Posted By Victory Garden Man on December 8, 2009
Your Victory Garden Man
Food is wealth
The basic sustenance of life. Without this, we can not go very far before our bodies and minds break down. Without food, nothing else matters yet throughout our journey in life we feel the need to hoard “stuff” that collects dust in our basements (and throughout our whole house for that matter).
That treadmill you bought 7 years ago that never gets used, a box full of old dishes that are perfectly fine but for some reason needed to be replaced and tons of nick knacks that revolved throughout homes as new and improved nick knacks came to market.
As a society, we have fallen into the “more is better” mentality and that the neighbor with the bigger house with all of the toys (ATV’s, snowmobiles, fancy cars, etc…) is rich. However, that same neighbor has probably no more than a week or two worth of food in the house.
We have come to be way too comfortable in this country and we have no clue how most of the food we acquire even makes it to our local grocery stores. Most of us take for granted that practically every time we go to the grocery store, the shelves are packed with everything from apples to ice cream.
What if I was to tell you that our food supply chain were actually holding on by a very thin thread and that at any time in our near future you could wake up and virtually find that no food were to be found in the grocery stores? Does this sound ridiculous to you? Would you call me crazy?
Well, you can call me crazy all you want but that is exactly what could be coming to a local grocery store near you at any moment especially in the current economic situation America is finding itself in right now.
You see, in America we have what is called “just in time” inventory in which our grocery stores (as well as non-grocery stores) get deliveries just as the shelves empty of any given product. So, just as the last box of Frosted Flakes is being sold a new shipment is just arriving. That is quite magical isn’t it!?
However, most of us don’t think about what would happen if there were some type of disruption to this “just in time” delivery process to our grocery stores. I can tell you that this type of thing does happen quite frequently throughout the country all the time on relatively small scales.
I can tell you from experience (living in New England) that that is just what happened here last year when we were hit by a bad ice storm in which large portions of the state went without electricity for about two weeks.
Food evaporated from supermarket shelves overnight and trucks with new deliveries sat idle waiting for the power to kick back on. People scrambled to local hardware stores to buy electric generators only to find that they too evaporated from shelves. Food spoils very quickly when electricity turns off.
Now, this was from only two weeks of no electricity. What if it were longer next time? What if next time the supply chain is halted from some other type of event such as another terrorist attack? How do you think the prices of food would react if gasoline were to spike to $5…$7…or even $10?
Do you think about what the devastating effect of a hyperinflationary environment would have on the price of food? What if the power shut down for two months? How about six months? What do you think America would look like if this were to happen?
These are the questions we need to ask ourselves America! We need to wake up to the multitude of possible disruptions to our “just-in-time” inventory system we have backed ourselves into a corner with.
We are screaming toward a new depression style era and self sufficiency will be the key to avoiding a lot of pain in the not too distant future. We will need to learn to grow more of our own foods and preserve them so they will last longer on the shelves at home.
Buying foods in bulk now and canning them will help us avoid paying much higher prices later when inflation runs out of control and will keep us from going hungry in the case of a national emergency.
Any one of these scenarios is not only possible but probable due to the economic and political position we find ourselves in today. God always helps those who help themselves.
A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 22:3
Categories: emergency food storage
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About The Author
Mike The Victory Garden Man
God bless you. I am amazed that so many of the folks instructing us about emergency preparedness are God-fearing Christians. Are we the only ones who are awake and understand what the current environment is and where we are headed? Wake up America (and Canada). It is not a matter of “if” but “when” and “for how long”.
To rely on others to help us is not only selfish and irresponsible, it’s downright foolish. Human nature is such that others will be looking after themselves and not many will want to share. But if WE have an abundance, we will have an obligation and want to help our neighbour. (“Love thy neighbour as thyself”)
A little, wee garden with a few of your select favourite items and purchasing items on sale to store (canning, dried goods, etc.) will give us such an advantage over those who simply go through life blindly and unprepared. And another thing – a wood-burning fireplace will go much farther in keeping us warm, cooking our meals, etc.
We need to take these terrorism threats, erratic weather conditions, man-made disasters (oil spill in the Gulf, over-use of electricity) seriously. We need to rely on God for HIs protection, and take responsibility to help ourselves and others.
Serenity from Canada