...watch the panic because it will get real ugly.

After the posts of @UncleMorgan and @Thunder5Ranch I checked everywhere over the weekend trying to purchase another freezer - nothing - not one store within 70 miles has one...

Then I saw this Fox News this morning...so I would say it is about as official as one can get....

All I can saw now is watch the panic because it will get real ugly.

I think we'll start rationing at our house until we see and understand clearly what the future holds.

I wasn't scared during the virus but admit this has got my hackles up...

'Food supply chain is breaking,' Tyson Foods chairman says as processing plants continue to close

 

We simply buy from the neighbor if we want beef,Wack it in the head and process it..Its not that hard,Just takes a little time.

 

I thought it was the pharm and big corporations winning out of this...I was wrong.

Honestly when I heard about the food supply breaking down two weeks ago I thought it is going to get worse before it gets better.

I fully expect it to get worse for the next four months possibly longer, then the supply chain will either fix itself or fail right before fall (whichever happens it doesn’t matter since by then the planting season will almost be over), then we go into winter with barely any food. More people will be angry at our failing government, the news will spin a story of its all the POTUS/governments fault that we don’t have food/the economy. If the general american public isn’t buying it expect the power to go out temporarily- on purpose, to fuel the anger at our current system. A few months of starvation on top of a great depression and the general population will be foaming at the mouth for a different solution/government. At this point we will be presented with a new government, possibly new currency too, there will be no force from the new government (because I have a feeling it will be socialist/communist in nature) however if you don’t comply with them then you won’t gain access to the shared food, money, housing, retirement, maybe even jobs. As soon as this new government takes over expect the economy to rebound and whoever it is will be declared a hero.

I do think this was started to take down our current system. A new government would benefit more from this now vs pharmaceutical companies.

 

I had just finished reading the Tyson Article before coming over to SM. There is not just one thing broken in the supply chain. Easy to say it is the produce packing plants and the meat processing plants. It is in reality a cascade of failures from Migrant Farm Labor to the Grocery store distribution centers. This is not the usual Doom and Gloom SHTF TEOTWAWKI nonsense. This is really happening here and now in real time. The system will realign eventually but the damage is done in many peoples minds. I am going to probably have my best financial year ever this year, every hog, egg, broiler, turkey and vegetable I can possibly produce this year and into next year is already reserved. My CSA is at the MAX 250 subs that I can fullfill with a safe margin of error. And I am getting 20-30 emails and 15+ phone calls per day with people wanting to reserve a hog, weekly egg supply or join the CSA. Normally I would refer them to one of fellow credible regional direct marketing farms. My fellow Farmers have asked me to please stop sending people their way because they are at max capacity. Personally I am really hoping this turns into a long term trend. As long as I can find the labor I can scale up comfortably to 60 acres of fruits and vegetables......... So much for me retiring LOL.

 

speaking of ugly panic...
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.



sometimes, even Hollywood gets it right...

 

BTW -want to know how it might go?

List of food riots - Wikipedia

badly.

 

Those rural enough should weather this ok, the trick is being in the right place at the right time! Were ok with the farm this season ( our second) and were almost running in the black, the crop is up nicely, the watering is on track, and our buyers are reserving capacity already with a 20% increase over last season, and we have the FDA certs in early, so more commercial clients are demanding output! While it's a speculative crop, there will be no guessing/hoping that we make our yield or not! If anything, this situation has us better positioned, the whole industry has seen a large growth and demand is way up, and the co-op is running in the green, both figuratively, and literally! IF we can clear even a 8% growth this season, we will do quite well, and be even better going into next years grow! As long as the seed doesn't increase in the next 5 years when we will have to re plant, There is nothing to really worry about! I;m also holding back seed, hedging our bets, so we can weather any increase that may come!

 

Checked on freezers here in the People’s Republic, none to be found.

 

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I have gotten multiple (unsolicited) offers to buy mu home for cash, just in the last couple of days.

