The U.S. has experienced some record droughts for the past several years, and now that the summer has begun, everyone is speculating on this year’s crop forecasts. The Midwest has been struck by severe flooding and rainfall levels that are far above average, complicating startups of this year’s crops. Another dry summer could push the prices up even higher, with an ever-growing demand that always exceeds the available supplies.
One of the problems in the overall food industry in the U.S. is not brought on by weather patterns and rainfall shortages. The problem is inflation, the rise in the prices due to higher demand, lower supply, and less purchasing power with the fiat dollar; that problem is coupled with (and followed by) deflation, where the grocery industry is forced to lower prices to capture a declining consumer base, but to its own cost.
Wal-Mart’s sales of groceries and food supplies now account for more than 50% of its overall revenues. That is a staggering fact, and it also outlines the way a large retailer not originally intending to enter the arena of food sales has staked out a claim for itself. This claim has not been without its effects, however, as what Wal-Mart earns detracts from supermarkets and other concerns whose main bread-and-butter (no pun intended) is income from food sales.
The largest supermarket chain in the U.S. is the Kroger Company, and along with Wal-Mart taking a bite out of its business comes an increase in retail stores such as the Dollar Trees, Dollar General Stores, and others that are rapidly expanding their food sales and cutting a big slice out of that market where traditional grocery concerns have dominated in the past. Foreign competitors, such as the German firms Aldi’s and Lidl are also posing a challenge to domestic supermarket concerns.
Eight years of Obamanomics has severely crippled the U.S. manufacturing base, and the food industry has not been immune to that destruction by a longshot. The dramatic rise in entitlements expanded by Obama has also caused the prices of consumer goods to shoot up drastically: more handouts by the government places more money in the hands of the entitlement-society…at taxpayer expense. This devalues the fiat currency even further and pushes up the prices of food.
The EBT is now looked upon by the sheeple as some sort of “necessity,” or a “status symbol” of some kind…a plethora laughing at the expense of the government, vis-à-vis the productive members of society who are forced to “contribute” to this fiasco in the form of taxes. What is next? The Platinum EBT card? Producers are bearing the burdens of and paying for consumers, and worse: the consumers are parasitic, and their consumption only increases the prices of all goods consumed while decreasing the supply.
Food is also a weapon (as poignantly illustrated by that evil icon of globalism, Henry Kissinger) that can bring other countries or populations of a given country under control. The prices rise, the supplies dip, and the populace suffers. The government, remember, always has its warehouses stuffed to the gills with freeze-dried foods and shelf-stable supplies for when the seams on the U.S. come apart. The politicians in power always have a place to run to in the event of a war or a crisis…on our dime…and you can bet that none of them will miss a meal when it all comes apart.
Raising the prices of food benefits the government, because the grocery stores, retail stores, and businesses then have extra income with the rising prices, providing extra tax income to the politicians. The people suffer; nevertheless, they’ll pay: they must have the food, and will bear the extra cost or enter the ranks of those nonproductive eaters on the public dole. The government and the politicians are the only ones who win in the end: endless “authority” and firearms with a smile, to tax and line their own pockets while their serfs labor endlessly to feed their elected feudal overlords.
It is all interrelated, and any crisis can bring about immediate food shortages. Such a crisis not gone to waste (Rahm Emmanuel) or a crisis contrived? No matter. The end state plays into the dynamics of what those in power wish to achieve. Please refer to an excellent article from a few years back “When the Trucks Stop, America Will Stop” to see one segment that can trigger the burst dam that overflows into a full-blown economic collapse and a dearth (and eventual complete cessation) in the food supply. Food is a necessity, and is a weapon in the hands of the powerful…against us.
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.
This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.
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A lot of things could and will happen. Food (or lack of)will become a large part of the problem when Katie bars the door.
when the bell DOES ring, you better have a couple years supply of food for your family. i got enough food for 4 for 2 years….i just hope it don’t turn into food for 50 for a month…..and ME not being ONE of them.
Digital Crypto Currencies like BITCOIN are Crashing in Value Big time.
Coinbase Crashes As Bitcoin, Ethereum Join FANG Stocks Meltdown
Whether it is just a curious coincidence or not, cryptocurrencies are crashing along with FANG stocks this morning…
Earlier statements about the Ethereum network running slow due to extremely heavy activity appear to have taken their toll on one major exchange…
ht tp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-12/coinbase-crashes-bitcoin-ethereum-join-fang-stocks-meltdown
If you can’t hold it in your hand, you don’t really own it. Anything on paper or electronic digits is just an IOU Promise to pay you at some other date in time. And IS and CAN be, a promise based entirely on FRAUD!!.
I am more worried about beer shortages like the have in Venezuela. Stock up on Budweiser now?
Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Self-Reliance, would never recognize America today. Nor would Kit Carson, Jedidiah Smith or ever single soldier on both sides who fought in the Civil War or WWII
I visited Thoreau’s cabin. Did you know a wealthy friend gave him the use of the lake? Did you know he had a slave do much of his manual work while he was “roughing it” in the wilderness on the lake? He turned down his degree because he had to pay for his diploma. He was the Bernie Sanders of the day.
