Prepare for rising prices at the grocery store and perhaps a lack of certain items. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food crops have been destroyed by flooding in the Midwest, and farmers have already said: “there’s nothing the government can do to help.”
The worst economic disaster for farmers is upon us. As we succumb to the effects of an unnecessary trade war, farmers are declaring bankruptcy at alarming and historic rates, and flooding is destroying the remaining crops, a food crisis is upon us all.
Our ongoing trade war with China had greatly depressed prices for wheat, corn, and soybeans, and so farmers were storing more crops on their farms than ever before in early 2019. And then the floods came. The water moved so fast that the vast majority of the farmers in the affected areas could not have moved what they had stored even if they wanted to, and the scale of the losses that these farmers have suffered is starting to become clearer. According to UPI, “hundreds of millions of dollars in crops” that were destroyed by the flooding were not covered by insurance. – Michael Snyder, via The End Of The American Dream website
According to government regulations, when stored crops are flooded, those crops must be destroyed rather than sold. And the dictators writing these laws cannot do anything to help in this current situation. The government doesn’t have any sort of a program to cover those losses, many of which were uninsured. In fact, the USDA’s (United States Department of Agriculture) Under Secretary Bill Northey told Reuters that “there’s nothing the U.S. government can do to help.”
Hundreds of farmers will not be able to recuperate losses after last month’s historic floods in the Midwest. Millions of bushels of grains were destroyed in more than 800 on-farm storage bins. Most of the destruction took place in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.
The U.S. government spend frivolously whenever they want, so now they are closing the purse? We’ve been telling anyone who would listen for quite some time that faith and salvation should never be put in someone else’s hands. Reliance on the government should be diminished as much as possible if humanity wants to have a hope and prayer of not going extinct in the future. The government is over $22 trillion in debt, yet people still think the money to bail them out awaits. Unfortunately, These farmers have discovered the cold hard facts the most difficult way possible.
If you have ever considered becoming more self-sufficient, it isn’t too late! Try growing your own food and consider lessening your reliance on anyone else for any necessity.
Most of the food grown in the US is sold overseas or sent overseas in the form of food aid. The US grows more than enough for itself. And when you consider how much Americans eat, they can do with eating less.
As for overseas, two results: countries dependent on food aid will just have to make a decision, get off their butts and grow some food, or starve. As for those who buy US food, they will just look for other markets to provide for them. Russia is now big on organic food and deserves to benefit. Parts of Africa are now being farmed by Chinese and Arab agribusinesses. They will also benefit. As for the starving ‘grows who keep begging for food aid in the land of plenty, they will just have to learn how to farm.
FAKE STORY. Farmers in the Midwest have not even planted yet this year. No crops are in the fields yet. They plant in May and by the 4th of July the corn is knee high.
You are wrong. Main crop rotation is corn, soybeans, and wheat for weed and soil nutrient purposes.
So wet last fall that I couldn’t sow any of the planned wheat acres. So no wheat to harvest this year.
This March I couldn’t sow any of the planned oats. Cattle love oats.
Just yesterday tractor is still sinking a foot.
We’d be starting to plant either soybeans or corn now, but can’t. Still too wet.
As to the bottom ground by the river, it had sand moved into the field and crop doesn’t grow good in sand. So that will have to be cleared, but not till it’s dry enough to be in the field.
And we keep getting rain every few days. What’s your solution?
My father did his best farming in Braggs Bottom because it was a mixture of “sand and soil”. When he moved and started a garden, he mixed some sand in with the soil. He also used barnyard manure in the mix. He always said the only thing St. Patrick’s Day was good for was it was time to plant potatoes.
that and as I keep pointing out, the tariffs didn’t impact farmers until later in 2018 (implemented in July..), so that’s not responsible for the bankruptcies cited in those articles for most of that year. Given the time it takes to file and get it done, its unlikely it had any impact.
Said it 3x now, check the comments in each ref’d article.
