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Floods And Drought Devastate Crops All Over The Planet – Could A Global Food Crisis Be Coming?
Floods And Drought Devastate Crops All Over The Planet – Could A Global Food Crisis Be Coming?
It looks like global food production could be well below expectations in 2019, and that could spell big trouble in the months ahead. In recent weeks, I have written extensively about the problems that we have been experiencing here in the United States. As many as a million calves were lost to the flooding that hit the state of Nebraska in March, farmers have planted less than half of the corn that is normally in the ground by this time of the year, and a lot of the crops that have been planted in the middle of the country are really struggling due to extremely wet soil. But it isn’t just the United States that is facing a very troubling year. Earlier today, one of my readers sent me an article entitled “Global food crisis ahead as extreme weather events devastate crops and fields around the world”which I would encourage everyone to read. In that article, we are told that after the worst drought in 116 years Australia has actually been forced to import wheat. And according to the Guardian, this is the first time in 12 years that this has happened…
Australia is planning to import wheat for the first time in 12 years after drought across the eastern states saw grain production fall 20% last year.
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources confirmed this week it had issued a bulk import permit to allow wheat to be brought in from Canada to be processed for the domestic market.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
What Do You Do When Your Supplies Run Out?
What Do You Do When Your Supplies Run Out?
The small percentage of the population that keeps extra supplies on hand in the event of a disaster have taken the necessary steps to insure their family will not suffer as most others will following an event. This is the act of intelligent people that realize we live in a dangerous world with many unknowns.
It does not matter if you are prepared for two weeks, two months or two years of societal disruptions. At some point, if the event goes on long enough, you will eventually come to the end of your supplies. When that happens, what will you do?
Having a two year store of supplies is exceptional but as we have seen, some disasters can last far beyond that. The food scarcity we see in places like Venezuela have taken years to unfold and some past wars have raged on for more than a few years. When that happens even your best efforts may fall short and leave you in want.
Those that store a certain amount of supplies for a set period of time need to think beyond that period of time and imagine what they will do when the disaster lasts longer than they had planned on.
When you plan for an event, you need to think of the worst possible scenario and have a plan to handle it. A worst possible case may entail more supplies than you have the ability to buy or store but you should consider what your actions will be if you find yourself in that situation. Thinking about it now while you have the time to find solutions and determine a course of action will help you to stay calm and prevent you from making mistakes that might harm you later.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Total Catastrophe For U.S. Corn Production: Only 30% Of U.S. Corn Fields Have Been Planted – 5 Year Average Is 66%
Total Catastrophe For U.S. Corn Production: Only 30% Of U.S. Corn Fields Have Been Planted – 5 Year Average Is 66%
2019 is turning out to be a nightmare that never ends for the agriculture industry. Thanks to endless rain and unprecedented flooding, fields all over the middle part of the country are absolutely soaked right now, and this has prevented many farmers from getting their crops in the ground. I knew that this was a problem, but when I heard that only 30 percent of U.S. corn fields had been planted as of Sunday, I had a really hard time believing it. But it turns out that number is 100 percent accurate. And at this point corn farmers are up against a wall because crop insurance final planting dates have either already passed or are coming up very quickly. In addition, for every day after May 15th that corn is not in the ground, farmers lose approximately 2 percent of their yield. Unfortunately, more rain is on the way, and it looks like thousands of corn farmers will not be able to plant corn at all this year. It is no exaggeration to say that what we are facing is a true national catastrophe.
According to the Department of Agriculture, over the past five years an average of 66 percent of all corn fields were already planted by now…
U.S. farmers seeded 30% of the U.S. 2019 corn crop by Sunday, the government said, lagging the five-year average of 66%. The soybean crop was 9% planted, behind the five-year average of 29%.
Soybean farmers have more time to recover, but they are facing a unique problem of their own which we will talk about later in the article.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Self-Reliance Strategies: Resources for Setting Up a Prepper’s Homestead Quickly and Inexpensively
Self-Reliance Strategies: Resources for Setting Up a Prepper’s Homestead Quickly and Inexpensively
This week, the self-reliance report is about the resources and strategies I’ve used for setting up a prepper’s homestead quickly and inexpensively. A lot of research went into swapping environments – I moved from a low country rather dry farm to a cabin in the mountains to set up a homestead in the forest. As always, I followed a thrifty budget to get things done.
