"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 😉
That's my plan, building rabbit cage now. Rabbits are amazing 10 does 2 bucks can supply 1764 lbs of dressed meat per year, 5 lbs per day. And you can easily source feed, garden / grass clippings, weeds, leaves, bark, plenty of stories of war time hutches feeding kitchen scraps. Highest amount of protein lowest amount of fat, (important to add healthy fats and carbs to diet, consumption of just rabbit can lead to protein poisoning). And a endless supply of fertilizer to boot.
Want me one of them jersey cows too. Been making my own butter an soft cheese for a while now, (local dairy) and using milk substrate for probiotics production, along with fermentations.
A few pigs in a portable pin on a bed of wood chips for carbon capture will build rich soil fast, and they'll eat just about anything.
A few lady layers an a feisty old crow with a grub farm production, then your set for life.
The cow is the only thing that need a little land. Minus the cow all can be done with an acre, self sustainably.
Grandpa had a similar set up, minus the cow, that with hunting, fishing, and trolling he fed the whole damn neighborhood. When he passed, the wake was a week long, I didn't realize they had that many damn people in south louisiana. Day and night for 7 long days, the stories, the glories, the sorrows, the love and the lost was incredible. This is what is born out of love for community and humanity.
3 car garage = 3,000 pounds of meat per year and 12 dozen eggs per day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbmjCN4T19o&t=4m59s
Polyface Farm, Joel Salatin has been a hero of mine for years, read all of his books, think i stumbled upon him 15-20 years ago. He has changed the production paradigm of small farming in a legacy that will out live him. I'm glad to see his son is carrying the banner. I think i even saw his grandkids being interviewed.
The symbiotic chicken rabbit combo makes sense, put that in a portable hoop house aka a prairie schooner then you got something.
Tks for the video link, been there done that.
Im an avid hunter and fisherman and have a large smokehouse.
What part of the world you call home?
Bought my first gun when I was 9 a hawkins 50 in a kit took my first deer with it the second season i had it. Been buying ever since, got quite a collection, in my whole life only sold two, and they were friends that were constantly begging and barrowing them any way, let them go for next to nothing.
Here in the south there's a thriving white tail population lots of turkey, and wild pigs too, tracked a black bear once, and saw a cat in the distance bout the size of a Shepard. Here in bama the deer are a bit bigger than the marsh deer in south louisiana, but ain't nothing like the northern northwestern game. Texas had a healthy population, I really like the long shot out in west texas.
Love to fish, but I've been spoiled, louisiana is a fisherman's paradise, and having worked offshore, got hooked on fishing by the platforms, (pulling them up two at a time) man made reef.
Now spear fishing the platforms is something else entirely different, you go down there and kinda pick out the one you want. I had the boat, a buddy I worked with had the dive gear (dive master) and after the first plunge, there was no turning back. Double certified naui and pati now. Closest to zero g on earth you can be, properly weighted you inhale you ascend you exhale you decend, and act like a graceful Ballerina in between.
A Real Smoke house is on my to do list, I like that cold smoke. I have a couple of barrel smokers and will do in a pinch, but when i get the time and a few dollars ahead.
Im in Michigan.
Monster deer by comparison. What's the story of chronic wasting disease in the deer population in Michigan?
Hasn't made it's way this far south yet.