Food security

[Ausmumof3]

Globally I mean. I think the US and Aus are relatively ok in terms of having food though it might not be nutritionally optimal. 
 

India has just put a ban on wheat exports.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/india-prohibits-wheat-exports-with-immediate-effect-2022-05-14/?taid=627f1fe3670a5f00015a665f&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Sri Lanka has had riots. Iran is currently having protests/riots over food prices. Is the follow on from escalating food prices automatically going to be civil unrest? 

 

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Is the follow on from escalating food prices automatically going to be civil unrest? 

Probably? There's a long history of people revolting when they can't feed themselves or their families. 

[Ausmumof3]

12 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Probably? There's a long history of people revolting when they can't feed themselves or their families. 

Sorry 😞 I’m clearly feeling doom and gloomy today! It was a dumb question. Price has jumped on all our usual bread products today. Lucky we can still afford to eat I guess.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Sorry 😞 I’m clearly feeling doom and gloomy today! It was a dumb question. Price has jumped on all our usual bread products today. Lucky we can still afford to eat I guess.

It's a dire time if you live in certain parts of the world. Like you said, the US and Australia are likely to be fine. I expect Canada, Mexico, and much of western Europe will be fine, as well, (the right combo of money and growing conditions for those places). 

The US isn't much concerned about nutritionally optimal food, lol. Our obesity rates are abysmal. 

Food prices in the US have been artificially low since Nixon was president. I have to admit that I don't have a lot of empathy for upper middle class people griping that frozen pizzas or Starbucks is too expensive now.   

I'm feeling cynical and grouchy; my apologies! 

[Arcadia]

23 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Globally I mean. I think the US and Aus are relatively ok in terms of having food though it might not be nutritionally optimal. 
India has just put a ban on wheat exports.

. Is the follow on from escalating food prices automatically going to be civil unrest? 

My country of origin don’t dare to even protest. At most they will just whine on social media. Majority of the food there are imported so my husband and I are kind of used to the food insecurity there. The govt there gave $100 voucher recently to offset the current inflation. As usual, those not poor enough to get more food vouchers and at the same time not rich enough to ride out the inflation feels the impact the most. If people live near Buddhist temples, they would go there when the temples serve free vegetarian meals. 
I haven’t really seen an impact on wheat yet from the war in Ukraine here. I get wheat flour and wheat products from the Korean or Japanese supermarkets though. The Buddhist temple in my region still gives a lot of food for their Sunday free lunch. My grandparents migrated from China to SE Asia because of famine. We migrated to the states because we were jobless where we were and there is no safety net (no food banks, no unemployment benefits)

[lewelma]

I just read something really depressing about nuclear war/winter and the impact on food in NZ. So it could get worse than just global shipping problems due to covid. Gulp.

[Melissa in Australia]

23 minutes ago, lewelma said:

I just read something really depressing about nuclear war/winter and the impact on food in NZ. So it could get worse than just global shipping problems due to covid. Gulp.

link please??

I saw something about nuclear winter and felt it is survivable at my latitude. you would be a similar latitude I think . The further south the better. Do you think that there would be any actual target in NZ? 

[Carrie12345]

I don’t believe the US is going to be peachy keen.  I think we can be better off than many, if we’re talking degrees of unrest, but not unscathed.  Our current harvest and planting cycles aren’t exactly doing great.

[Ethel Mertz]

49 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don’t believe the US is going to be peachy keen.  I think we can be better off than many, if we’re talking degrees of unrest, but not unscathed.  Our current harvest and planting cycles aren’t exactly doing great.

Plus, major drought conditions over US bread basket region, approaching dust bowl conditions and diesel/trucking  issues.

[KungFuPanda]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don’t believe the US is going to be peachy keen.  I think we can be better off than many, if we’re talking degrees of unrest, but not unscathed.  Our current harvest and planting cycles aren’t exactly doing great.

We had a weirdly long winter that delayed spring planting. I wasn’t paying attention and thought it was a local  phenomenon, but it seems to be an issue all over the place. 
 

