Why Food Storage?

Here is an excerpt from the self reliance manual that I have been working on.  It just gives us one more reality check as to why we really should have food storage.  It also gives a reality check into one more reason why we should all be striving really hard and fast to become more self reliant.  This self reliance manual, which I am calling the Personal Preparedness Portfolio, should be available by next week sometime.  It is in the 1st draft editing phase right now.   

Why Food Storage?

It's time that we open our eyes a little to the infrastructure of our food distribution system. We have thousands of growers and suppliers, that work together with thousands of distributors, and send food to literally millions of retailers, who in turn sell the food to billions of consumers. Now this system seems to work quite smoothly, but what if one day, some small part of it crashed? Do you think it would affect you, as one of the billions of consumers? Let's take a look at just what could happen.

We have all heard that any one grocery store has at the most a one week supply of stock on hand. Most wouldn't last three days before they run out of food, if for some reason the truck wasn't bringing them their supplies.  I actually know people who believe that they will always be able to go to the store to get what they want. They don't think they should have to grow a garden because they can buy everything. They don't think that the weather has a factor in what they can buy at the store. 

Let's back up a bit to where the food is actually produced. Most of our food starts by being grown at some farmer's field. The farmers who grow the wheat, corn, vegetables, and all of the many other thousands of things, are greatly impacted by the weather. Drought, flooding, bug infestations, crop disease, freezing weather, and even the price of purchasing the seed, or watering the crops can all have a very serious impact on whether or not the farmers are able to produce enough food to keep the infrastructure up and functioning at maximum capacity.  We are always hearing in the news of how millions of acres are being wiped out due to flooding, fire, or drought.  We hear of devastating hard frosts that kill millions of fruit crops or vegetable crops, in places where they have never had frost before.  We hear of food shortages all over the world, where countries have stopped exporting foods like rice and some grains, because they are keeping it all to feed their own people.  We hear of hundreds and thousands of farmers who can't even get their crops planted because of bad weather, and it creates a growing season that will be too short to plant and harvest.  We hear of farmers who have just walked away from their harvest for the year, whether it is fruit, vegetables, or grain because it is too expensive to use pest control, therefore the crop rots in the field.  Farmers far and wide having their entire crops destroyed by hail. And, farmers who simply can not afford the price of the seed, pesticides, fertilizer, and fuel to plant and harvest their crops, so they fold.

Could the farmer's at the bottom of the ladder, bring down the food distribution system? Absolutely! We are on the brink of some very serious problems! 

The reality of our food distribution system, is that we rely 100% on farmer's for pretty much everything we consume, and if for any reason the common farmer isn't able to produce what we need them to produce, it could have a very real impact on our system. Whether in shortages or extreme high prices, or more likely both, it would affect us just the same.

Let's look at a few other factors that come into play.

Here is one of many headlines that show how easily and quickly our food distribution can be interrupted. This one is from the HuffPost very shortly after Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy Disrupts Food Distribution, 'Thousands Of Trucks' In Limbo From the Huff Post

“Thousands of truckloads of food that were headed for stores in the Northeast are stuck on roadsides and in warehouses following the crippling blow Hurricane Sandy dealt to the nation's food distribution system.

Though the system is struggling in the face of uncertainty, no one who spoke to HuffPost on Tuesday was concerned about short-term food shortages or a storm-related increase in prices across the region. Still, the hurricane demonstrates just how complex and vulnerable the networks are that deliver America's food supply. “

I had mentioned earlier that if the trucks stopped bringing food to the stores, most stores would be completely out of food within one week or less. Could this really happen? What might stop the trucks from traveling down the road? 

Trucks depend on the road infrastructure, rail cars, airports, shipping ports, technology, refrigeration, warehousing, and many other things. One example: what would happen if the price of fuel were to double or triple? This would double or triple the price of the transportation costs, just for the trucks to roll down the road. You can count on the fact that this would also double or triple the end price of the goods that we purchase in the store. 

