Actually, those of us who were watching and aware were buying stuff slowly months ahead of the Great TP Panic of March 2020.
We got the stuff when the supply chain was just fine and nobody even noticed the extra buying at the time. An extra package or two of meat here. Some extra gloves there. And before you know it, you are sitting back watching the world go to hell and not being part of it.
The shortages happened not from wise people prepping but from those with their heads in the sand who suddenly realized that they had NOTHING to live on when push comes to shove.
We live in rural Alabama and always have basics with a reasonable back up.
I can give you some input on the current ag problems. As has been mentioned before here, the problem is not lack of product but a repackaging problem. When the restaurant and institutional demand collapsed there just wasn’t the capacity to turn around to retail packages. There is plenty of most everything. I know farmers in the field as I type, planting this year’s crops.
As far as beef, besides the processing end, there is a problem. A lot of stockyards are shut down. The cattle buyers are only purchasing large lots of similar cattle from one entity. The smaller producers are shut out for now. In many of the eastern states, beef production is much smaller per farm. Lot’s of folks only have a small herd and only have small lots of calves or yearlings to market. These cattle are not being marketed right now because of the yard’s closing.
Yup, exactly