn’t someone coming to work on the roof?
>>>>>Cal how would this be on a greenhouse???
granny <<<<<<<
Well, this would only be helpful for a closed in building or house...
Greenhouse does a pretty good job of heating up when there is sunlight. The big problem is to heat it when the sun isn’t shining - (When I was working in my tomato greenhouse, I would often work in tee shirt and shorts when there was snow on the ground...) The problem is to store that day heat for night. If you are trying to keep temps around 55 degrees at night, heat sink helps greatly - Water and rock or concrete hold quite a bit of heat. Water holds 1 btu per degree per pound. So if you are trying to maintain 55 degrees and heat the water to 140 degrees during the day, you have 55 degree spread, 8 pounds per gallon and 680 BTU per gallon that can be given up to heat the house at night. While this helps, it will not completely provide the heat needed within practical limits. I relied on propane but when the price shot way up on that a few years ago, started using a 2 barrel wood stove
If you push it a bit, you can get 400,000 btu an hour out of it. It kind of loafs along at 180,000 and will last all night enough for most any greenhouse - I used to have a Sotz kit stove and just this year I bought 2 Vogelzang double barrel kits and a single one with the stove plate top. Plenty for a 24 X 96 greenhouse. You would have to have 265 gallons of water at 140 degrees for each hour you wanted to heat - 12 hours = 3,176 gallons of water. Then some cloudy days and you are sunk...
http://www.vogelzang.com/barrel_stoves.htm
I put the Sotz stove in the basement of a two story, 4 br 2 1/2 bath with attached garage house that I built - put a louvered door to the basement and put two cold air return vents on the North side under two windows. (I made the basement 13 blocks high as I hate low ceiling basements.) It worked great - floors were always toasty warm and it heated the whole house very handily - My Ex still uses it.(she had to change the barrels a couple of times over the past 25 years)
You would never guess that my college work was in Ag Engineering... LOL Only thing that was broad enough to contain my varied interests.... Civil, Structural, Electrical & Mechanical Engineering all rolled into one...
Thank you Granny I will read this later. You’re a peach! (or an apple, LOL)
I will pass along the links and maybe check out the garden magazine. I don’t want to overwhelm her. She never liked getting her hands “dirty” with gardening while growing up. Before they moved, she had asked me to help her with a few pots of plants for her porch. We did flowers and a few veggies. She was so proud of putting them together without wearing gloves and all. LOL Their 3 year old LOVES being outside and would help me pick veggies in our garden. Now that they have their own place (his granny’s old house) she is more interested. They are near the Dallas area.
I bet you could cook that in a crock pot. Certainly in a Nesco roaster.
Yep, Southwest calls it Bermuda grass - here we call it Wire Grass. If you ever plow any of it, your plow will ‘sing’ like an overly stretched wire. Hard as Heck to kill.
We never used to have any till during a drought in the 50’s and we brought in some western hay for the livestock to survive. They said it was prime Bermuda Grass. Hate it!
We relocated here about three and a half years ago and I'm so glad we did. After almost two decades of following around the Army, I finally have my hobby farm! The kids love their school. The winter's nice. The only down side is the summer, but I'm getting used to it. Eight months of Heaven, four months of hell... It's not so bad. :-)
Go up to post 959 and 961, there are links that let you download the first 9000 posts from the original thread. Big files, be prepared for a lengthy download! The files are zipped.
SECRET CONCENTRATION CAMPS
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2188148/posts
posted by Quix
ACTUALLY,
The THREAD was NOT posted by Quix.
I’ve just pontificated a lot on it.
It’s not overly safe for me to post such THREADS.
I take a lot of risks as it is . . . in terms of some seDiments on FR.
Then if you aren't just totally thrilled with what's going on, try these:
Global Food Production Falls Drastically
related: California Drought is a National Crisis
California's Vital Role in Food Production
Stephen Chu: "We're Looking at a Scenario Where There's No More Agriculture in California"
Warming May Dry Out America's Bread Basket, Say NOAA Scientists flashback
Australia's Food Bowl "on a Knife Edge"
A World Without Water
Part 1: The Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
Part 2: Falling Yields, Failing States
Global Food Catastrophe 2009
Worst Drought in 50 Years Threatens 23.5 Million Acres of Wheat
Climate Change and Food Supplies
Kansas Wheat Acres Continue Downward Trend
February 17, 2009
The Trumpet
Could the global food crisis hasten civilizations collapse?