If you are worried about this, the way to protect yourself is through the Futures Market. Can’t help what has occurred but you might as well make a buck off it.
or, you could just buy some extra food right now….and be ready for the coming crisis. here’s some suggestions from MY pantry,
…keep in mind SOME items have MANY uses, and you might not realize how important some of them are.
pinto beans
macaroni
rice
pinto beans
canned fruit like peaches, fruit cocktail, pears, apricots
peanut butter
tomatoes and tomatoe sauce
cornmeal
flour
sugar, brown sugar
tabasco sauce
oats
BBQ sauce
popcorn and seasoning
olives, black
canned chilli
canned soups…my favorite, cream of mushroom
milk, dried, evaporated, and condensed
cake mix, 7up or sprite, and canned fruit…to make cobbler, apple or cherry is MY faves(google that)
canned veggies
honey
syrup
vinegar
shortening/corn oil
soy sauce…teriyake
beef/chicken bullion
baking soda, baking powder, yeast
salt
pepper, garlic salt, chilli powder, italian seasoning, cinnamon, ketchup, mustard mayo.
instant coffee, tea..creamer
hard candy, chocolate
tuna, spam(don’t stack it very high)
powdered eggs
buttcrack,
Interesting list.
About the only thing on your list I don’t have is instant coffee.
Your list reads like what a normal kitchen pantry would have.
I have a few more items than you and I probably have more quantities.
But the one thing I don’t see is BEER!
“…one thing I don’t see is BEER!”
And the good and wise prepper will be able to make his own; not only for his own nutrition needs but as currency. Prep on my friend.
i hope you DO have more food than me, rellik! but i bet you don’t. i have a full pantry, 5 shelves, a foot and a halfx5 feet. then there’s the bedroom that has nothing but food, and it’s along the walls 4 feet high, and i can’t walk through without picking my steps. i’m pretty sure i can feed at least 6 people for 2 years, without going to the store…..it won’t be fun, but it will be a diet that would keep us alive, and in decent health. i have never even SEEN anybody with anywhere NEAR as much food as me….it’s ALSO one of my hedges against inflation. one thing i stress living here in the desert is to have food with a lot of water content. every time you have to drink water after the shtf bell rings, you will be taking a chance on getting sick. congrats on being toward the FRONT of the pack….and thank you for your many great contributions to our site!
oops, forgot my son’s room. about a fifth of it is filled with freeze-dried stuff from when honeyville closed their store here in so cal a couple years ago. they had a 2/3rds off sale at that time. what a bargain THAT was. that room alone(as long as we got WATER!) would keep us alive for a year or so.
Non Farmers always pat answers to everything.
They have never plowed a field, never planted seed, yet they are experts because they post on the internet.
Fact: US no longer has significant food resrves. China buys everything they can, wheat. China has massive wheat stores.
Fact: Two consecutive crop failures would mean food shortages.
Fact: Much of US farmland being gobbled up by FORIEGNERS.
Those crops will be sold to THEIR country of origin.
Opinion: Three consecutive crop failures means famine.
Opinion: Five consecutive crop failures globally means billions dead.
These can wipe out Billions of people:
Nuclear War
Climate Change
Volcano erruptions
Changing UV radiation rates from our Sun
Fungus infections of soils on global basis
FACT:
Chemicals used in agriculture are upsetting natural soil balances. We are in TROUBLE.
What can you do?
Use your funds wisely:
Food-Ammo-Gold-Silver-Plant a garden, raise small livestock, learn NOW.
Or do nothing. Waste hours on social media. Waste your days on internet. Watch your TV. Watch your sports. Then simply die with your fellow “fans”.
Your choice.
“A lack of certain items” like ……avocadoes.
I would bet there would be illegals crossing the fence with backpacks full of cartel avocados within a week!
My Avocados, are about 1 inch across right now. I’ll have more than I can eat or give away very shortly. Mine are Sharwills and they get big.
TharSheBlows: this was last year’s harvest sitting in grain bins or in sheds that was destroyed.
I know this cannot be sold for human or animal feed, but wondering if this could be quickly sold and delivered to ethanol plants? How about the corn burning stove owners?
Just so we’re all on the same page here, if the soil has been damaged enough, this fall’s harvest might be so lacking that it might not be fit for human consumption (low protein or other) then it will all be classed as animal feed only and farmers will take another financial hit. This has occurred in recent years with the wheat harvest: ok yields but quality was bad so a lot was not fit for human consumption.
