As I have shared in the past I belong to a great food storage email group- this is a post from it this morning and VERY well written. And having spent 20+ years in the ranching business myself, she is on track with her comments!
Please take the time to read it, you won't be disappointed!
Hello Folks,
Yesterday there was an interesting question about famine posted on the internet, and I answered it. I thought some folks on this group might be interested in both the question, and my answer, so I'll post it here.
Question:
Will there be a food shortage in America in the future?
With global warming destroying crops in large scales and getting worse year after year, what would happen to the food products in America? Will millions go hungry in the near future?
Garnet's answer:
You have recieved a lot of varried answers to this question, some of which I agree with, others I do not.
First, global warming is real. It is a natural cycle of the sun and earth. We are in a warming trend....the other planets in our solar system are also warming. Warming trends have been kind to human populations, and humans usually thrive during warming periods of the
earth. If we are not having global warming, then we are having global cooling, and headed to an ice age....much worse for humans.
Famine in America...yes, I firmly believe it will happen. First, I'm an American, I live in Idaho. I've been involved in Homesteading/Farming for over 20 years.
Americas farmers are aging rapidly, with no younger generation taking up the reins. The average American farmer is now 57. Most Americans are now three generations removed from agriculture. Less
than 1% of the American population is involved in agriculture.
American farmers have become to the slaves to mega companies, like Cargil, Monsanto, and Con Agra, just to name a few. Most American farmers no longer save their own seeds, but instead buy new seeds yearly from the mega companies. Then they buy pesticides, and
chemical fertilizers from these same companies.
The American farmers are mortgaged to the hilt, paying for the ultra modern combines and tractors, which cost 200 thousand or more each!
They have moved away from horses which can reproduce themselves, or tractors that they could fix themselves, AND would run on just about
anything. (We only run old tractors, one of ours will run on diesel,gas, kerosene, alchohol, or any biofuel....how cool is that?)
I live in Bingham County, Idaho. 70% of the potatoes eaten in the U.S. are grown right here in my county, 30% of the potatoes eaten worldwide.
I was at an elderly neighbors house about an hour ago. His well pump is 150 feet down....he just went dry. Ours is 200 feet down, we still have water. (To let those who do not know, those are DEEP wells) Water has become an issue, here and everywhere else. People in cities do not really seem to understand this, but rural folks in agriculture sure do.
There is now a huge movement (push!) by the mega ag companies to plant crops with terminator genes in them. They are also producing crops so that EVERY seed is IDENTICAL to every other one genetically. That means zero biodiversity. When a disease hits these crops, it will mean 100% crop failure.
Many people in the U.S. still mistakenly believe the Government maintains huge grain reserves, so we could fall back on those, in case of a massive crop failure. They would be quiet tragically wrong. After the cold war ended, in the 1980's, the U.S. Government sold off ALL of the grain reserves. Most of the grain was sold to
Russia and China.
Russia STILL maintains a grain reserve for their people. China is trying to build up a grain reserve. BOTH Russia & China still teach their militaries that war with the United States is INEVITABLE. So both of those powerful countries at some point fully expect to go to war with the U.S.
On top of all of this we have an enormous overpopulation of humans on the earth. The trend towards a global government, and global money has grown steadly over the years. What will be the action of some of these countries, if we have a massive crop failure and are
suddenly unable to feed a signifigant portion of the world?
In the 1700's over 90% of the population was tied to agriculture. In the 1800's it was only about 65% of the population. At the begining of the 1900's it was only 38% of the American population involved in agriculture. By 1970, it was 4.6% of the population involved in
agriculture. Today it is LESS than 1% of the American population involved in agriculture.
Most Americans have no idea, or would totally ignore the idea that America is actually primed and ready for a massive famine. It's only going to take one domino in the right spot to start the entire American food chain cascading down, until we have actual starvation,
and people actually dying of hunger here as there are in third world countries.
With most Americans being three generations removed from doing any sort of agricultural work, they would starve, simply because they didn't have a clue how to plant a garden, butcher an animal, and
most importantly perserve any food until next harvest.
The trends in American agriculture are not good. I, and my family (and many, many in my farming comunity) believe a serrious famine WILL happen, and in our lifetime.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go grind some wheat and get some more bread baking, slice more peaches for the dehydrator, and check and see how the homemade goat cheese is coming along.
~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years
Source(s):
Myself, my family, history books, curent history, and local major farmers (you've probably eaten their potatoes this week)