The Self-Reliance Weekly Report is a collection of strategies, made up of the articles, books, DIYs, and products that I found useful on my own little prepper’s homestead.
Prepping
I recently spent a great deal of time searching for the perfect prepper’s retreat. This article discusses my search and offers some tips for finding your own perfect retreat. If your plan is to rely on your homesteading ability to survive when the S hits the Fan, it’s essential to get started now. There’s a steep learning curve and many will fail.
Following, find a collection of some of the most interesting prepper resources around right now.
- On a budget? (Who isn’t?) Here are 25 Prepper Items To Look For at Flea Markets and Thrift Stores
- Our grandparents lived through some truly difficult times: 12 Frugal Lessons from the Great Depression
- Have you read my book on building a whole foods pantry on a half-price budget? Find it here.
- Do you live in a tornado-prone area? Learn how to prepare for tornado season
- 25 Emergency Uses for Plastic Grocery Bags
- Be warned if you’re trying to simplify: HUD wants to make living in a tiny house or RV illegal.
Homesteading
When my focus was on getting my new homestead set up as quickly as possible, here are the resources that I found pertinent.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Which SHTF situation is most likely to actually happen?
Which SHTF situation is most likely to actually happen?
(Natural News) The prepping lifestyle can be overwhelming for most people but at its core, preppers prioritize readiness in all aspects of their lives. But amid all the talk about prepping skills, survival gear, and food supplies, how do you know which disaster event has the highest chance of occurring within your lifetime? (h/t to TheSurvivalistBlog.net)
How to prepare for possible SHTF events
For this article, an “SHTF” event is defined as “any event that upends your life” after it occurs, such as flooding in a major city. These events would be classified as major disasters or catastrophes, not personal emergencies.
On the extreme end of prepping are those who will do whatever it takes to get ready for apocalyptic events like EMP attacks or nuclear world war. However, more realistic preppers are concerned about events that may likely occur in their lifetimes, such as hurricanes or tornadoes.
No matter where you land on the prepping scale of SHTF-readiness, the important thing is to get ready for disasters that happen yearly worldwide.
Take note that the events detailed below are more or less likely to occur depending on your location. According to the U.N.’s Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the single most likely natural disaster to occur anywhere in the world is flooding.
Flood preparedness
Rising water is “the most likely disaster to befall you anywhere in the developed world,” with about 30 percent of all disasters categorized as flooding. This coincides with data gathered by U.S.-based disaster response agencies and insurers.
Regardless of what causes flooding, it is a deadly and destructive event that occurs yearly. In most cases, a local major body of water will overrun its banks due to several days of heavy rain. However, other factors like dam failure, ice or snow melting, or tsunamis can also create severe flooding.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Power Grid Failure in NY Causes Panic Highlights the Importance of Prepping
POWER GRID FAILURE IN NY CAUSES PANIC HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPPING
A recent power grid failure in New York caused panic and even stocked the fear of an alien invasion. With so many dependent on the electrical power grid, it is important to be prepared for the worst.
Even president Donald Trump has taken it upon himself to sign an executive order declaring an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) could be “debilitating” to the United States’ power grid. Far too many Americans won’t know what to do when the inevitable finally happens. And things will get dire should we have to live without power for more than one week.
“It is the policy of the United States to prepare for the effects of EMPs through targeted approaches that coordinate whole-of-government activities and encourage private-sector engagement,” said the executive order released by the White House.
A congressional report warned that an EMP attack on the East Coast would kill 90 percent of those in the area over the course of ONE year due to the lack of food, money, fuel, electricity, and medical care.
The infrastructure is crumbling, and while the government claims they intend to secure the power grid, most of us know much better. The best the rest of us can do is make sure we are armed with knowledge and the survivalist mentality.
Americans, largely, have put their survival in the hands of the government, but if you’re reading this, you probably want to become more self-sufficient. And beginning by preparing for a lengthy power grid failure (regardless of whether it was an EMP attack or an infrastructure failure) is a great start and an excellent first step when fueling your “prepper’s mindset.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Tools, Equipment, and Tips for an Ideal Prepper’s Workshop
Tools, Equipment, and Tips for an Ideal Prepper’s Workshop
The intention of this article is to provide a valid approach to some special considerations we may have for long term use of our gear that arose when I was advising someone about using power tools.