I work for a landscaper and he orders plants/trees from the Carolinas and has them shipped to our landscape nursery every year. This year, the (normally conservative)shipping time proved too early and cold. There were shortages on many species of plants, and there’s some sort of wilt taking out eastern redbuds so landscapers are scrambling for an alternative. I know these are ‘just’ ornamentals, but there are still livelihoods at stake along that line. 
 

I know that my country has a serious food waste problem, so if the price increases and shortages can motivate people to change their habits something good could come from this hardship. We shouldn’t ever be letting fresh vegetables rot in our crisper drawers because we didn’t feel like cooking or planning properly. We’ve all done it, but making this a thing we don’t do can really help globally. 

[Carrie12345]

9 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

know that my country has a serious food waste problem, so if the price increases and shortages can motivate people to change their habits something good could come from this hardship. We shouldn’t ever be letting fresh vegetables rot in our crisper drawers because we didn’t feel like cooking or planning properly. We’ve all done it, but making this a thing we don’t do can really help globally. 

This has been a recent discussion in my house. Specifically, my younger boys are prone to “eyes bigger than their stomachs”, and missing the tiny avocado window. We’re making improvements in multiple areas. 

[KungFuPanda]

1 minute ago, Carrie12345 said:

This has been a recent discussion in my house. Specifically, my younger boys are prone to “eyes bigger than their stomachs”, and missing the tiny avocado window. We’re making improvements in multiple areas. 

About that avocado window. For the first time ever I purchased two avocados that do not seem to be ripening. Is this even a thing? I’ve never had this problem ever. It’s been over a week and they’re still rocks. 

[Carrie12345]

3 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

About that avocado window. For the first time ever I purchased two avocados that do not seem to be ripening. Is this even a thing? I’ve never had this problem ever. It’s been over a week and they’re still rocks. 

I don’t know man, I don’t eat them. But my daughter showed me 2 the other day that had GINORMOUS pits and little fruit.  At $1-2 each, that really stinks.

[KungFuPanda]

7 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don’t know man, I don’t eat them. But my daughter showed me 2 the other day that had GINORMOUS pits and little fruit.  At $1-2 each, that really stinks.

I once made the mistake of buying a Florida avocado, so I feel her pain . . . giant pit, little fruit, and no flavor. 

[Ausmumof3]

55 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

We had a weirdly long winter that delayed spring planting. I wasn’t paying attention and thought it was a local  phenomenon, but it seems to be an issue all over the place. 
 

I work for a landscaper and he orders plants/trees from the Carolinas and has them shipped to our landscape nursery every year. This year, the (normally conservative)shipping time proved too early and cold. There were shortages on many species of plants, and there’s some sort of wilt taking out eastern redbuds so landscapers are scrambling for an alternative. I know these are ‘just’ ornamentals, but there are still livelihoods at stake along that line. 
 

I know that my country has a serious food waste problem, so if the price increases and shortages can motivate people to change their habits something good could come from this hardship. We shouldn’t ever be letting fresh vegetables rot in our crisper drawers because we didn’t feel like cooking or planning properly. We’ve all done it, but making this a thing we don’t do can really help globally. 

I get so cranky with myself when I waste stuff but it still happens. I think to some extent this is the result of the weekly shopping model. If you shop daily and buy for that day it’s much harder to overdo it massively or lose track of what needs eating. But we’re not in a place where it’s possible to do that here and we have a ridiculously oversized fridge so we fill it up.

[Visitor1]

I live in Europe.  I can't find organic wheat or any other wheat, which is very important for us because I always make my own bread. 

We don't use sunflower oil but because there isn't any sunflower oil people are taking olive oil instead. Which we use a lot.

If you can get wheat or oil. You are only allowed to take 2 wheat packages or oil 

The foodprices are getting very high here as well. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Visitor1

[Lecka]

So maybe I’m stupid, it’s very possible.

When I lived in Kansas my impression was that trade wars and tariffs and exchange rates were risks for wheat farmers.  
 

https://www.kansascommerce.gov/international/kansas-international-trade-summary/
 

This is showing international exports for wheat from Kansas.  

It looks like 2020 was low and things rebounded in 2021.  
 