Get some chickens, especially hens that still have the breeding that’ll get broody and take a set on their eggs. That’ll mean a rooster is needed. Make sure you get good heritage breeds. I am partial to the Buff Orpington. They are hardy and will lay even in very cold temps. They are also quiet. Stock up on feed. They might plant and harvest where the flooding is but you best believe it ain’t gonna be at last years’ prices
Yeah, right. Roughly speaking, it takes two pounds of feed to raise one pound of chicken, and nearly half of that is bones and feathers. So piss away two pounds of good food to get 8-10 ounces of cholesterol ridden meat. Not a very good trade. Eat the feed, its better for you, is cheaper, stores longer, and you don’t have to clean up after it.
You’re just another idiot as I’ve been raising chickens for better of 20 years. I’ll be eating good while you’ll be too weak to stand up.
repr,
You tell him, I guess he doesn’t know how free ranging chickens work. Just keep them out of the garden areas till after harvest.
I can feed my chickens cuttings from around my property for nothing other than the labor, i can just open the gate and they do it themselves then go back to the coop at sunset,
Chickens are inexpensive.
Everytime I cut the grass I make sure the shute is on the Pen side. Them girls sure do love grass clippings.
chicken is “cholesterol ridden” (sic)?
Seriously?
I’m not even going to touch the rest of that mess
Anon, Thanks for the tip I’m not familiar with the Buff Orpington breed I’ll have to check it out. I’ve always had great luck with Rhode Island Reds and Bardrocks too.
To date I’ve had RI Reds and they’re OK but a little noisey as well as the Red Sexlinks which are part RI Red. The B0’s are a quiet breed as well as a dual purpose (meat) bird. If you have a broody hen who’ll sit on a clutch of eggs, well then you got a nice batch to replace any old birds down the line or sell to somebody that wants to start having their own. Or think barter.
Just put 56 eggs in my brinsea last evening,
Fingers crossed!
I have dark cornish hens, and rooster, i did buy them because supposedly were broody, yes they are, but one hennwas killing all the babies, and couldnt figure out wich one, so incubating and going yo start from scratch, hens are about 4 years now so need to replace them, thanks for the tip on the buffs, have been considering ordering chicks just to try a different variety.
The main thing is to be able to regulate the humidity.
Of course the gov’t can’t help. They created the problem, just like they always do. Why would they help? I learned farming at a very early age. Wheat, Oats, Alfalfa and cattle. I also learned, at a very early age, I didn’t want to be a farmer.
Well, in the Mike Snyder article referenced here, he says a million acres were flooded. OK. That’s about the size of Rhode Island…insignificant in the big picture, although NOT insignificant to the flooded farmers.
Snyder dances around the real problem here. Most farmers carry crop insurance. Why didn’t they? Did they gamble on no loss this year to save a few bucks? Yes, spoiled grain can’t be sold. No, if you don’t insure your harvest, the government shouldn’t pay for it. Isn’t this a capitalist utopia after all?
Anyway, here’s some reference (2015):
There were 366.7 million acres of cropland, down from 420.4 million acres in 1982. 314.7 million acres were cultivated, the rest were on the Big Agriculture socialist welfare plan to lay fallow.
This appears to be about .033 percent of cropland flooded, less than 1/2 of one per cent. Considering much of the corn crop goes to ethanol and high fructose syrup…meh. Some of the distillers mash (leftover from ethanol production) goes to animal feed, so maybe less ethanol and less feed, but not much. As for the HFC, may have to tap the strategic corn syrup reserves.
A couple cents higher in beef prices won’t hurt and according to the Fed’s hedonic adjustments, when beef gets too high you just switch to something else…like cat food.
California produces about 80% of the fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts grown in the US.
They use about 30 million acres to do it of which about 5 million are tagged as “prime” (don’t know what that means exactly)
Of course, we all can’t grow avocados :-), but the USA is blessed with so much land that we can grow stuff on, we hardly dip into our #2 or lower rated land to do it.
Even here in GA we can amend ol’ Georgia Red with chicken, horse, or cow dukey a little bit and grow stuff real good.
I do it every year.
If we need to, I can be multiplied a million times over all over the country to grow most of what we need – not as cheap nor as efficient as California, but we can get ‘er done…
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Cat food helper. Yum.
