Friday, July 1, 2022

Food shortages may hit the USA much harder than we expected

 

Most knowledgeable commenters have said, until now, that the USA, one of the most fertile and productive agricultural nations on earth, would be insulated to at least some extent from the famine that is increasingly impacting every nation on this planet.  However, lack of water and "truly biblical" swarms of insects may mean we don't have as much "nutritional insulation" as we might wish.


Drought and triple-digit temperatures result in disaster for farmers

As a worsening drought tightens its grip and heat waves send temperatures soaring, many farmers have been left with barren and dry fields.

. . .

Fraizer grows corn, cotton and sorghum grain, which is primarily used to feed livestock, and he is worried the lack of rainfall along with the scorching temperatures will lead to a smaller-than-normal harvest this year.

"Since we planted, we've had virtually no moisture. I think this corn here maybe had an inch of rain about a month ago," Fraizer said. "That was the only moisture it got."

. . .

According to the C.O.R.N. newsletter from The Ohio State University, corn growth is maximized at 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the temperature exceeds that threshold, the growth rate is reduced. Typically, fully gown corn crops tower over a person, reaching as tall as 8 feet in some cases, but due to triple-digit temperatures in Texas, many of the corn crops in Fraizer's fields have grown to heights of only 3-4 feet ... "This corn should be yielding 4, 5, 6 thousand pounds per acre. It's South Texas here. We'd be lucky to get 1,000 pounds per acre," Fraizer said.


And if that's not enough, how about this?


Explosive, ‘truly biblical’ swarms of cannibalistic insects ravage crops out West

On top of a worsening drought and rising temperatures, farmers across the Western third of the United States are battling outbreaks of cannibalistic insects that are ravaging crops from Nevada to Montana. Officials have spent millions of dollars over the past few years trying to control the explosive swarms of Mormon crickets that are responsible for destroying swatches of crops from Nevada to Montana.

. . .

"Although there are local and regional exceptions, in general, the Western U.S. drought has intensified since the beginning of 2020," AccuWeather Meteorologist Dave Houk said. "Most of central Oregon is currently in an extreme drought."

Drought conditions encourage Mormon cricket outbreaks, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), these outbreaks can result in billions of insects, which cause major economic and ecological losses to rangeland and cropland.


Yes, I know those conditions don't prevail across the entire USA.  Nevertheless, they're affecting far too many states for comfort.  I won't be surprised if together, drought and insect infestations don't reduce US crops by a third or more this year.  This, at a time when the supply chain getting food from farms, to processors, to distributors, to shops is already badly battered.  What's more, nations who can't buy food from their regular suppliers (e.g. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, formerly among the biggest food exporters in the world) will now turn to the USA, demanding that we supply what they need to keep their populations from starving.  I doubt whether the Biden administration, which has demonstrated its fecklessness in so many other ways, will have any greater success in balancing domestic food requirements against foreign pressures.  It may choose to export so much food for "compassionate" reasons that we go hungry here at home.  I wouldn't put that past the clowns in Washington D.C.

Folks, I've written often enough in these pages about the threat of famine.  Everybody who knows anything about the subject all over the world has been warning more and more stridently of what's coming.  If you aren't persuaded by now ... if their warnings and mine haven't convinced you ... if you haven't yet begun building at least a moderate reserve of food for yourself and your family .... then nothing else I say will likely make any difference to you.

All the old certainties are no longer certain.  We can only do our best to make sure that we have prepared as best we can for whatever may come.

Michael Yon warns:


2023-2024 will be something so big nobody alive has experienced something of this magnitude.

Remember —
Famine creates Famine
Famine creates War
Both create Pandemic
War creates Both

All create HOP: Human Osmotic Pressure — the push and pull of migration

Darien Gap is shaping up to become an Amazon river of migration to United States.

You will see that the famine will not get truly intense until at least the second season. The first season of serious famine creates conditions for increased famine. Famine creates famine.

Nobody I have seen on any outlet is predicting the level of PanFaWar [Pandemic, Famine, War] that I sense.

Some folks might remember in January/February 2020 I was saying in print and livestreams/interviews that 2019 is dead. We are never going back, and 2021 would be some new condition and never turning back. We are there. And 2023-24 will be epic.

Fortune favors the prepared. We can get through this healthy and well but huge numbers are about to die. Use this time to prepare all aspects of your life. There is no time for vacation. Cancel all that.

We are on the edge of showtime.


I wish I didn't agree with him ... but based on my own experience, I do.

Peter


14 comments:

halfdar said...

Truly, it is an amazing thing to observe the nonsense being promulgated by both government and the media against the backdrop you have been noting.
We face simply unprecedented challenges, yet according to TPTB we are supposed to be focused on Ashley Biden, Trump and his sudden superpowers, celebrity bedroom ablutions, and whether or not Hillary should chose AOC as her running mate... Notice I haven't mentioned Trudeau Jr; the mind rebels, it can only take so much stupid before it begins to burn.
It's beginning to seem like every time I scan the internets for news and what-is-it-now, I lose a few IQ points. It could be that I am my own worst enemy here, and one is reminded of Twain's remark about reading the papers...
This is all most insulting.
Thank you, however, for your ongoing efforts to parse the madness.
Mike in Canada

Skyler the Weird said...

It's all moot if we continue poking the Bear and get The Nukes of August. Unlike 1914 and the Guns of August, this one will be over in less than a month.

Michael said...