I understand Ukraine’s wheat production is a huge, huge loss, but can’t some of this be spread around over time, and farmers plant more wheat next year in other places as the price rises, and then that will help the prices to stabilize?  

 

[importswim]

2 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

About that avocado window. For the first time ever I purchased two avocados that do not seem to be ripening. Is this even a thing? I’ve never had this problem ever. It’s been over a week and they’re still rocks. 

Do you have a brown paper bag and an apple (or banana?) You can put the avocadoes in the bag with one of them and they'll ripen faster. After they're ripe put them in your fridge and they should be good for a week (at least that's what works for me).

I am closely following this topic whilst trying to maintain the balance of keeping a back-stock of food but not hoarding and not wasting anything. It's a lot to think about.

[Murphy101]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I don’t believe the US is going to be peachy keen.  I think we can be better off than many, if we’re talking degrees of unrest, but not unscathed.  Our current harvest and planting cycles aren’t exactly doing great.

I agree. And many many things under multiple administrations both state and federal have been cut repeatedly to bare bones or entirely and we are starting to see a ripple affect of living on the edge for cheap efficiency with little to zero margin and no backup redundancy to make up for the inevitable problems of life.

be it not enough formula sources, not enough transport paths and depots, or whatever. We are starting to see the domino effect of multiple fractures leading to structural failures. 

[Murphy101]

22 minutes ago, importswim said:

Do you have a brown paper bag and an apple (or banana?) You can put the avocadoes in the bag with one of them and they'll ripen faster. After they're ripe put them in your fridge and they should be good for a week (at least that's what works for me).

I am closely following this topic whilst trying to maintain the balance of keeping a back-stock of food but not hoarding and not wasting anything. It's a lot to think about.

It is a LOT to think about.  It can feel overwhelming for people who have never had to do it before.  And it’s very time consuming. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Murphy101

[importswim]

2 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

It is a LOT to think about.  It can feel overwhelming for people who have never had to do it before.  And it’s very time consuming. 

Yes! I'm privileged in that I have the time, energy, space, and financial resources (though not much of each...enough) to be able to think through it. 

[Faith-manor]

I did make a huge improvement here with food waste. It was by accident. Our refrigerator went up, and we needed a new one. Since we will be leaving this house in four years and the house will not sell for anything near what we have invested in it, we thought about what kind of appliance to buy that we would want to take with us since it would not worth leaving it behind. We wanted a small refrigerator for our basement "bachelor pad" in the retirement house since the upstairs kitchen has a mammoth refrigerator. So we bought an 11 cubic ft fridge. We have a chest freezer, and since it is often just Mark and I now with adult boys coming and going randomly, I only cook for two most of the time. It has one small crisper drawer. With condiments, butter, A half gallon of milk, sour cream, and cheese in it, I am limited in how much "stock up" of vegetables and fruits I can do. This has been fantastic. If we buy it, it gets eaten right away. Since there is a small supermarket just a few minutes from my mother in law's house, I often just have Mark pick up the fresh veggies I want to cook with or for salad on the day of. He goes right by the store on his way home from his mom's so no car fuel is wasted doing this. We rarely have anything go bad or not get eaten in a timely manner.

I hope we can keep this habit when we move and not be tempted to over stock that huge fridge. He of my game plans with that since Alabama has three growing seasons is to have several raised beds and keep tomatoes, salad greens, bell peppers, and broccoli going as much as possible because those are the things we use a ton of, and we are 30 minutes from a supermarket or farmer's market.

I worry very much about food insecurity in the world. Wars for resources have been so common throughout human history. I think we may be on the cusp of multiple food and water wars.

[Murphy101]

5 minutes ago, importswim said:

Yes! I'm privileged in that I have the time, energy, space, and financial resources (though not much of each...enough) to be able to think through it. 