We are going to be in deep need of tools and knowledge for some maintenance and repairmen work in our equipment. Therefore, special care must be addressed before setting up a workshop for the long term. Meaning with this a post-apocalypse stage, as long as you believe it could be, just remember how we prepared and the collapse was so large that we had to leave the country. Miscalculations are on you.
Assess what equipment you have already to figure out what you need.
This said, we should already have a general idea about the direction we want/need our homestead or compound must be directed in the future, regardless if we are there or not.
We should already have an inventory of all of our equipment and the more used spare parts, repairmen and maintenance manuals, and a workshop as small or as big as you need it, able to accomplish most of such tasks, with a proper set of tools that would last a lifetime.
If you decided to build a biodiesel small scale facility, complete with an alcohol distillery, you should be ready to maintain it without too much hassle. Or if you have a wood gas genset (something that I like a LOT by the way) running with a small, simple, reliable and efficient engine with a huge flywheel to minimize the wasted kinetic energy, everything should be in place to service that setup.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
ANOTHER “Bomb Cyclone” Will Bring More Flooding To Parts Of The Midwest That Were Hit By A “1,000 Year Flood” Last Month
ANOTHER “Bomb Cyclone” Will Bring More Flooding To Parts Of The Midwest That Were Hit By A “1,000 Year Flood” Last Month
Less than a month after a “bomb cyclone” caused a “1,000 year flood” in the middle portion of the country, another “bomb cyclone” of similar strength is going to bring even more flooding to the High Plains and Upper Midwest. According to meteorologists, it is being projected that this new “bomb cyclone” will be “similar in intensity and in snowfall” to the last one, and the latest forecast is calling for “more than 30 inches in some areas”. The floods that we witnessed last month absolutely devastated communities throughout the region, and now it is going to happen again. The middle part of our nation has literally never seen anything like this happen ever before, and this is easily the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina.
Before I get into the details of the latest weather forecast, let’s review what we have witnessed so far. “At least 1 million acres of U.S. farmland” were under water for at least 7 days last month, according to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue “as many as a million calves” were lost in the flooding in the state of Nebraska alone, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops were destroyed. Thousands upon thousands of farmers were financially ruined, and thousands of farmers will not be able to plant any crops at all this year.
If you can point out a worse agricultural disaster in the last 50 years in the United States, please feel free to do so. To my knowledge, there isn’t one.
And now a second “bomb cyclone” is on the way this week. According to CBS News, it looks like this “bomb cyclone” will produce “a blizzard of epic proportions”…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
100s Of Millions Of Dollars In Crops Destroyed By Flooding, And Farmers Are Being Told “There’s Nothing The U.S. Government Can Do To Help”
100s Of Millions Of Dollars In Crops Destroyed By Flooding, And Farmers Are Being Told “There’s Nothing The U.S. Government Can Do To Help”
This is the worst economic disaster for U.S. farmers in modern American history. Our ongoing trade war with China had greatly depressed prices for wheat, corn and soybeans, and so farmers were storing more crops on their farms than ever before in early 2019. And then the floods came. The water moved so fast that the vast majority of the farmers in the affected areas could not have moved what they had stored even if they wanted to, and the scale of the losses that these farmers have suffered is starting to become clearer. According to UPI, “hundreds of millions of dollars in crops” that were destroyed by the flooding were not covered by insurance…
Hundreds of millions of dollars in crops destroyed in Midwestern floods this month were not insured, farmers say. And the losses could leave many without sufficient income to continue farming.
“This uninsured grain issue is really starting to affect people,” said Jeff Jorgenson, a western Iowa corn and soy grower whose farm flooded when the Missouri River spilled over its banks March 12.
Without an extraordinary amount of assistance, there are thousands of farmers that will never be able to come back from this.
One fifth-generation farmer that was interviewed by Fox News said that about 7 million dollars worth of grain was destroyed in his county alone…
Dustin Sheldon, a fifth-generation grain and soybean farmer, watched in horror as the floods that devastated the Midwest began to recede and he could assess the damage to his crops.
