Food Crisis in the USA?

[SusanDuffy]

Let’s here it from some farmers, are we going to have a food crisis? Or is it all propaganda?
if it’s all true, what should we stock up on?
How do we store things like a bag of flour? Or sugar that ants will surely find?
Thank you

 

[skeets]

Well from the farmers around here at least, when they have hogs or beef to go to slaughter the phone is ringing off the hook. The problem is feed cost fuel and so on is driving up the cost to produce meats and grain, so they are limited to what they can grow, and they have to pass the cost on to you. As far as like storing white sugar, but the 25 pound bags at RK, same COSCO where ever and you can vacuum seal 5 pounds at a pop in a gallon bag or even in a like creamer jar the big ones will take almost 6 pounds, and seal the lid and put them in a cooler. Rice and beans same thing though put them inthe freezer for a week or so to kill off any critters that might be inthe rice or beans. Or vacuum them the same way. Flour same way. if you dont have a vacuum sealer, mason jars like you are canning, once the air is out you should be good to go. Lots of way to store things, youtube has tons of videos on how to do it

 

[RCW]

I have two friends getting out of their small family dairy businesses.

Milk was $27/cwt couple weeks ago, which is real high. Unfortunately, cost of production is probably $26-28 right now…

Some guys are breeding Holstein heifers with Angus, so they don’t have to pay to get rid of bull calves.

My county is to home of Chobani Yogurt. Use a lot of the milk produced in New York State daily. They also have a plant in Idaho for the western US market.

While the Dairy Industry has been squirrelly for decades, recent history does not bode well for it in the near future.

 

[Henro]

I think there is a food crisis here in the USA. We all eat too much and end up overweight!

Drinking beer doesn’t help some of us either.

 

[D2Cat]

Meat will be going up because of the lack of rain in several large areas.

I imagine folks who live in cities and don't know where food comes from will be concerned over any supply shortage. That sounds silly to those who have a garden, or was in 4-H as a youngster, or raised animals for food, but there is a large population in America that are just plain ignorant on many subjects !!!!

It seems prudent of have a supply of food depending on family size for a reasonable time frame. Some things store better than others. But again, some people don't have much in their refrigerator because they go to the store so frequently they don't need much. If push came to shove a 50# bag of rice and one of beans would feed for a long time, but folks are too use to fast food to consider that.

If one is going to get concerned about lack of food, what about water or electricity?

But then folks should also have funds set aside for emergencies also, but never get around to it either.

 

[jimh406]

Food is going up in price because the cost of everything is going up. Leading the way for farmers is fuel and fertilizer.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

A large portion of our population has no idea where food comes from, much less any appreciation of the labor time and effort of those that produce it or any idea of how to store and replenish it if they needed too. When power happens to go out from a storm or something, the concern is low battery on the cell phone, not how long stuff in the deep freeze will keep(they most likely don’t even have a deep freeze much less a pantry).

I wouldn’t want to be in a large city if an extended outage/shortage.

 

[Fordtech86]

A large portion of our population has no idea where food comes from

It comes from the back of the grocery store

 

[DaveFromMi]

If anyone is interested in a good prepper site, do a search for "Frugals Forums". Set up an account. It will be a limited account for a while, but you should be able to search and read preparedness topics.

 

[RBsingl]

Much of the "food crisis" will just be an extension of the recent pandemic: I can't get exactly what I want but there will be food.

I am not sure why our nation in particular has such a propensity for doomsday fantasies but they can easily cross the line between being amusing to most of us into causing real problems. Hoarding does create shortages and economic upheaval, the idiotic run on toilet paper during the pandemic is a prime example of kooks gone wild.

I am more concerned about the crisis that will occur with the rapid move to electric vehicles (which brings its own problems of the need to quickly add more generation and distribution capacity) but will have a huge impact on the ag sector which now has had a couple of full generations of ethanol dependent producers. It isn't just those actually producing corn for ethanol feedstock but the fact that ethanol production demand has perverted the entire agricultural industry because so much land is used for ethanol feed driving out other production. Hopefully it will be a soft gradual landing for agriculture and all of the regions dependent upon it as part of the transition from ICE to EV but it is likely to get ugly.

Rodger

 

[lugbolt]

My neighbors have about 200 head of cattle. They sold the majority of the herd within the last month, citing high costs to keep them vs what they're bringing at market. They were making nothing basically. I was talking to the lady yesterday and she was saying they may sell the farm to the investors that keep hounding her. Know what that means? Subdivision. I moved out of the city, then a few years later the city moves in around me and I'm not keen on it. It may be time to sell my place and move further out hopefully this time with some ground between me and "neighbors".

Food shortage? Not sure how much of that is going to happen but I'm prepared for it. After I graduated school I lived off the land for 3 1/2 years. My "house" was mostly made of cardboard. Kept the rain and snow off of my head. Heated with an old radiator I robbed out of a Ford truck, using creek water and obviously fire to warm it up. I can do it again if needed.

