Food shortages

[Joe]

BP it’s the media, they love a good headline but these idiots can cause a panic when there wasn’t a issue before hence why I’m slowly increasing stock levels again.
I always keep an eye on tinned peas and carrots, if you see this disappearing it’s a very good indicator of early stage panic.

[bigpaul]

agreed Joe, often I've seen stuff especially on the news and thought "why did they say that? the sheeple will now panic!"
I've normally got a good stock level, taught from any early age.

[Mortblanc]

Aside from what is happening at the shop down the street, there is a problem and it is coming to a place near you very soon!

The government of Sir Lanka has ceased to exist in the face of food riots in the past two weeks.

There is not a shortage of food. There quite simply is no food! They can not just replace bread with cake or have green olives rather than black olives for lunch.

Two years ago they went green and banned the use of chemical fertilizers and the food production dropped to 25% of the previous year and it would take years for their agriculture to rebound. They have been feeding their population with imported food for the past two years. Now they can not import/buy food since their currency is worthless on the world market.

(Imagine that, a tiny island that can not feed itself, trying to fertilize it fields with manure. Where have I heard that before?)

The entire cabinet has resigned and one of the MPs was beaten to death by a mob today.

As of this afternoon the nation had enough petrol to supply the country for ONE DAY with no hope of getting more. No one will ship what can not be paid for. No petrol lines winding around the block for them, there is no petrol! It's not just short, or tied up in distribution, they are out!

Implications? Well they owe China for the construction of a large port on their coast and have surrendered the area to China since they are now completely insolvent and have defaulted on all loans.

I wonder how India feels about having a Chinese naval base 100 miles off their coast?

Iran is also at the point of collapse. 50% of their population spends 90%-100% of their income on food, mostly a wheat based diet of noodles, bread and cous-cous, and the price of wheat has gone up 300% in the past two weeks. The government subsidies that were feeding half the population have been stopped due to the increase in wheat prices. So what the population could not afford to buy two weeks ago they can now buy 1/3 less of.

Food is scarce and what is available they can not afford to buy. They have survived on government benefits for decades and now the benefits are gone! The government can not afford to feed its people. (where have I heard that one before?)

There is widespread rioting and troops have opened fire on the protesters several times this week. Of course that makes total sense due to part of the reason for their financial state is being the UN sanctions based on human rights violations.

Implications? I believe they share a border with a NATO country that has food. I doubt that Turkey can feed the Golden Horde!

That is two, that we know of. Not next door to you I know, or across the street, or channel. But we have a saying over here, "$h!t flows down hill".

It may well be that a human induced famine is going to climb uphill, from the weakest societies and governments to the healthier, with the base eroding and taking the top of the hill down as it dissolves.

Even if we could afford to feed 60% of the world population, which we can't, we are now faced with the situation where there is not enough production to supply them.

How will our own populations feel about sending free food to 2/3 of the world while our own families have lower quality food, less food, or no food? (You do realize that our own governments will play the political game until our own children are dying of malnutrition?)

The Ukraine War has only been going on for two months folks! This is just the start. Want to make bets on what governments collapse after the world wheat supply has been cut by 60% at 6 months, a year, 2 years?.

This years' food production is already gone. It ain't coming back folks, it's gone.

As the food base tightens, little by little, the cost of that food is going to go through the roof in huge leaps! What you could find in a previous week will not be available and if it is on the shelf you won't have enough money in your pocket to buy it.

[Straight Shooter]

By now you are all pissed off and probably fed up of hearing me repeating the same old same old ......we have not seen anything yet ....nothing ! ......as MB points out .....just because you see developments happening on distant shores does not mean we are insulated from the same effects ....and we are a small Ireland ....the reverse is nearer the truth , if you see a empty shelf here and there you assume it’s not that bad here in the UK excepting it’s worse everywhere else ? “ it’s gone and not coming back “ Says MB ! And I agree ! .....yet people Still think things will turn around very shortly ....really ? ....now I know some of you say you can see no evidence of food shortages in your area .....and I am not doubting you ! But look at the bigger picture ! .....it’s sure as hell heading your way .....be ready ! Be prepared do something Now while you still can .

[bigpaul]

given our population levels in the UK we cannot feed all the people living here without levels, although we are 60% self sufficient in food as a nation most of that food requires fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides all of which are imported, as most agriculture(most but not all) is of the mono cropping type heavy in the use of such chemicals if we cannot import them commercial food growing in this country would stop.
if imports of oil also stopped that would be a double whammy.

[bigpaul]

(19 May 2022, 08:28)bigpaul Wrote: given our population levels in the UK we cannot feed all the people living here without imports although we are 60% self sufficient in food as a nation most of that food requires fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides all of which are imported, as most agriculture(most but not all) is of the mono cropping type heavy in the use of such chemicals if we cannot import them commercial food growing in this country would stop.
if imports of oil also stopped that would be a double whammy.

[Joe]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61503049

[Joe]

We have a double problem in this country,
1. Genuine shortages of food
2. Shortages due to panic.

Now looking at number 1 we can expect to see some items becoming more scarce but rather than disappearing I expect price increases. The solution to this issue is money and ties in with what I have said a few times, Save Money. It is without doubt one of the best preps anyone can do for most events ( not all).

Now number 2 is more complex, we have seen this before during the pandemic and once it starts it’s almost like a self fuelling machine, seriously how many toilet rolls do you need lol. This is where the preps come into place because people just go nuts and we all know the food chain is good for about three days.
At the moment I am increasing stocks again by apx 20% on every food order. Unlike most preppers I don’t hold 6 months to a year of food, normally I’m around 1 to 2 months but increase when I see events forming and decrease when things calm down. I call this Dynamic Prepping. I did increase to 100kg of flour during covid but 3/4 of this got dumped.

[bigpaul]

wife and I usually eat fresh food, we may use one or two tins a week, more in the winter, but mostly its fresh home cooked food, we sometimes do batch cooking, freeze whats left and heat it up another day.
so our tinned/canned food stocks will last much longer than most, we didnt go anywhere for the first three months of the pandemic and it hardly made a dent in the food stock.

[MaryN]

I am amazed by the lack of concern shown by the younger generations. Almost as if as long as they have their smartphones, Netflix, Instagram influencers, Nando's chicken shops etc. then nothing can go wrong. It seems a bit stupid to expect to be rescued by a knight on a white charger, particularly if you have failed to listen and act. MB is right. We have a global crisis on our hands and it is not going away. Helmets on and brace, brace, brace, Folks!