Bread and the distractions of the Circuses is useful for politicians UNTIL you run out of bread.

Getting temporary support from the masses thusly is useful in the short run again until you run out of As Marget Thatcher said it "Socialism is wonderful UNTIL you run out of other people's money".

Current Politicians seem to believe just creating MOAR fake money is the cure for the problems THEY Create by for example the Proxy War with Russia.

Bread-money ONCE was similar, but the difference is now the Fed can print more fake money BUT cannot print up a single loaf of bread to BUY with it.

History often shows when the fake money makes bread (Heating oil, electricity, etc.) too expensive, they use propaganda to make the OTHER FELLOWS the reason for the Hunger to redirect anger against the Politicians to some OTHER Fellow.

That's how people get into killing off OTHERS. Worked in Weimar Germany, various places in Africa.

Expect to have propaganda "proving" evil Profiteering Oil Companies, Grocery stores, Greedy Truckers and even *Sigh* Folks that are not doing Badly BECAUSE they Prepped to become Mis-Direction Targets for the Angry Hungry Mobs.

PanFamWar probably include ethnic cleansing as long as the serves to keep the foolish politicians in power.

As 1st Timothy 5:8 says and Proverbs 22:3-5 says still applies in the "Modern World".

Praying for wisdom and acting upon it.

The Lab Manager said...

As a resident of South Texas, I can confirm. I've noted much fallow land this year where neither sorghum or cotton was planted. I noticed a couple weeks ago that some crops not making it were simply plowed under.

The last decent rain for the Corpus Christi metro area was about 2 to 2.5 inches before Memorial Day weekend. Since then nothing. The cotton might make something. Some of the grain looks okay and some of it did nothing. The corn looks squat and awful and I was surprised it was even planted this year.

I worked as a sample at a grain elevator. Much of the grain and even corn goes to animal feed. No feed for animals means less eggs and meat for us.

TheAxe said...

For the first article I'm shocked. Shocked. that there are triple digit temps in south texas. On the other hand I was at the grocery store yesterday and even frikkin potatoes were double what they were a couple weeks ago. Def going to be be adjusting the house budget a lot more toward food. Also thanks for the idea a few weeks ago to get a bicycle for short trips, it looks like it'll save enough gas to pay for itself in a few months.

Tilcut Hassayampa said...

A straw in the wind re. food shortages.

We purchase one or two loaves of pao milho from the local Portuguese bakery every week.

The owners warned us that due to new ethanol mandates, their supplier cannot deliver any more white corn flour. We stocked up 6 loaves. After that there are no more loaves of pao milho.

heresolong said...

Unfortunately I hate my local grocery store and so can't bicycle to the store. Fortunately I work in town and frequently drive past different grocery stores so I can combine trips.

What was the point of the word "cannibalistic" in the description of the Mormon crickets? If they were eating each other instead of crops seems like this would be a non-story. Or is it like calling Asian Giant Hornets "murder hornets" because it sounds more evil?

Michael Downing said...

Dave at Southernprepper1 has been posting boots on the ground videos with reports coming in from all over the country on increased prices, shortages and out of stock items. Well worth following.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkMuNw88674&ab_channel=southernprepper1

Here in the mountains of NC stores, restaurants and businesses of all kinds cannot get enough workers. We recently added 12 ducks and two geese to our flocks. I tilled up more garden space and planted more winter squash and root crops which will store well for the winter. Last week I had new tires put onto my Jeep Wrangler even though the current ones were not worn out and kept the old tires for backup if needed. Lowes is delivering a new upright frost free freezer to replace an older upright. We currently have four full freezers and the old one which is still working will be kept as back up if needed.

Stores are stocked here at reduced levels but prices are up. We continue to stock up as we pull from current supplies. Fresh produce at all local stores is of poor condition, but luckily our gardens will provide all the produce we need into the fall. Dehydrators and canners both water batch and pressure will be running all summer. It is not too late to plant a garden if you haven't done so and you can grow micro greens year round. Stock up on seeds now for the next two years.

Ygolonac said...

Hmm.

"Scientists say that insect protein is awesome and good!"



Naaaah, that's paranoid.

(They wouldn't happen to be showing up in the neighborhood of Bill Gates' "agricultural" properties, would they?)

Feather Blade said...

insect protein

It seems to me that that should be the natural thing to eat if large numbers of insects have been going through and eating your food.

Turnabout is fair play, and all that.

Jonathan H said...

While they eat crops, they are VERY cannibalistic; if you step on one, nearby others will come over to eat the carcass.
It's a big safety problem when there are swarms on roads.

James said...

Not near the Fan of Mr. Yon that Peter is but here he is exactly right. 23 and 24 are going to be far more intense than even the aware realize. Store whatever you can find that is affordable,having enough food for two years is not unreasonable. Common calibers will be currency and having something chambered in a less popular caliber might not be a bad idea. You may find ammo when all else is gone, I remember an ammo drought when things like .45 GAP was all that was available.
Gardens are a good idea if practicable but oddly enough, world wide disasters often are accompanied with odd weather patterns. My solution is a good quantity of sproutable seeds and the cheap equipment for sprouting them.

selsey.steve said...

Food is getting to be in short supply. Bread, flour and cereals in particular. What does our British Government do? It INCREASES the amount of ethanol in petrol to 15%.
The ethanol is made from corn. We are burning food to drive our cars!

Dad29 said...

...the murderous jackwads in Washington D.C....

You had "clowns." Fixed it for ya.