I can teach anyone to grow their own organic sustainable food and build their own compost beds with only a few hand tools in a few short hours using available materials from their own property, but unfortunately the average New Babylonian is either an unhealthy obese drunken pill popping toxic dump, who cannot even pick up a spading fork and shovel if they even know what they are, or the addicted toxic dumps just want to go to the nearest crime scene restaurant and poison their children with CONVENIENT chemical filled GMO toxic fake food garbage provided by the criminal treasonous psychopaths they worship as Gods!!!!
Yep, I watched one of your videos and I was damn impressed. If I ever get back down to Texas, if my memory is correct and that’s where you live, I would consider it an honor to meet you.
Thank you, and I hope the video helps you and your family to survive, prosper, and be healthy in the planned collapse of our country.
What will government PROTECT first and foremost for control…Its not food, its not water….It will be ELECTRICITY.. Do you know why? Without it, EVERYTHING collapses, their control FIRST because they cannot get their brainwashing out, cannot get their messages out, cannot get the sheep to hear them. they can buy time with food and water but THOSE TWO SURVIVAL THINGS CANNOT BE DISTRIBUTED IN ANY SENS IF THEY CANNOT CONTROL THE MESSAGE, the FUEL PUMPS and the people who do the actual moving of the supplies….
Without out power, people lose their way off the CONTROL MESSAGE SYSTEM when their technology doesn’t work
their message, they get bored and wander.
Without power the water will stop, the sewer will stop, the refrigerators and freezers will stop, the fuel pumps will stop and people will stop and stay home to take care of family during the outage. Who will fix the grid, who will get the power back on (EXCEPT AT GUNPOINT and that will only work for a little while)
People can survive 3 weeks without food
3 days without shelter
24 hours without clean water (but will be much less) without water and sewer but its collapse after that….
GOVERNMENT WILL PROTECT AND GET POWER ON AGAIN FIRST AND FOREMOST…ALL else can wait…I guarantee it because you don’t know about human psyche…72 hours and they LOSE the entire control of the narrative, the message and FEAR that the people have of their government…
It’s working like a charm in Venezuela.
The Maduro government knows exactly how to deal with useless eaters, stop feeding them.
Anyone think what’s going down in Venezuela is accidental?
When Margaret Thatcher invented the phrase; “Communism is great until they run out of everyone else’s money”, forgot the corollary; “when Communists do run out of other people’s money, they must immediately find new sources of money through conquest, or suddenly have less people to feed”.
Venezuela appears to be doing the latter.
If you want to see what a food shortage looks like, just go to a WalMart near an Indian Reservation on the first Sunday of the month. Trekker Out
and you can go to the SAME wal-mart on black-eye-day to see what happens when the EBT card doesn’t WORK anymore…..hope y’all got STUFF(not MONEY)!
well, it’s time for me to make another list of STUFF
AR-15 and 2000 rounds of ammo
870 wingmaster 12 guage with 500 rounds of ammo
22LR semi-auto rifle with 10,000 rounds of ammo
9mm pistol with 2000 rounds of ammo
otis cleaning kit for all calibres
gun oil(i use 5w40 synthetic motor oil)
to be continued….
“to be continued….”
Sir … you by accident forgot to add in your [Tannerite] into your surplus of goods.
or … you can make your own –
https://uscrow.org/2013/01/20/how-to-make-tannerite-a-legal-compound-under-federal-law/
i also forgot
GOOD flashlight
night vision
acog
earplugs
rod for clearing jams
extra magazines for all weapons
holster for pistol
gun cleaning solvent
gun disassembly mat
manual for guns owned
multi-tool
AR parts kit
boresight
cleaning/shop rags
bulletproof vest or at least plate carrier
armorers wrench
magazine reloading devices
what did i forget?
I was in a food shortage at lunchtime. McDonalds line was too long, we need more Mexican workers?
The line was probably to long because there were to many illegal Mexicans ahead of you. Trekker Out
go down to costco right now and get a few duracell 3 “c”cell flashlights for FIVE BUCKS each(ten buks for a 2pack)….the deal of the year!…i been using one at work for a few months now, and it’s my favorite flashlight.
BCOD, I have several LED flashlights and lanterns and a TON of spare batteries stockpiled. also have a 900-lumen LED headlamp that works like a charm. With LED’s you don’t have to change bulbs EVER. Before LED’s came out, I had a 2 D cell Maglight and one of the old GI angle-head flashlights I always kept spare bulbs for in addition to spare batteries. 3 years ago someone came out with some LED replacement bulbs for the Maglights. I bought 2, one for the Maglight and another for the old angle-head. They work BETTER than the old bulbs. I still have both flashlights today as keepsakes and those same LED bulbs are still working.
I’m glad I have 4 years worth and still stacking. If you ain’t prepping, you’re inepting.