The world could be just months away from global famine. Six of the past eight years have produced grain harvests that have fallen short of global consumption. As world population rises and environmental trends deteriorate, global food shortage is fast becoming a reality.
Photo: The largest dam on the River Murray, the Hume Weir, sinks to its lowest level ever. Drought in Australia is one of a number of factors contributing to global food shortages. (Getty Images)
World carryover stocks of grain (the amount remaining from the previous harvest when the new harvest begins) have dropped to only 60 days of consumption, a near record low, says Spiegel Online (February 11).
Grain production is at record lows as prices skyrocket. Demand for grain is especially high not only because of the accelerating world population growth (at the rate of 70 million people a year), but also with the emergence of more grain-intensive products and ethanol-fuel distilleries. The use of grain for ethanol production in America alone has nearly doubled the annual growth in world grain consumption.
Lack of available farmland also poses a major obstacle to expanding food production. The amount of available land is actually continually shrinking. As the worlds population grows, some of the best farmland is being lost to construction of housing developments, factories and highways.
Water shortages are another rising concern. Droughts of historic proportions are currently scorching vast areas of the United States, Australia, China, India, Central Asia, the Middle East and South America.
Signs of food stress are widespread as the number of chronically hungry and malnourished people on Earth topped 980 million in 2007. For the first time in several decades this basic social indicator is moving in the wrong direction, and it is doing so at a record rate and with disturbing social consequences, says Spiegel Online.
The article warns, There is a real risk that we could soon face civilization-threatening food shortages. It predicts that countries will increasingly strike private trade deals with each otherto the detriment of other nations, ultimately leading to social unrest and disorder. In many countries, the social order has already begun to break down as a result of food shortages last year.
The world stands on the cusp of global famine if agricultural trends do not turn around fast. Herbert W. Armstrong forecasted such conditions decades ago. Over 50 years ago, he wrote,
Yes, time is running out on us, fast, and were too sound asleep in deception to realize it!
Our peoples will continue only a few more years in comparative economic prosperity. This very prosperity is our fatal curse! Because our people are setting their hearts on it, seeking ease and leisure, becoming soft and decadent and weak!
Then, suddenly, before we realize it, well find ourselves in the throes of famine, and uncontrollable epidemics of disease. Already were in the beginning of a terrible famine and we dont know ita famine of needed minerals and vitamins in our foods. Our peoples have ignored Gods agricultural laws. Not all the land has been permitted to rest every seventh year. The land has been overworked. Today, the soil is worn out. And food factories, in the interest of larger profits, are removing much of what minerals and vitamins remainwhile a new profit-making vitamin industry deludes the people into believing they can obtain these precious elements from pills and capsules purchased in drug stores and health food stores!
And all this state of affairs because man is in defiance of his Maker!
Only when humanity realizes that Gods way of life is the only way to true joy will these terrible droughts and famines cease to exist. Until this happens, the global food crisis will continue to intensify. For more information, read Sleepwalking Into a Food Nightmare and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5952.4324.0.0
--------------------------------------
California Drought is a National Crisis
Response to Drought is Dry Run for a Response to Climate Change
February 11, 2009
Richard Rominger, Michael Dimock
San Francisco Chronicle
California's unfolding drought - now three years running - may prove to be the worst in recorded history. Farms have begun to fail, communities to crumble, food prices to rise and more people are going hungry. How we respond to the drought will offer us a template of how to respond to global climate change.
The drought is a national crisis because California produces 50 percent of the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables, and a majority of the nation's salad, strawberries and premium wine grapes. State and federal agencies that deliver water to farms up and down the Great Central Valley are preparing to cut deliveries by 85 percent to 100 percent. Coastal communities may begin rationing programs within weeks. Even with 50 percent increases in ground-water pumping, which is clearly not sustainable, the Central Valley alone will lose up to 40,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in income, according to a UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Howitt.
Even more disturbing is that rising emotion over water is sparking hostility. Last Thursday in Fresno, a representative of the California Water Impact Network told a television reporter during a debate that saving farmworkers' jobs is a mistake because they are the "least educated people in America ... they turn to lives of crime, they go on welfare, go into drug trafficking ...." This is this blatantly racist, and evokes images of Europe in the 1930s and '40s.