I wouldn’t call it privilege for me to have been poor enough to have had to do it before regardless of the overall economy. LOL But dadbum it. I liked prospering enough to go to Panera for coffee with my friends every week for $10 a month. I canceled that over 6 months ago. I canceled all my streaming services and the entire family (including those not living here) shares a PLEX account.  And we have had a LOT of house and vehicle and health expenses come up the last year that absolutely could not be put off or ignored. I’m beyond grateful the somehow we managed to take care of the most necessity items. But it means what little financial margin we had is entirely gone.  Which makes me downright jittery about taking any more financial hits. All I can do is my best to set up to hunker down and ride this out making the best of things we can.

[prairiewindmomma]

I am at the farmer’s market this morning. Of the 50+ booths here, only 3 actually had fruit or veg for purchase this morning. One had a small folding table of beets, rhubarb and sugar snap peas. One had strawberries (which I think they bought wholesale and are reselling because we had yet another frost this week—nobody’s berries are ready). One had green onions, beets, and spinach and fermented veg they were selling for $12/pint. There were maybe a dozen booths selling nursery plants. 
 

Compared to this time last year, it’s crazy. It’s been a hard growing spring, but there should be tons of early spring crops available for purchase. There’s no way our community could ride this out with “buy local”.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 hours ago, Lecka said:

So maybe I’m stupid, it’s very possible.

When I lived in Kansas my impression was that trade wars and tariffs and exchange rates were risks for wheat farmers.  
 

https://www.kansascommerce.gov/international/kansas-international-trade-summary/
 

This is showing international exports for wheat from Kansas.  

It looks like 2020 was low and things rebounded in 2021.  
 

I understand Ukraine’s wheat production is a huge, huge loss, but can’t some of this be spread around over time, and farmers plant more wheat next year in other places as the price rises, and then that will help the prices to stabilize?  

 

Part of the problem is we’re having multiple crop failures, globally. Russia looted Ukraine’s wheat. India and Pakistan had drought limiting their winter wheat quantity and quality and have banned exports. The Great Plains in the US is also in drought—I wouldn’t expect much of a harvest this year. 
 

Now, add to that the fertilizer issues that will not be resolved for 2023 and a lot of the crop surpluses stored away have been exhausted and…..

[Ting Tang]

My husband has been warning me about this for a long time.  I used to think he was extreme.  He has fruit orchards and enjoys gardening and growing vegetables.  Now I am grateful.  Most of what I get in the store is already rotting.  😞  So we're paying extra for food that is already spoiling. 

[importswim]

1 hour ago, Murphy101 said:

I wouldn’t call it privilege for me to have been poor enough to have had to do it before regardless of the overall economy. LOL But dadbum it. I liked prospering enough to go to Panera for coffee with my friends every week for $10 a month. I canceled that over 6 months ago. I canceled all my streaming services and the entire family (including those not living here) shares a PLEX account.  And we have had a LOT of house and vehicle and health expenses come up the last year that absolutely could not be put off or ignored. I’m beyond grateful the somehow we managed to take care of the most necessity items. But it means what little financial margin we had is entirely gone.  Which makes me downright jittery about taking any more financial hits. All I can do is my best to set up to hunker down and ride this out making the best of things we can.

I'm so sorry to read this. We've been in a similar spot for a number of years and are just now climbing out a bit. I felt equally sick and despondent over financial hit after financial hit and it felt like we were never going to get above water or be far from paddling furiously. It totally sucks. I'm constantly waiting for the next shoe to drop. It's very stressful.

I don't work and homeschool the kiddos so I tried to look at that as a privilege. My response about privilege was more to help myself orient my own state of mind (and wasn't a commentary on anyone else!) The fact that I have the time/energy/etc... to be forward thinking on it and possibly do *something* to mitigate it beforehand is a privilege compared to those that can't. 

[Murphy101]

40 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I am at the farmer’s market this morning. Of the 50+ booths here, only 3 actually had fruit or veg for purchase this morning. One had a small folding table of beets, rhubarb and sugar snap peas. One had strawberries (which I think they bought wholesale and are reselling because we had yet another frost this week—nobody’s berries are ready). One had green onions, beets, and spinach and fermented veg they were selling for $12/pint. There were maybe a dozen booths selling nursery plants. 
 

Compared to this time last year, it’s crazy. It’s been a hard growing spring, but there should be tons of early spring crops available for purchase. There’s no way our community could ride this out with “buy local”.

