Yes

I agree.

From what I've read long time preppers (and newbies, too) are working towards softening the blow for themselves, with preps out months & even a year or so. If you havn't already order your seeds & canning equipment now is my suggestion.

Brendasue

canuckistani, hi went to the article that you posted-was very interesting reading. Do I think that it is accurate-yes I THINK it has its merits-and everything as of now is in short supply or seems to be. I did see a program I think it was on 60 minutes it has been a few weeks where they describe the fall out of reserves on food supply in several countries-that our reserves would have to be used in order to combat the food shortages for some countries-They also said that China was going to slow down its export of grain,food stuffs because they were afraid that they would have to draw on there reserves for there own people. The author does state in his disclaimer that his views are just that and may not be accurate with the centre of global research. Is it scary certainly, what can we do about it? I think that we should continue to conserve where we can and try to help ourselves a little more and help each other, We can plant our own gardens, raise our own chickens,pigs,cows.,etc...The weather has been bad and very different from the past. As a kid the four seasons were just that--now its a toss up--now I have seen snow in May and 70's in December. Remember this is just my opinion I am in no way an expert in this area-I listen and I read-so that I can become more informed, I take some things with a grain of salt and use what I have learned to make things better for myself/family/friends

I don't know if this helped but am certainly willing to learn more. Thank you for the article it was good and very imformative.

Nelda

Just to be a contrarian I'm going to say Maybe it is within human nature to predict doom and gloom, after the fact we can look back and say yes it happened or no it did not.

Sounds like there will be major shortages in all grain crops this season. How about meat or specialty crops? Any thoughts on this?

Meat or specialty crops? They very well could become a shortage of both-because of drought in alot of the countries. If I remember correctly (and I may not) on some threads last year there seemed to be talk of shortages or hard to find organic seeds-this may or may not be accurate! This could definetly be beause of the lack of rain there are many possibilities-I think (in my opinion)that people are not neccessarly stock piling but maybe holding back on what they have to offer. I have not seen the #'s yet for today but the grain prices have been rising. I think it is just going to be a wait see. I also think alot will depend on our attitude to what is going on in our country/government. Do we panic or do we sit on the fence and see which way to jump, or do we try and change things in our own country by helping other countries? It is a dilemma isn't it? Would you like to explore it? It would be fun to learn something new!

Well, if farmers are selling out/slaughtering/cutting back due to shortages of grains, water, and vegitation to sustain, it would seem there would be a shortage of meats also, local to those areas anyway, then trickling to the auctions. I'm not sure on the imports, but meat prices sure have risen.
Brendasue

Also something to remember, the governments will downplay any doom and gloom predictions to prevent panic in the people. It will always be worse than it seems, if you only listen to what the governments say about it. While at the same time they will be quietly playing with the nations currencies to try to minimize the damage.

I agree governments will generally downplay any problems until they need outside support.

Are people changing their planting in light of the water shortages?

Every large organized body downplays problems, and every large disorganized body plays up problems. The first is a response to the second. The second is probably a hold over from a previous era in human evolution where dealing with a problem that might not exist was typically more adventitious than not dealing with a problem that doesn't exist, well this is still true today, but probably not as extremely as it was in the past.

The article crafts a very nice portrait of the impending end of the world. Just don't be paranoid. There is some truth to it--there are droughts going on in places around the world, and there always could be a convergence of effects that could create global shortages. Same last year. Same the year before. These move around from region to region and this is quite normal. If you looked at the map several years ago plotted for the droughts of the time, you could paint the same disastrous future, too. The locations would have changed, though. Due to low prices and other effects, world production did not keep up with demand the last several years. That changed in 2008 when prices skyrocketed in a panic. Production jumped and made the situation for 2009 look much better than it did at the start of 2008.

Drought in the US? We are a big country, there are areas in drought every year. Drought and famine in Africa? Been reading that headline for decades. Kleptocracies and autocracies in Africa will keep us reading about those problems for decades more.

Production falling in Argentina? Drought would play a part, but they also slapped high export taxes on agricultural products recently to reduce domestic prices. Low prices beget low production, so production is also falling due to political policies there.

There is always potential for disaster and there is always potential for boom. Don't let scare mongering interrupt your sleep. There have always been problems, there always will be. Just keep them in perspective over time, and be prepared for the down times.

beeone wins the internet

beeone,

There's droughts every year but it's the scale and severity of them overall that is disturbing. Combine that with the economic situation and all the other problems in ag and it gives people real reason to be concerned IMO.

It just makes becoming more self sufficient a greater priority.

canuckistani- if all of their drafts suffer from the same kinds of bias is the fact that overall situation is full of gloom really something that matters?

I agree with runningtrails isn't that what we are trying to do here on the forum-we talk about our chickens, goats, etc...our garden seeds and gardens--we are all trying to find better ways of becoming more self sufficient. That is not to say that there are becoming more and more shortages in our country as well as other countries and are rising by varying and sometimes drastic degrees-we can not sit in fear waiting for something to happen, we have to move and make something happen that is positive for ourselves.I think yes we should be concerned about what is changing what is going to change and what we can do to make a difference.