"Minnesota chicken farmer culls 5+ million due to bird flu." OH NOES, NO MORE CHIKN AT GROCERY STORE, WE ALL DIES!!!!@#%!
Yeah, not so much. Fear porn is real. Most of the food shortage....not so much.
I won't be so flippant to say there aren't limited quantities for some things, but lets be realistic frens, when Team Evil messes with the supply chain, things happen. Yes, certain things may be short right now. Things will be short in the future too. Some things yes, but remember a certain other commodity was recently believed to be stopped in production but had actually increased production nation wide by over 400% (ammo anyone?)
The reason for the shortage was not so much gov't interfearance (though they've been trying), as new gun owners, hording, and general high demand.
Will we run out of food and have to eat dandelions, dirt and bugs? Unlikely. Right now we are seeing hording, and therefore high demand. We also collectively have millions more mouths to feed more than anticipated (immigrants eat food you know, even illegal ones).
Both take a toll on our generally precise just-in-time inventory system, which is a must up and down the food supply chain to prevent spoilage. Add to that some fairly simple shinnanigans on shipping and some media fear from the left and bingo, fake mass food shortages.
"But Rooks", you say, "With all this surplus food in peoples houses, won't demand dip down again when hrders reach 2 months reserve? Your argument defeated by logixs!"
Hold up there wonder puppy. You forget, NPCs arent firing on all cylinders...or even thinking straight, just left. Remember that guy in CA who filled his truckbed with gas, just by lining it with tarps, then drove off sloshing gas all over the road and sidewalks?
Yeah, its like that.
Last food run i saw people buying 2 months of not just canned corn, but also milk, bread, yogurt, fruits, and deli sushi.
Can't fix stupid.
.
Anyways, So I work with farmers every day. Cow, pig, chicken, duck, crops. Only reason i see they cull a barn herd is when it is actual threat to the barn (local labs/vets checking, plus the farmers themselves, many amish too).
Farmers tend to be pretty based, and don't have time for much nonsense. Any farmer still out there (the American farmer is NOT gone) tends to also have pretty good business savvy, they have to, to survive. Long story short, wiping out large volumes of product isn't something you just say "do it" and they comply.
In addition. Believe it or not, wiping out a million here/there is not that unusual. Uncommon, yes. Notable, barely. Had a farmer just down the road take out .5 million due to flu, 3 years ago. Heard about 40k pig put down due to swine flu (yes, it was real swine flu). Didn't bat an eye, both still in production to this day. One SMALL farmer alone has 5 chicken barns, .5 mill IN EACH BARN. There are hundreds of these all over northern indiana alone.
Once you realize the actual scale of food production in the US, you will see the fear is manufactured, and 5 million dead chickens is... uh... chicken feed compared to actual DAILY production.
Yes, there is a lot more to it than that, yes there is industrial espionage in farms. The whole PETA highring people to work undercover at farms, then inciting/forcing/coercing others to video them doing cruelty to animals, yeah that is real. I personally know a larger farm that was targeted like that by PETA.
You always hear about the leaked video, but not when they find the dudes that did it were plants, and are now in jail for lying to officials during an investigation, false pretenses, conspiracy, not to mention fired and sued by the farm for lying on job app, breach of policy, etc.
Anyways, just a little bit of my take on this.
Best if you are worried, get out of the city, plant a garden, live in the country and make friends with farmers. When a city starves, i guarantee today's farmers won't.
Now im gonna go grill the family some T-bones, sirloins, and make me some mashed 'taters, and a salad, just because i can.... and its mothers day weekend....that too 😉
Thanks for the insight. I guess we really have no clue re. the magnitude of farmers, but it seems like a hard life dependent on the weather and keeping animals healthy. No guarantees for farmers-dependent on weather, transportation, market demand, etc. Better to be safe than sorry. It is useless to stock up on perishables. You can freeze bread, but not so much milk and sushi! Lol. Better yet, buy flour and bulk yeast. Learn how to make it-cheaper, no preservatives, bake as you need. If you have to eat bread you won’t go hungry, but also not the best for your diet. Buy canned protein and rotate. If you don’t need it, donate before it expires. We haven’t seen major shortages-less frozen chicken nuggets, patties, decreased fresh chicken and turkey, but still available. Mothers and fathers, make your own nuggets. It is easy, tastes better, and no preservatives. Spend a couple hours on the weekend. Cook just until done and the pop in the oven or microwave for a quick meal. Get food that will stretch, but can also be eaten cold in case of a brief power outage: canned tuna can make a casserole to serve 12 portions; if no electricity, you can open a can or mix with pasta (heat water on your grill to cook rice or pasta and throw together). Dried beans keep forever, just need to soak and cook. Canned pasta products for the kids. A 25# bag of rice and flour go along way. Mix with a little protein and it will sustain you.
Yes, that is the typical depiction, but so far from the modern farmer.
Drone tech helps watch crops for needed irrigation, insect intrusion, disease... GPS helps with planting, crop density, location and efficiency, etc. Farmer down the road works hard, then goes north to his cabin in the winter, snow mobiling. Spring/summer rides around on Polaris rangers, rides cycles in Florida, etc.
Modern farmers work hard, play hard, and hire others to do all that for them while they travel, or go to the near barn with full size basketball court, sound systems, wet bar, etc.
Wow, here I pictured poor struggling farmers barely holding on to their farms.
It is definitely the picture they portray. And don't get me wrong, some people still lose their farms, but from what I've seen, it's almost always been to misfortune or mismanagement, not that farmers can't get a break.
In talking to some I find too, food price manipulation can directly help or hurt farmers, and unless you are a huge corporate farm, a lot carry crop insurance to play safe.
Flip side, I know a guy never had more than 250 acres, owns everything outright, kids had full ride through college, was able to buy his oldest a starter tract, I doing well, just gotta know how to get it done, just like any business.
Yeah, I'm not into ugly art. 😉