Another thing that high fuel prices could cause, is a trucker's strike. Have you ever experienced one of these? When the trucks go on strike, and they refuse to move any produce, it has a pretty huge ripple effect. Produce that usually needs refrigeration, and has a short deadline to get to where it needs to be, often sits and goes rotten. There is large amounts of waste, which of course will increase prices. Also, remember that I mention that if stores don't have their regular supplies, they will be forced to close their doors within one week. I have witnessed this personally due to a truckers strike, and within 48 hours of the announcement of the strike, all of the major grocery stores, and most of the little stores, had their shelves completely emptied and closed their doors until further notice. People panicked and bought anything and everything that might keep them going until the strike was over.

So in short, if there were a disruption in the distribution of goods, food would not get from the producer to the factories, and then from factories to stores. Items would rot, and without a doubt, in the end we the consumers, pay the higher price that would come.

The honey bee, is another factor that could have a great impact on our food system. Most of us think of these bees as a nuisance, and they are, but they are vital to our food infrastructure and they are threatened right now with becoming extinct. Bee population is dropping at a drastic rate, and it is because of a disease called Colony Collapse Disorder. This has caused the population to decrease by 2/3 of what it was 50 years ago. It is a disease that causes a colony or beehive, to suddenly collapse into chaos, and eventually they all die. After much study from scientists, they have determined that the more likely causes for this are things like mite infestations, and viruses, such as Colony Collapse Disorder . I have heard that GMO crops, or cell phones are the cause, but scientists have eliminated both of these concerns. The viruses that they have discovered that are traveling through the bee population, cause the bees to become paralyzed, or born with defects, which in turn causes their death.

So reality to us as the end consumers, bee's don't just produce honey, they are a huge part of the pollination process that takes place in the farmer's field, and in the orchards that produce our fruit. If the bees die, our crops don't produce, and we, the end consumer, don't have the produce in the stores that we are used to. The bee's are a very important part of our ecosystem, and any time we lose a species in the ecosystem, there are bound to be large ripple effects. So next time you hear about the bee population becoming close to extinction, pay a little closer attention and see what you can learn and do about it.

What about war, oil, climate change, and politics, do you think they have an impact on our food distribution system? The systems that produce the world's supply of food are very dependent on fossil fuels. Gas and oil are used in every aspect of food production, from the growing of the raw materials, transportation, processing, packaging, and delivering the end product. From the farmer's equipment, to plant and fertilize the crops, to the trains, boats, and trucks that ship it to the end consumer and everything in between, our society is so dependent on fossil fuels. This system is also the largest producer of greenhouse gases that are destroying our environment and creating such extreme weather patterns. It is kind of a crazy conundrum. We are creating the extreme weather that is causing destruction to our crops, by using fossil fuels to process the crops and bring them to us the end consumer. It is not one of those win win situations. It seems that we are caught in a viscous cycle that we had better start thinking of ways to get out of.

 

War will always have drastic ripple effects, which often are things like famine, disease, poverty, and economic challenges. Without a doubt the transportation and food distribution would be affected.  Nobody wins in a war.  We may "wahoo" that the good guys are winning a war, but really are they?  What about the devastation left behind?  If war were to come to our continent, we would not be spared the after effects of it, just like every other nation that goes through it.  And I believe it is only a matter of time until we shall see much of these challenges right here in our own free land.  We just can not continue the way we are going and not expect to see some of the unrest that is so evident in pretty much the rest of the world. 

The miracle of the food distribution system that feeds us all, is very fragile.  It wouldn't take  very much to have some pretty serious ripple effects.  And it is already taking more than it should.  It is wobbling right now, on the verge of toppling over!  

What are you doing about it?  I know that it is easy to fall into that comfortable chair in front of our television sets and forget about real world stuff.  I get that!  But let's not do that people!  Don't become idle and forget what we should be doing.  Keep focused on our priorities, which may be different for me than you.  But focus none the less.  We really don't have time to waste on things that won't bring about our temporal or spiritual well being.