Yes, you read that right. Food shortages. In the United States. We were once the most prosperous nation on the planet, and now we may be facing food shortages. Excerpt:
Farmers and ranchers across the country are struggling with spiking production costs. From diesel fuel to fertilizer, everything they need to produce crops is much more expensive, and farmers are warning that food shortages and even higher prices are on the horizon.
“Right now we are in a crisis in America as it relates to farmers,” John Boyd, Jr., of the National Black Farmers Association, told Sean Hannity on Fox News. “We are facing an all-time high in diesel fuel.”
Americans are feeling the pinch of gas prices and the rising costs of essential goods like food and other necessities.
Inflation is at a 40-year high, and farming is one industry that’s being hit especially hard. The higher costs of farming will further impact the food supply over the next few months, and even years, since crops take time to plant, grow and harvest.
Fuel and fertilizer are costing farmers more money. The national average for diesel fuel is $5.81 per gallon, but a year ago, that was only $3.23. This means a farmer is now up to about $870 to fill a tractor with a 150 gallon gas tank – much more than last year’s price of $484.
Adding to the high costs are supply chain problems. Russia is the largest exporter of fertilizer, and many of the natural resources needed to make the product come from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, so the conflict in that region has increased costs and made supplies more challenging to come by.
An April report from Barron’s noted that the costs of certain fertilizer ingredients have almost doubled since last year. Some farmers are concerned that the costs of inputs could rise as much as 40% this year and another 20% or higher into 2023.
Upshot of all this is simple: What food you will be able to buy will be more expensive. I’m sure glad we have plenty of edible critters hereabouts.
So, my advice to all True Believers is simple: Stock up, to what extent you can. If you have a big freezer and can afford to fill it (or even run it) do so. Ours will being filled up with fish and game this summer and fall. If you have a Costco or Sam’s Club membership, bulk rice and beans, sealed in food-grade containers, will last a long time. If you have room, till up a garden plot.
After WW2, my grandma, tired of running a big vegetable garden during the Depression and then a Victory garden during the war, announced that henceforth she would buy vegetables at the grocery and would grow only flowers, which she did, for the rest of her life. It’s kind of sad, now, that much of the country may be running those small-plot gardens again, just to get enough to eat. I hope it doesn’t get that bad – but given the current crop of nitwits, buncombe artists, grifters and nincompoops in the Imperial City just now, I’m afraid it might.
