The Real Crisis That Will Soon Hit the US

ZeroHedge ^ | 2/18/11 | Phoenix Capital Research

[HangnJudge]

Forget stocks, the real crisis is coming… and it’s coming fast.  

Indeed, it first hit in 2008 though it was almost entirely off the radar of the American public. While all eyes were glued to the carnage in the stock market and brokerage account balances, a far more serious crisis began to unfold rocking 30 countries around the globe.  

I’m talking about food shortages.  

Aside from a few rice shortages that were induced by export restrictions in Asia, food received little or no coverage from the financial media in 2008. Yet, food shortages started riots in over 30 countries worldwide. In Egypt people were actually stabbing each other while standing in line for bread.   We’re now seeing the second round of this disaster occurring in Egypt and other Arab countries today. Thanks to the Fed’s funny money policies, food prices have hit records. And even the Fed’s phony measures show that vegetable prices are up 13%!   The developed world, most notably the US, has been relatively immune to these developments… so far. But for much of the developing world, in which food and basic expenses consumer 50% of incomes, any rise in food prices can have catastrophic consequences.   And that’s not to say that food shortages can’t hit the developed world either.   According to Mark McLoran of Agro-Terra, the Earth’s population is currently growing by 70-80 million people per year. Between 2000 and 2012, the earth’s population will jump from six billion to seven billion. We’re expected to add another billion people by 2024. So demanding for food is growing… and it’s growing fast.

[griswold3]

I bought mine at a farm auction. It was a kit that the elderly couple never put up. The frame is very heavy aluminum. Now, I use old windows I’ve dumpster dived for to have a cold frame. (old houses have big windows)

My friend built a greenhouse from old windows and it’s very ecclectic. Alot of imagination went into that structure.

[Overtaxed]

Heh..I figured I should leave the rabbits alone....I might need to eat them some day.

Be vewy quiet...I'm hunting wabbits!

[LomanBill]

[Some has been driven by ethanol, sure. But that corn could be diverted to food instead,]

No need to "divert" it.  Last time I talked to my corn-farming relations, they said >80 of the biomass of Corn used in ethanol production ends up as feed (the big golden pile in the photo below)... and food.

 

So there's not as much divertable over-production as your post might lead one to believe.

Furthermore, they know these production levels aren't long-term sustainable.   Got Water and Fertilizer?

We're one good drought away from TSHTF.   Let alone one like that which created the Nebraska Sand Hills...

"Today, Nebraska’s Sandhills, a region of gently rolling sand dunes blanketed with prairie grasses and wetlands that cover a quarter of the state, provide ideal habitat for wildlife and livestock.

During medieval times 800 to 1,000 years ago, however, the region was a swirling desert, far worse than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s...."

 

 

[HangnJudge]

TSHTF

Ok
Had to look that one up
The last estimate was 95.55%
http://tshtf.com/

[PIF]

When was the last time you saw a spinning wheel?

—

Last time I was over at my neighbor’s house.

There are lots of books on my shelf from when I taught myself to build a cabin from scratch (w/o benefit of electric tools, electricity, running water, or phones) 25 miles from the nearest paved road... and live off the land for 7 years.

[PIF]

Look for old steel tools — they do not rust.

[The Antiyuppie]

“I disagree. You have weapons to PROTECT that which you have.

If you think you can just march in and take what you want because you have a pistol, it could be a tragic mistake if your “victim” has a defend-able position, training, and superior firepower.

In fact it would be your last mistake.”

But what if you don’t have enough, which is the position of many countries...I was not writing about this on an “individual” level. OTOH, we have enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the planet, but we can’t stop a flood of illegal aliens from entering the country.

[reformedliberal]

However, if you joined the Managed Forest program, you are mandated to thin out trash trees, like aspen, but you will be stonewalled if you want to harvest hardwoods, like maple.

Our forester told us she is not even going out to look at Managed Forest land. She is part-time and is told to stay in the office working up *plans*. The gratuitous comment that followed was:”You just want the economic benefit of harvesting the maples.” Cue snarky disgust in her voice.

Our contract ends in 2014, but the increase in property taxes might mean we re-up in the MFL program.

[reformedliberal]

You can’t. It is the young farmers with enormous loans who are going broke and out of business. The older guys with equity are hanging in there, but the stress of the banker meetings and loan presentations is showing.

Non-farmers don’t understand that the price of diesel and fertilizer is killing good-sized family farms with generations of experience and infrastructure. I know some young farmers who are managing, but the irony is that their kids are all eligible for free-lunch and they could qualify for food stamps. They don’t need to, as one brother has an egg operation and the other raises hogs while the ones I know are dairy farmers, so they trade between themselves and survive. Still, they have 3 kids under 13 and when I see her grocery cart (it’s Walmart, so she has more than food in the basket), I cringe because it must add up to over $200/shopping trip.

Then, when folks think about selling out and finding something else to do, they look at the capital gains tax and there is no percentage.

[JohnBovenmyer]

We may not have been saving money, but Americans have, alas, been saving calories. We are as well prepared and plumped for a famine as any people in history. For all the liberal whining about “hunger” in this country, obesity is a much more common problem than starvation.

[blam]

That's good too.

I've been attracted to nickels lately due to the rising price of copper and the fact that they will never be less than what I paid for them (5 cents)...unlike bullion and other things.

[HangnJudge]

We are as well prepared and plumped for a famine
as any people in history.

Hey...
I resemble that remark

[JohnBovenmyer]

Alas, so do I.

[Noumenon]

I have always thought that the environmental movement wanted people to die and people thought I was insane.

Some of them have said as much. The ZPG groups, those like our esteemed 'science czar' Eric Holdren who think that reducing the worlds population by 90% is a desirable goal and then there's the Voluntary Human Extinction movement. All real. all true.

I've always felt that we should help them out. Them first.

[HangnJudge]

Alas, so do I.

Cannibalism might get a new slogan
Man - the Other White Meat

Keep your powder dry

[GOPJ]

for the price of oil to skyrocket and for many the situation will easily upgrade a from plain disaster to one of Biblical proportions.

Biblical? Think how much fun it'll be to have Obama and team in charge of handing out ration stamps...

[GOPJ]

Private wheat stocks are divided into two major categories — on-farm wheat stocks owned by farmers, and off-farm wheat stocks owned by warehouses and grain companies. These two together held 305.6 million bushels of wheat as of June 1 (or roughly 1 bushel per person living in the United States) the lowest level in 60 years.

With zero held by government - isn't this low 'private stocks' number a recipe for panic?

[GOPJ]

The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978... wikipedia...

Thanks - never would have checked it without your comment.

[GOPJ]

The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978... wikipedia...

Thanks - never would have checked it without your comment.

[Paisan]

She still washed her tin foil at 85, for reuse.

You just brought a tear to my eye, as I recall my late father carefully flattening the “silvah paypah”, as he called it, with his thick Boston accent, for later re-use.

And, there was always an empty concentrated orange juice can next to the sink, where my parents would pour bacon grease and other oils. This was never used. I don’t know what they did with it.

In any case, my parents were both Depression Era children, and they passed along a lot of warnings which, I guess, only I, took to heart.

Hard-Times are coming. Be Prepared. And remember the lessons your parents taught you...

Thanks for sharing