Inept is being nice…. Even if you don’t think that about catistrophic events or word crisis a responsible adult prepares for emergncies. If you ave a family and do not prepare for floods, fires, tornados, blizards etc. You are just plane irresponsible… You are not taking care of your family .. Period.
There’s lots of instances in history where one of the first things the government does is relocate everyone. Then whatta we do? I look at the stored food and hope that if there is ever a time when it’s all we have that we do Have it.
one of the first things the government does is relocate everyone
Yes, go read “Trail of Tears.”
Trail of Tears – Wikipedia
The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the …
ht tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
More results
The Trail of Tears — The Indian Removals [ushistory.
org]
Over 20,000 Cherokees were forced to march westward along the Trail of Tears. About a quarter of them died along the way. According to legend, a Cherokee rose, the …
ushistory. org/us/24f.asp
Hmmm, yep, but the cherokees didn’t have large firearm collections & copious ammo to argue the point with the “authorities”. Let’s see how their attempt at a “Trail of Tears II” goes with a cadre of “prepared folks” ?
Grunty
well, janie, here’s what I’M gonna do….pack a bunch of my favorite stuff in my best-fit-for-the-situation enclosed trailer(got 3 to choose from), hook up to my tundra 4×4, fill it with the 15 five gallon cans of gas, and head out….if i HAVE to i can, but i doubt it happens….i MIGHT even hook up the wrangler to a trailer, if i got enough TIME to fill it up, and have my 14y/old son follow me in it(he can drive it ALREADY)….do i have time to do all that?
Janie, where’s da gubmint gonna relocate 325 million people? If TPTB wanna cull the herd, so to speak, they’re just gonna turn out the lights and all hell will break loose. Or collapse the stock market. In any event, whatever happens, get right with God, get in shape and get ready to go mobile.
Stay quiet Be smart
Henry Kissinger declared in the 1970’s, ‘If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.
Praying to bug in. But they’ll sneak up close enough one night and throw a gasoline bomb on the roof or through a window .Or they will just start fires everywhere to smoke us out? I’ll run out when it gets too hot blasting away . I’ll be lite from behind so a perfect target. They will probably kill and eat each other in the initial die off? What 30 days? They’ll be looking for people at lakes or streams . If one does not have a couple 50 gallon drums of water on a trailer and go to a place where there is absolutely no water. For that first 30 days then return to your hidden preps. Even if you have to build a false wall in a room? Seems bugging in will be iffy?
If we don’t get Syrias gold then Qatars gold and keep going to back the dollars we are printing. Other countries will stop accepting dollars as payment . And start demanding minerals , commodities , as in bartering . Then WW 3 .
The larger and more complex society becomes the less important the individual is. A Constitutional Republic with strict adherence to its rulebook, the Constitution, is the only safeguard. Democracy is mob rule, tyranny of the masses.
Spices are the way to go for me. They don’t take up much space compared to flour, rice, beans, or powdered milk. Of course you need those things, too. And lots of sugar. Sugar is being blamed for diabetes and Cancer, but the good news is that the introduction of poisonous fats known as hydrogenated fats and high fructose sugar are probably the real culprits. Now, I don’t suggest overdoing it. Store some coconut sugar and other natural sugars like honey, molasses, real maple syrup, and stevia leaf powder or stevia extract. Then put away a couple of barrels of real sugar. You’ll need it to preserve fruit. Also a barrel or two of salt. You’ll need it too as a preservative. This way you can keep picking fruits and vegtables then preserve them.
If you don’t have an All American Pressure Canner, put it on your wish list and save up for one or more. They come in various sizes. Measure the distance on your stovetop to be sure it will fit; or plan to bottle can outside.
I have some split pea soup in homemade chicken bone broth and chicken pieces. Dried split peas are a great prep. I also like pancake mixes and brownie mixes. Dried blueberries and dried bilberries are great preps. I soak them in sweetened water. Eating dried bilberries dyes your teeth black. But not as much if they soak. Still I have to brush teeth or look like hell after munching on a handful or two.
__
Even when food is available, it needs to be the kind of food our bodies really need. For most Americans, food is available if not too available, but we’re consuming the wrong stuff! Pandemics are already here and the cause is the typical western diet. The autoimmune diseases, type II diabetes, intestinal bowel syndromes, etc. are at pandemic levels. Even if you eat largely a plant based diet with a lot of fiber, that is not enough. The food industry and USDA seem focused on providing quantities of foods and the profitability. I have been reading a lot on nutrition. The more you know about the way things work, the more desperate things seem. Garden like crazy. Seed sprouts and organic shoots up the wazoo. Eat your fermented foods like sauerkraut and kim chi. Good luck!
Great article , remember the food shortage need not be real just perceived. Then the shelves will be empty making it real . I was glad to see Walmart and food mentioned together . Walmart sells 60% of all this nations food . If Walmart computers were down for a week the nation would be in turmoil.
It is impossible to pay taxes with paper or credit.
The Federal Reserve said their system “works (us)
only with credit…” Nobody pays any taxes, a fact
that cannot be proven wrong.