When Little Jimmy Carter was busy screwing the US with (for the time) massive amount of inflation, people were buying any kind of real property they could get their hands on. It got to the point that "inflationary expectations" had the real possibility of crashing the US economy.
BTW - also thanks to Jimmy, interest rates (30 yr mortgages) for property were heading for 18%

I feel a little like the guy looking at the barometer and watching as the needle moves down...


lets see, Washington DC is ESE of here...

 

*yawn* and 2000 caused a computer melt down and 2012 was the end of civilzation

 

I have a feeling that things will hobble along. The benighted upper crust will be inconvenienced and average folks will feel the pain and it will eventually pass.
Sadly, when the good times roll and they will, many people will rejoin their flock of sheep.

 

Isn't Tyson the one that is always getting people sick? Seems like every year they have a salmonella outbrake and have to recall thousands of pounds of meat, total waste of resources and expensive as hell!

 

Good information, there. Ten days or so of trial rationing will go a long way to prepare you for the real thing. It will also point out where you can/should improve your resources.

For the last eight months or so, all of the water we use in our house except for dish washing, toilets and bathing, has been drawn into six 1-gallon jugs and poured out into a covered pitcher as needed.

The upshot of that is that we use a bout 1.5 gallons a day for all cooking & drinking.

That's augmented by the occasional beer, of course.

It's good to know how long our water reserves will actually last in the real world.

Always good advice: It applies equally well to weddings and hangings.

Food self-sufficiency has been made largely obsolete in the quest for efficiency and the maximization of profit.

Unfortunately, mono cropping and centralism are not as robust as family farms and local distribution networks. The cost of over-specialization is a basic loss of flexibility and adaptability.

Now we are having an unexpected disruptions in the production, distribution, and importation of food and the consequences are reverberating through our entire food chain.

Perhaps the first failure was in harvesting--which is impossible when all the laborers are in lock-down--and the system failure just cascaded out from there.

It doesn't really matter what kicked it off first.

Economic Darwinism predicts that as economic and social systems become too specialized, they will inevitably go extinct when the environment they are adapted to changes too greatly.

Or they will devolve in response.

The systems that replace them will always be less specialized, less efficient, and more environmentally robust.

And, inevitably, they will all start down the same road to overspecialization and go extinct in turn.

So take the long view, and the local view. Go with what works, now, and let the future determine itself.

But be warned: The normalcy bias is a direct threat to almost everyone's survival. Watch out for it.

The feeling that tomorrow will always be like today, or that today's troubles will go away if a person can just maintain their normal routine one more day has killed many in the past, and will kill more in the future.

People farm on active volcanoes because the soil is rich--and few run early enough to escape the inevitable eruption.

The people who respond fastest to the failure of normalcy--or who have already prepared for it--will fare the best. They may have to get out of Dodge on an hour's notice and abandon a whole house full of belongings--but that loss is trivial compared to the value of their lives.

If you are (right now!) in an untenable position, change your position. (I know that's always easier said than done.)

Just be aware that if you do not make your move when you can, circumstances may deprive you of the option later.

 

The potatoes are up, the local wheat crop is doing good and the corn has been planted, I will be planting a garden as soon as it dries out and warms up, this fall I might buy a pick-up truck load of corn from a local farmer and plant an acre of greens. This Country Boy will survive and thrive! I also have my stored food. I got a pond full of catfish, and the Tennessee River is only a few miles away. The woods abound with deer, squirrels play in my backyard and geese fly over head. I got an essential job at an essential business, as do my sisters, and we get first dibbs on anything that comes off of the trucks. I'm more interested than worried.

 

Rationing of meat started here a few days ago in my rural community. Even though I knew the answer, I had to ask the meat guy. Yup, supply is dwindling.

The supply will come back but expect higher prices.

 

Y2K was a yawn because a lot of people worked their asses off to see to it. I was one of them. 2012 was an old Indian tale.

 

I can buy direct from Tyson, Case, Butterball, Smithfield hogs... With restaurants closed I'm buying 40 pounds of skinless boneless breasts for $40.00.. Tenderloins 40 pounds for $50.00... My chest freezer is full...