 

[Coastie_C]

I think there will be issues here, in CONUS. Was in Hoober Tractor in Wakefield, VA a month or so ago and overheard two farmers discussing the same thing, as it related to how their crops were doing. During that conversation, the core issue seemed to surround fertilizer, its availability, and cost. A year ago, they were paying $408/ton of nitrogen. This year, they would be paying $1,080/ton. So, one fellow was going to try and get by using about 1/3 of normal and the other said he was going to try none at all. Was out that way today to pick up a couple of hydraulic lines. I have no idea whose field belonged to whom or if the two fields could even be seen from the road. Of the approx 40 miles of cornfields, I drove past today fully 3/4 of them looked a bit on the anemic side as compared with years past. I am concerned and have taken steps to mitigate the situation to include setting aside about 1/3 acre for a winter kitchen garden. Cheap Insurance.

Here are a few YouTube channels created by some fairly mainstream people. You would do well to check out:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PinballPreparedness

https://www.youtube.com/c/GoshenPrepping

https://www.youtube.com/c/OFFGRIDwithDOUGSTACY

Pastor Joe Fox is a retired, Special Forces Major (O-4) and is worth your investment in time to listen and FWIW, I think this particular video speaks directly to your situation:

Let’s here it from some farmers, are we going to have a food crisis? Or is it all propaganda?
if it’s all true, what should we stock up on?
How do we store things like a bag of flour? Or sugar that ants will surely find?
Thank you

 

[jyoutz]

Keep in mind that a huge percentage of grains and legumes grown in the US are produced for exports. Other agricultural products too. In my state, over 50% of the pecan crop is exported to Asian countries.

 

[Fordtech86]

the rapid move to electric vehicles

It won’t be rapid

 

[RBsingl]

It won’t be rapid

Rapid is relative, it is going to be more rapid than it should since all of the major industry players have previously stopped development of new internal combustion engines and have made the business decision to quickly transition to electric.

I am NOT saying this is the way things ought to work but once the trend starts, all of the major manufacturers fall in line to avoid being odd man out. There are going to be some serious growing pains and it will force nations to hopefully make some wise choices like taking a much more positive view of nuclear power generation.

I will buy an electric as my next daily driver but it won't be used for long trips. That would drive me crazy the way I drive on trips since I often do 1,000 miles in a day. My Camaro will go over 500 miles on a full tank and my GMC Sierra Denali will go well over 700 miles running unloaded on a full tank of diesel and that includes a regen during that tank. Even my Corvette Z06 with its supercharged 6.2L V8 will go over 400 miles on the highway before it needs to stop and with a capless fill and pay at the pump it is ready to go another 400+ in minutes. With the pickup I can get it started fueling, run to the bathroom, buy a coffee, and then get back in time to watch it finish filling. An under 10 minute pit stop is OK, waiting for a charge (and worse yet waiting in line for someone else to finish charging) would quickly turn me from a happy traveler into a recluse.

Rodger

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

short answer yes....
not just USA but the world.
the current generation is the first in the history of the world that will see population TRIPLE with agricultural land shrinking.

This chart is ACTUAL not some forecast or prediction to scare. Actual population growth chart up to 2017

World Population Clock: 8.2 Billion People (LIVE, 2024) - Worldometer

How many people are there in the world? World population has reached 8 billion on November 15, 2022 according to the United Nations. World population live counter with data sheets, graphs, maps, and census data regarding the current, historical, and future world population figures, estimates...

www.worldometers.info

 

[DustyRusty]

Unfortunately, the US is one of the very few countries that allows foreigners to purchase our farmland. China is taking a big chunk of our farmland by offering high amounts to control our farmland. Eventually, China will own the US along with other countries. They have already bought up most of the mineral rights in South America and Africa. They bought the rights to run the docks in Australia and now I was told that they are starting to dictate to the Australian government, what policies they want and don't want. Once you give up your farmland and manufacturing industries, you lose control over your country.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I must be the oddball. I'd be stashing seed and short-term food. And ammo. How much food can you stash? And I wouldn't worry about flour or sugar. Most dieticians say flour, sugar, even potatoes and rice are not nutritious.

 

[jimh406]

There will be no quick transition to electric. EV vehicle sales will slow once the masses understand you need a special circuit to fast charge, and many areas of the country have nothing resembling a fast charger if you went on a trip.

It's not true that the major industry players have stopped development of new internal combustion engines. They know that there are many use cases where EVs don't work no matter if some want them to or not. They also know that people with EVs are already being asked not to charge when power resources are low.

Watch TFL trucks YouTube channel try their standard tow test with a Ford EV truck. Hint: they couldn't even complete their basic loop without charging. Hybrid makes a lot more sense because the technology already exists to go long distances cheaper, and also can run on fossil fuels if needed. Take the same concept load up a EV car full of people and gear and see what it does to your "range".

 

[GreensvilleJay]

There is NO food crisis, as this was said...

Keep in mind that a huge percentage of grains and legumes grown in the US are produced for exports. Other agricultural products too. In my state, over 50% of the pecan crop is exported to Asian countries.

points out...

THAT's the REAL problem ! Both Canada and the USA can easily produce ALL the food the citizens need, it's just that politicians sell our stuff overseas, and CHEAPLY too. Same holds true for our natural resources,like coal, gas,oil,wood,water, minerals, etc. We give it ALL away inexchange for trinkets like expensive cellphones.

'CANUSA' could and can be 100% self sufficient IF we had 'leaders' that weren't on the take.