He said the record-breaking floods caused about $1 million in losses for his family farm.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Preppers save for a rainy day: Why financial planning is crucial for surviving an economic downturn
Preppers save for a rainy day: Why financial planning is crucial for surviving an economic downturn
(Natural News) As a prepper, one of the first things that you need to learn is the importance of financial preparedness. Don’t wait until an economic collapse before you start settling your debts or saving money. (h/t to TimGamble.com)
The basics of financial preparedness
Personal, business, or government debt is bad. It will stress you out, and it makes you more vulnerable to economic downturns.
To become financially prepared, you must first eliminate consumer debt. This includes credit cards, car loans, payday loans, personal loan, and installment plans.
To clear your debts, you may need to make sacrifices, such as:
- Putting off major purchases.
- Avoiding impulse purchases (e.g. luxury items, etc).
- Bringing your own lunch to school or work.
- Having a major yard sale to raise some money.
- Starting a second job.
Making these sacrifices may seem hard, but keep in mind that in the end, the benefits will be more than worth it. (Related: 7 obvious warning signs we are heading for an economic meltdown.)
Second, you need to have emergency savings. Start by holding yard sales or getting a second job. Put the money somewhere safe, such as an insured certificate of deposit(CD). A CD is a type of federally insured savings account with a fixed interest rate and fixed date of withdrawal or maturity date. CDs don’t usually have monthly fees and they are different from traditional savings accounts in several ways. Savings accounts let you deposit and withdraw funds rather freely.
However, with a CD you agree to leave your money in the bank for a set amount of time (know as the “term length”). If you do access the money in a CD, you will need to pay a penalty. Term lengths can range from several days to a decade. The standard range of options for CDs is between three months and five years.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
25 Prepping Excuses the SHTF Won’t Care About
25 Prepping Excuses the SHTF Won’t Care About
If disaster was a human named SHTF, it would be that person who takes delight in dropping by unannounced and seeing you at your worst: still in your PJs, out of coffee, and taken utterly by surprise.
The kind of person who takes advantage of your unpreparedness to ask to borrow the keys to your new car while you’re still in shock at his arrival. The kind of person who acts surprised that you’re surprised and makes you feel like 12 kinds of an idiot for being surprised. The kind of person you must always plan for like an unpleasant in-law, whether you want them to come by or not.
SHTF doesn’t generally drop by at the most convenient of times, nor does SHTF care about your prepping excuses. In fact, SHTF thrives and grows exponentially under more adverse circumstances.
25 Excuses That Won’t Matter When the SHTF
So, suck it up, put on your boots, and power through it – SHTF doesn’t care about your prepping excuses.
- SHTF doesn’t care about inclement weather – snow, hail, tornadoes, pouring rain, and hurricanes all just add to the party atmosphere for SHTF.
- SHTF doesn’t care that you sprained your ankle, broke your leg, or are otherwise less than ambulatory. If you have to bug out without a vehicle, you have to bug out, regardless of your injury status.
- SHTF doesn’t care that you decided to start prepping after you take that trip to Disneyworld (because how can you do it before? That trip is expensive!!!!)
- SHTF doesn’t care that you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, regardless of what you paid for the luxury cruise. (Check out recent ill-fated Carnival Cruise of the Triumph or the Viking Sky if you don’t believe me!)
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“As Many As A Million Calves Lost In Nebraska” – Beef Prices In The U.S. To Escalate Dramatically In The Coming Months
“As Many As A Million Calves Lost In Nebraska” – Beef Prices In The U.S. To Escalate Dramatically In The Coming Months
According to Agriculture Secretary Sunny Purdue, there “may be as many as a million calves lost in Nebraska” due to the catastrophic flooding that has hit the state. This is not a rumor, this is not an exaggeration, and this is not based on any sort of speculation. This number comes to us directly from the top agriculture official in the entire country, and it means that the economic toll from the recent floods is far greater than most of us had anticipated. You can watch Purdue make this quote on Fox Business right here, and it is important to remember that this number is just for one state. It is hard to imagine what the final numbers will look like when the livestock losses for all of the states affected by the flooding are tallied up. This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and the National Weather Service is telling us that there will be more catastrophic flooding throughout the middle portion of the nation for the next two months.
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts says that this is the worst flooding that his state has ever experienced. Ricketts originally told us that 65 out of the 93 counties in his state have declared a state of emergency, but that number has now risen to 74. Hundreds of millions of dollars of damage has been done in his state alone, and that is just an initial estimate.