I have been saying for at least 10 years that the isolationism in “buy local” would cause deaths.

Buy local is just natural when apples are in season. It’s a nightmare of scurvy and other sickness to flat out starvation in winter or in areas that rely on trade to eat at all.

And I can’t feed my neighbor if I’m starving myself. The first step is always to stop trading what you need to maintain your own household. That doesn’t change on a state or national level.

and that’s how social unrest starts. Like I said. I’m seeing how lean it is at the height of harvest time in my breadbasket state and thinking it’s going to be a very lean winter for a lot of people. The states and Australia might weather it better than many other places but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be still be plenty rough here. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Murphy101

[Murphy101]

3 minutes ago, importswim said:

I'm so sorry to read this. We've been in a similar spot for a number of years and are just now climbing out a bit. I felt equally sick and despondent over financial hit after financial hit and it felt like we were never going to get above water or be far from paddling furiously. It totally sucks. I'm constantly waiting for the next shoe to drop. It's very stressful.

I don't work and homeschool the kiddos so I tried to look at that as a privilege. My response about privilege was more to help myself orient my own state of mind (and wasn't a commentary on anyone else!) The fact that I have the time/energy/etc... to be forward thinking on it and possibly do *something* to mitigate it beforehand is a privilege compared to those that can't. 

Oh I completely agree. I wasn’t insulted at all. Sorry if it came across that way. I just mean more like - while I am grateful for my abilities - for many not so privileged or experienced as me this is almost like a gradual culture shock.  And they are very much struggling to constantly adapt in the tightening economic belt with every new notch.

[Clarita]

5 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

About that avocado window. For the first time ever I purchased two avocados that do not seem to be ripening. Is this even a thing? I’ve never had this problem ever. It’s been over a week and they’re still rocks. 

Yes, it happened to me once. They molded before ever getting soft. I don't know what happened.

[73349]

If your avocado does ripen but you're not going to use it that day, you can put the whole thing in the freezer, and later thaw it for half a day before cutting it open. Before I knew this, I think a third to half the avocados I bought would go to waste.

I think that just as the lack of sunflower oil means more demand for olive oil, lack of wheat will put pressure on rice, barley, and buckwheat. I hope things go well logistically to ensure enough calories for the regions that need them.

[lewelma]

9 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

link please??

I saw something about nuclear winter and felt it is survivable at my latitude. you would be a similar latitude I think . The further south the better. Do you think that there would be any actual target in NZ? 

https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/sustained-resilience-the-impact-of-nuclear-war-on-new-zealand-and-how-to-mitigate-catastrophe/

This came out in April from the University of Otago, and then 2 days ago Radio NZ news did a podcast on 'The Detail'. 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018841654/do-we-really-need-to-prepare-for-nuclear-war

NZ is not the target, but they are predicting if the Northern Hemisphere has a nuclear war, there would be a massive trade disruption which would force NZ to live without imports (think insulin and you get a sense of the problem). They are suggesting that we need to be doing some planning for this scenario, or maybe the government already has but it is classified. 

[Melissa in Australia]

9 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Part of the problem is we’re having multiple crop failures, globally. Russia looted Ukraine’s wheat. India and Pakistan had drought limiting their winter wheat quantity and quality and have banned exports. The Great Plains in the US is also in drought—I wouldn’t expect much of a harvest this year. 
 

Now, add to that the fertilizer issues that will not be resolved for 2023 and a lot of the crop surpluses stored away have been exhausted and…..