Drought or hurricanes are beyond human ability to stop. Thus, the human challenge is to offer effective response. Neither the federal nor state government can mitigate the impacts of this drought without cooperation and balanced consideration of human health, ecological and economic consequences. All levels of government, business and community must engage the challenge and leave behind 30 years of unresolved water wars.
So, we ask: Will our leaders maintain a long-term vision as they communicate tough decisions? Will government provide a flexible framework for competing interests to resolve conflict? Despite the pressures, will agricultural, environmental and urban interests think beyond the immediate to arrive at agreements that lead to sustainable supply management?
Our answers to these questions lead us to recommend four actions:
First, President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should form a federal-state drought response team that includes new leadership not tied to inflexible organizations and tired thinking about water supply, and that embraces the fact that climate change will set the limits of any future water allocation formulas.
Second, the president and governor should direct that team to reframe the discussion:
a) Food production in California is a national security priority and simply outsourcing our food supply is not in our national interest.
b) Responses must emerge from a primary respect for ecological systems and those who steward the resources within those systems to water and feed us.
c) Immediate and long-term responses are required to deal with the impacts and root causes of climate change and drought.
d) Urban and rural communities and people of different means must share the burdens that will be required.
Third, the secretaries of the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Interior, Tom Vilsack and Ken Salazar, should ensure that their top deputies are tied directly to California's farmers and environmental organizations, because without trusted Californians at the top in Washington, drought response will be much less effective.
By taking these suggestions, the state, nation and communities could minimize the pain caused by this drought and evolve methods for responding to climate change.
Richard Rominger is the former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Michael R. Dimock is president of Roots of Change, a collaborative supporting development of a sustainable food system in California.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/EDKB15RJ1M.DTL
0bama running around saying 'It will get lots worse before it gets better!' Now talk about encouraging....
Please note:
Above is NOT for Lloyd!
YUP.
THX.
Hey Granny it is supposed to be in the 60s here today with bright sunshine, so maybe it will warm up soon in northern AZ. Praying for warm weather for you!
There’s another set of posts (10,000!!) on the original thread. Check the links on my page, or if you aren’t sure where that is, ping me back and I’ll post the link.
Yes it’s in post 959 and 961 of this thread. Just go back a few pages. I pinged CottonBall too.
>>>>Surplus U.S. food supplies dry up<<<<
>>>Others experts say large government stockpiles are not only unnecessary, they are counterproductive. That includes John Block who, as President Reagan’s Agriculture secretary during the 1980s, went to enormous lengths to get rid of extra food: giving commodities to farmers as payment for idling land, offering surplus grain as a subsidy to exporters and holding cheese giveaways for the poor.
“We shouldn’t have large reserves stacked up. It was very costly for us,” Block said, noting that for years he was accused by other nations of depressing their farm sectors by dumping extra U.S. food on world markets.<<<
>>>>The USDA’s sole remaining sizable stockpile contains about 24 million bushels of wheat in a special government trust dedicated to international humanitarian aid. The special food program, which also holds $117 million in cash, has dwindled from its original 147-million-bushel level as Republican and Democratic administrations have used it but not fully replenished it.<<<<
>>>>Congress, so far, has responded to the growing food crisis by proposing a major increase in nutrition funding in a five-year farm bill now under debate. Lawmakers and the White House are also prepared to spend more money for international programs. The U.S. in the last year provided more than $2 billion in foreign food aid.<<<<
So what is the solution that our knowledgeable elected officials suggest?
They are setting aside billions of dollars to buy commodities if they are needed in times of a food disaster.... Whaaaat? When there is a shortage of wheat we are going to say - ‘Uh, we have money to buy some more.’ From whom? From Where? For Whom? Maybe we should put our elected officials on a currency diet.... Let them eat money - no MAKE them eat nothing but money..... Hmmmm that wouldn’t work, there is enough cocaine on today’s money that they would probably be high all the time.
Geeeesh... gotta grow my own and protect it myself!!!
Jim,
Would you consider making this a “daily” thread on the front page of FR? There is some really important information being posted here and it would be great if more FReepers could find it. Especially since the “Daily Dose” has gone away. :(
Maybe some FReeper can make up a cool logo for us.
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