It deeply offends me that the big mainstream news channels have spent so little time covering this disaster. This is the biggest news story of 2019 so far by a very wide margin, but because it happened in the middle of the country they are not giving it the attention that it deserves.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
200 Million People At Risk: National Weather Service Warns Apocalyptic Midwest Floods Are “A Preview Of What We Expect Throughout The Rest Of The Spring”
200 Million People At Risk: National Weather Service Warns Apocalyptic Midwest Floods Are “A Preview Of What We Expect Throughout The Rest Of The Spring”
The flooding that just struck the middle part of the country was the worst blow to U.S. farmers in decades, but now the National Weather Service is telling us that it was just “a preview of what we expect throughout the rest of the spring”. Can that possibly be true? After the immense devastation that we have already witnessed, how much worse can the flooding possibly get? Already we have seen thousands of homes and farms be completely destroyed, and we are being told that the total economic damage is in the billions of dollars. Sadly, the truth is that a lot worse is still yet to come. Thanks to a very snowy winter, a massive amount of snow is going to melt during the next several weeks, and that alone would produce tremendous flooding. But on top of all of that melting snow, forecasters are telling us that it will be a very rainy spring. In fact, the Weather Channel is warning that there will be “above-average precipitation across much of the Lower 48” over the next three months, and one meteorologist is forecasting that it is “not looking like we are going to see any dry stretches anytime soon”. And this is on top of all of the very heavy rainfall that has been falling in recent weeks. At this point, the Mississippi River basin has already gotten “three times as much rainfall as in a normal year”.
Even without any additional flooding, U.S. food production would be way down this year. The recent flooding is going to keep thousands of farmers from planting crops on time, and thousands of others are not going to be able to use their fields at all.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Government Warns Of Historic, Widespread Flooding “Through May” – Food Prices To Skyrocket As 1000s Of Farms Are Destroyed
Government Warns Of Historic, Widespread Flooding “Through May” – Food Prices To Skyrocket As 1000s Of Farms Are Destroyed
We have never seen catastrophic flooding like this, and the NOAA is now telling us that there will be more major flooding for at least two more months. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that “historic, widespread flooding” would “continue through May”. More than 90 percent of the upper Midwest and Great Plains is currently covered by an average of 10.7 inches of snow, and all of that snow is starting to melt. That means that we are going to transition from one of the worst winters in modern history to a flood season that has already taken an apocalyptic turn for farmers all across America. At this moment, millions of acres of farmland are already underwater. Thousands of farmers are not going to be able to plant crops this year, and thousands of other farmers that have been financially ruined by the floods will never return to farming again. This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.
I posted an article about this crisis yesterday, and I am troubled by the fact that most Americans don’t seem to understand the gravity of what we are facing.
Millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans have been destroyed by flood waters, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of livestock have been lost, and all of us will soon be feeling a lot more pain at the grocery store.
And this would be a complete and utter national nightmare even if the flooding was all over, but the NOAA just told us that we should expect more catastrophic flooding for the next two months…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Catastrophic Flooding In The Midwest Could Last “For Months”, And That Is Going To Mean A Dramatic Drop In U.S. Food Production
Catastrophic Flooding In The Midwest Could Last “For Months”, And That Is Going To Mean A Dramatic Drop In U.S. Food Production
The worst flooding disaster in the history of the Midwest is just getting started, and as this crisis unfolds we are all going to be feeling the pain. The “bomb cyclone” that recently brought hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions to the middle of the nation was the spark that set off this catastrophic flooding, and now all of the snow from one of the snowiest winters in decades is going to be feeding into rivers that have already shattered all-time flood records. As you will see below, most of the Great Plains and Upper Midwest is currently covered by more than 10 inches of snow, and all of that water has to go somewhere. As all of that snow melts, we are going to witness an agricultural disaster that is far beyond anything that we have ever seen before in modern American history.
If you think that I am exaggerating even a little bit, please read this article all the way to the end.
As I did research for this article, I was floored by the immense devastation that has already taken place. But if the crisis was over, at least farmers could start picking up the pieces.
Unfortunately, the crisis is not over. In fact, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is saying that we are “just getting started”. The following comes from a USA Today article entitled “‘It looked like an ocean’: Severe Midwest flooding could last all spring”…
Gov. Kim Reynolds is warning Iowans what millions of Midwesterners have come to understand in recent days – the severe flooding that has swamped much of the regionmay be a long way from over.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