Australia had a bumper wheat harvest this year. Australia is one of the big export countries 

But Australia is a very very long way away from world markets, 

I have seen multiple articles saying if countries like USA and some European countries greatly reduced or stopped turnig half their grain harvest into fuel there would be no  world grain crisis

[prairiewindmomma]

23 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I have seen multiple articles saying if countries like USA and some European countries greatly reduced or stopped turnig half their grain harvest into fuel there would be no  world grain crisis

It’s true that a chunk of US farmland grows corn which is turned into ethanol fuel. An even larger chunk is corn and soy used for animal feed. The US farm subsidy market would need major changes to incent farmers to plant differently. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Update on global wheat supply forecast: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/world-wheat-squeeze-set-worsen-into-2023-price-risks-remain-braun-2022-05-12/

[Melissa in Australia]

13 hours ago, lewelma said:

https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/sustained-resilience-the-impact-of-nuclear-war-on-new-zealand-and-how-to-mitigate-catastrophe/

This came out in April from the University of Otago, and then 2 days ago Radio NZ news did a podcast on 'The Detail'. 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018841654/do-we-really-need-to-prepare-for-nuclear-war

NZ is not the target, but they are predicting if the Northern Hemisphere has a nuclear war, there would be a massive trade disruption which would force NZ to live without imports (think insulin and you get a sense of the problem). They are suggesting that we need to be doing some planning for this scenario, or maybe the government already has but it is classified. 

I actually found the first link fairly positive. Way better than some of the things I had looked at. thank you very much. 

a great advantage NZ has  is it is  so small that I would imagine it wouldn't be so hard to distribute food, especially as there is so much water for using boats. Of course life would be different. 

Here the distances are so vast that transport would be a HUGE problem for food distribution 

[Lecka]

8 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Update on global wheat supply forecast: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/world-wheat-squeeze-set-worsen-into-2023-price-risks-remain-braun-2022-05-12/

Wow, I had no idea.  

[Faith-manor]

1 minute ago, Lecka said:

Wow, I had no idea.  

I read it too, and was shocked. I knew we had issues with lower yield due to climate conditions. But, I didn't know the actual numbers which are worse than I expected.

[Faith-manor]

I just ordered some Mylar food storage bags and oxygen absorbers. The price of the alternative pasta and flour that my son in law and I need is going up rapidly, and availability had been very hit and miss. We have ordered a LOT online, and I am transferring to the Mylar bags with o.a.s because from what I have read, this is the best option for long term storage. Thankfully the Bama house has an absolute ton of storage space.

[shawthorne44]

Yeah, I've known this was coming for a couple of years.   I live rural surrounded by farms.  There has been a noticeable lack of planting (fallow fields) and much less livestock.   I've never been a farmer, so for me to notice while just driving around means it has been extreme.   And we've had plenty of water for the last several years.   My best friend grew up on a farm, has a farm and used to work in soil conservation for the gov. and knows about these things.   She said people were letting their fields go fallow because of the fertilizer prices.  They would lose money by planting so they didn't.    Most of those that are planting have switched to much cheaper fertilizer.

Edited May 15, 2022 by shawthorne44

[saraha]

Driving around here, fields that once grew corn or soy beans for animal feed are being leased to solar companies. Huge swaths of solar panels are popping up everywhere. In two cases, the farmer is older and no one wants to take over the farm so they are leasing as a stable source of income with no work on their part. A solid retirement income is very enticing when too old to keep up, but it reduces the amount of available acreage 

[Selkie]

14 minutes ago, saraha said:

Driving around here, fields that once grew corn or soy beans for animal feed are being leased to solar companies. Huge swaths of solar panels are popping up everywhere. In two cases, the farmer is older and no one wants to take over the farm so they are leasing as a stable source of income with no work on their part. A solid retirement income is very enticing when too old to keep up, but it reduces the amount of available acreage 

Same here, or wind farms with the humongous windmills.

[KungFuPanda]

I read somewhere that the largest irrigated crop in the US is turf grass. It seems like a big impact could be made if everyone who could planted a small garden. It would help take some pressure off the commercial food supply. Not everyone would be successful, but even a puny lettuce crop, or a blueberry bush in place of an azalea, can do SOMETHING. 

[Faith-manor]

28 minutes ago, saraha said:

Driving around here, fields that once grew corn or soy beans for animal feed are being leased to solar companies. Huge swaths of solar panels are popping up everywhere. In two cases, the farmer is older and no one wants to take over the farm so they are leasing as a stable source of income with no work on their part. A solid retirement income is very enticing when too old to keep up, but it reduces the amount of available acreage 

And here, people are being paid by farm subsidy to NOT farm. No joke. There is literally income to be made to keep farm land and not farm it. A lot of these policies are going to be detrimental going forward.