Does this mean the welfare mammy’s won’t get their food boxes from EBT? F’m…let’m starve. And the poor soyboys won’t get there soy based estrogen to make them more cucked and beta than they already are?
Name. Speaking of welfare, many small businesses can’t get help because of Government Welfare. Why work when you can sit on your ass and make more from welfare than what a small business can/or will pay for help. Same for farming, maybe a million acres lost for production this year, but as we speak the Government welfare rolls on, farmers can and will sign up to take or keep 22 million acre out of production through the CRP program. Trekker Out
The grain destroyed wasn’t food for human consumption. Its was commodities needing farther refining and milling before it would be able to become flour or oil ect. And grain setting in grain bins gets infested with weevils and dry rot and the germ dies. so its only good for livestock feed or possibly ethanol production. Every spring so much wheat is harvested that its stored outside in a big mountain just north of Cario Ill. and after dark the rats crawl all over it. and during the day the blackbirds swarm and crap all over it. Loaded into barges and made into products with rat feces and bird shit. The thing is everyone knows low elevations often flood. And when you farm low ground and place improvements on low ground that a risk you choose to take. Agri buisnesses receive no sympathy from me.
thats not exactly a fair assessment: Ag near rivers has been a sustainable method of farming since we started first planting seeds. the occasional flood revitalizes the soil with silt deposits, for one. Your point about improvements on low ground is valid though.
The trick is knowing that you will in fact lose crops occasionally and not try to run your farm on the thinnest of margins..
What about the cattle and calves drowned in the floods? Beef prices are going to go through the roof.
Actually over all only a small percentage of the beef herd was destroyed. The real hurt is the guys with 50 head who lost half of them. That can put them out of business. 25 feeders @ $500 each is a lot of money. The lost calves are going to hurt you next year as the gestation period for a cow is around 10 months, and then it takes 8-9 months to get them to the feeder weight, and then over a year to get them to a good market size. My numbers are for grass feed and raised cattle.
You can breed a heifer at 12 months or so, so she can calve at 22 months. Losing calves is a big deal as it takes you 30+ months to produce another feeder, so each dead calf can take 42 months to replace and get into the Safeway meat market section.
Other than the loss of livestock in that area, probably the greatest loss in crops would be Red Winter Wheat which I think is used in bread and pastries and maybe pasta, so we could feel the effects on those products in the near future. I’m not really familiar with farming in that area, since my farming experience was in Missourah where we primarily raised corn,soybeans and wheat which is not planted in the fall like the hard red winter wheat. Yes the small farmer with the small hear of cattle will be the one that gets hurt, but that’s the way it always happens. Trekker Out
I planted last Sunday, and will plant again this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. No flooding here in my part of the Midwest. I don’t eat corn, wheat, or soybeans……all GMO. This country needs to get on board with organic gardening and non-GMO. Grow and store while you can.
Several years ago I tried to grow a variety of vegetables and for the most part it was a miserable failure. Some things didn’t grow at all and rabbits ate my strawberries a few days before I was going to pick them. Since then I have learned from my mistakes and I have made great improvements on what and where I can grow things. Unless you have some experience growing your own food you shouldn’t assume that you will be successful the first or even the second or third time out. This takes practice. Start now, learn from your failures and successes, get some help from local farmers or someone with experience growing food in your area, and never give up.
Excellent point,
I cant even count the times ive heard someone say they will just start a garden if things get dicey,
Ive been a commercial producer and gardener for over 20 years seriously, i still lose stuff,
All it takes is one afternoon and your crop can be toast,
Varmints or weather, take your pick, either can ruin a garden in short order,
Never mind the learning curve on growing enough to feed yourself and then to save seeds, most people are clueless,
A few years ago a rabbit ate my strawberries.
Not too long after that, a hoot owl ate the rabbit.
We have lots of hoot owls out back.
Archivist then you should eat the hoot owl, they taste about like eagle. Trekker Out
One year I had trouble with “blossom drop” on my tomatoes. Fortunately I was able to correct the problem, which was a soil deficiency and saved my crop that year. You must always be attentive to your crops and notice any problems right away. I have noticed also the lack of bees in my area…..thanks to pesticides used by others. Tomatoes are self pollenating, and the wind can help in this matter.