[BusyMom5]

We live in a hilly rural area with thin, rocky soil.  Its not suitable for planting, but most people raise cattle. Cattle prices are too low.  We have a family farm, I heritage most of the necessary equipment,  and 5 years later, we can barely turn a profit.  Things are just too high- fertilizer for the field (we aren't putting any one, its about double last year), diesel for the tractor,  feed prices are up about 30%, and even little things like vaccinations,  ear tags, fencing supplies have gone up ( though not as much).  Parts for equipment are hard to find and expensive.   Farmers don't get days off.  They work all year round and get paid pennies.  If we had to buy the farm land and the tractor, we wouldn't be able to make any profit at all.

We have noticed a lot of people putting in chicken houses!  Free-range eggs, meat birds- expensive stuff to sell to city-dwellers in niche markets.  One friend is trying to build up her Wagu herd.  Those type things may be more lucrative right now, but dependant on a very small market.

[Faith-manor]

Farmers have it bad! All the policies the AG department has benefit the big corporations, the middle man distributors, and they get paid pittance for the actual product. I feel like until there is an overhaul in the AG Dept, things will get worse not better. It is just crazy that the distributor who puts eggs in cartons gets way more money than the farmer that produces those eggs, same with milk bottlers, etc. Really tired of corporations running the country.

[Spy Car]

7 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I just ordered some Mylar food storage bags and oxygen absorbers. The price of the alternative pasta and flour that my son in law and I need is going up rapidly, and availability had been very hit and miss. We have ordered a LOT online, and I am transferring to the Mylar bags with o.a.s because from what I have read, this is the best option for long term storage. Thankfully the Bama house has an absolute ton of storage space.

What sort of flour do you need?

Bill

[Faith-manor]

43 minutes ago, Spy Car said:

What sort of flour do you need?

Bill

LOL, I don't have her list in front of me (there are several that she uses), but I think GF  buckwheat was one. There are several brands, but many still come with a wheat allergy warning due to being processed not only in the same facility as wheat but also on the same machinery. She makes a buckewheat crepe (Gallette) that is really yummy, and fills it with diced chicken and stiry fry veggies for him. She did find a place to order it from, and they have it in stock, and are shipping it to her. So phew! His diet is so limited. My poor son in law can't have mammal meat, seafood, night shades, dairy, or wheat. There hasn't been a lot of variety in his diet, but he likes Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spices and thankfully, garlic, gumeric, curcumin, and ginger are fine.

If we can't get his flours, I will absolutely make a list and ask you if they are available near you! I am not above begging, and will pay handsomely for the assistance.

[Ann.without.an.e]

8 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I just ordered some Mylar food storage bags and oxygen absorbers. The price of the alternative pasta and flour that my son in law and I need is going up rapidly, and availability had been very hit and miss. We have ordered a LOT online, and I am transferring to the Mylar bags with o.a.s because from what I have read, this is the best option for long term storage. Thankfully the Bama house has an absolute ton of storage space.

Buckets with gamma seals are also a great choice for food storage. That is what I use for my gf flour. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

12 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

LOL, I don't have her list in front of me (there are several that she uses), but I think GF  buckwheat was one. There are several brands, but many still come with a wheat allergy warning due to being processed not only in the same facility as wheat but also on the same machinery. She makes a buckewheat crepe (Gallette) that is really yummy, and fills it with diced chicken and stiry fry veggies for him. She did find a place to order it from, and they have it in stock, and are shipping it to her. So phew! His diet is so limited. My poor son in law can't have mammal meat, seafood, night shades, dairy, or wheat. There hasn't been a lot of variety in his diet, but he likes Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spices and thankfully, garlic, gumeric, curcumin, and ginger are fine.

If we can't get his flours, I will absolutely make a list and ask you if they are available near you! I am not above begging, and will pay handsomely for the assistance.

I'm allergic to seafood, dairy, beef, and wheat so I also eat a lot of mediterranean and middle eastern food. The crepes sound super yummy. 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e