Food Shortage Thread

[Fred]

so, I'm looking for some facts as well and having limited luck. I do see here that most things are 50% higher and the sale prices and lower brands seem harder to get. I.e. there was always expensive pasta noodles, at 2x price, but now that is all there is, and usually 12 oz vs. 16 oz in 3/4 filled box.

I followed some links and did some research that says we're headed for massive crop failures and herds are shrunken. Then I looked at the official websites and see all is well (maybe down 8%). But, then I hear what we see isn't real because we're buying down end of last years surplus and the shock is yet to come, that futures and current prices are inverted, etc... ? But, I cannot really find anything I trust on either side. Like many the conspiracy sounds eerie and cool, but is it real? I see photos of dead corn, drought maps, hear of lack of fertilizer, etc... but where I drive and hunt I see drought, but have so every few la nina years anyway? anybody got any good facts one way or the other? How about those in farmland seeing what is going on around them across the nation?

The only thing that grabbed my attention (besides what you have mentioned in the stores) was the sign in the feed store asking people to get the hay orders in quickly because the local farmers had very little hay available this year.

It is also tougher to find chicks. I think this might be because more people are deciding to try their hand at raising chickens.

We lived on a hobby farm in the midwest for a few years and raised chickens, gardens, bees and two pigs (Too sad - Can't understand it, we "named" them Hammie and Bacon and it was still way too hard in the end:) I didn't realize pigs had such personalities - I felt as though I had betrayed them) Anyway, we now live in ID in a suburb (dread of all dreads), but I found it funny how a lot of folks decided to try their hands at chickens during the last couple of years only to give it up after a very short run - I've never seen SO many "free" roosters on Craigslist! They all want the eggs, but no one wants the hard job of dispatching extra roos.

I don't kill them because I don't eat them. Plucking is a lot of work. Old chickens are tough. I don't skin them because I like the skin. I can buy a young bird in the store, already plucked, for cheap. There are plucking machines, but I don't have one. So when I have a chicken that I no longer want, if nobody wants to take it for free, I just turn it loose. I have never seen one the next day. Something ate it. Coyote, mountain lion, eagle, hawk, who knows? Who cares? It didn't go to waste.

[LostCreekAcres]

so, I'm looking for some facts as well and having limited luck. I do see here that most things are 50% higher and the sale prices and lower brands seem harder to get. I.e. there was always expensive pasta noodles, at 2x price, but now that is all there is, and usually 12 oz vs. 16 oz in 3/4 filled box.

I followed some links and did some research that says we're headed for massive crop failures and herds are shrunken. Then I looked at the official websites and see all is well (maybe down 8%). But, then I hear what we see isn't real because we're buying down end of last years surplus and the shock is yet to come, that futures and current prices are inverted, etc... ? But, I cannot really find anything I trust on either side. Like many the conspiracy sounds eerie and cool, but is it real? I see photos of dead corn, drought maps, hear of lack of fertilizer, etc... but where I drive and hunt I see drought, but have so every few la nina years anyway? anybody got any good facts one way or the other? How about those in farmland seeing what is going on around them across the nation?

The only thing that grabbed my attention (besides what you have mentioned in the stores) was the sign in the feed store asking people to get the hay orders in quickly because the local farmers had very little hay available this year.

It is also tougher to find chicks. I think this might be because more people are deciding to try their hand at raising chickens.

We lived on a hobby farm in the midwest for a few years and raised chickens, gardens, bees and two pigs (Too sad - Can't understand it, we "named" them Hammie and Bacon and it was still way too hard in the end:) I didn't realize pigs had such personalities - I felt as though I had betrayed them) Anyway, we now live in ID in a suburb (dread of all dreads), but I found it funny how a lot of folks decided to try their hands at chickens during the last couple of years only to give it up after a very short run - I've never seen SO many "free" roosters on Craigslist! They all want the eggs, but no one wants the hard job of dispatching extra roos.

I don't kill them because I don't eat them. Plucking is a lot of work. Old chickens are tough. I don't skin them because I like the skin. I can buy a young bird in the store, already plucked, for cheap. There are plucking machines, but I don't have one. So when I have a chicken that I no longer want, if nobody wants to take it for free, I just turn it loose. I have never seen one the next day. Something ate it. Coyote, mountain lion, eagle, hawk, who knows? Who cares? It didn't go to waste.

When we lived on the farm, we let the gals live until they didn't. The roosters were safe unless they got mean or were hurting the girls (too many roos, not enough gals), then they got dispatched. However, in our new suburb, not allowed to have roos:( Ya, we tried cooking one of the old roos, yuck.

[Jason]

so, I'm looking for some facts as well and having limited luck. I do see here that most things are 50% higher and the sale prices and lower brands seem harder to get. I.e. there was always expensive pasta noodles, at 2x price, but now that is all there is, and usually 12 oz vs. 16 oz in 3/4 filled box.

I followed some links and did some research that says we're headed for massive crop failures and herds are shrunken. Then I looked at the official websites and see all is well (maybe down 8%). But, then I hear what we see isn't real because we're buying down end of last years surplus and the shock is yet to come, that futures and current prices are inverted, etc... ? But, I cannot really find anything I trust on either side. Like many the conspiracy sounds eerie and cool, but is it real? I see photos of dead corn, drought maps, hear of lack of fertilizer, etc... but where I drive and hunt I see drought, but have so every few la nina years anyway? anybody got any good facts one way or the other? How about those in farmland seeing what is going on around them across the nation?

The only thing that grabbed my attention (besides what you have mentioned in the stores) was the sign in the feed store asking people to get the hay orders in quickly because the local farmers had very little hay available this year.

It is also tougher to find chicks. I think this might be because more people are deciding to try their hand at raising chickens.

We lived on a hobby farm in the midwest for a few years and raised chickens, gardens, bees and two pigs (Too sad - Can't understand it, we "named" them Hammie and Bacon and it was still way too hard in the end:) I didn't realize pigs had such personalities - I felt as though I had betrayed them) Anyway, we now live in ID in a suburb (dread of all dreads), but I found it funny how a lot of folks decided to try their hands at chickens during the last couple of years only to give it up after a very short run - I've never seen SO many "free" roosters on Craigslist! They all want the eggs, but no one wants the hard job of dispatching extra roos.

I don't kill them because I don't eat them. Plucking is a lot of work. Old chickens are tough. I don't skin them because I like the skin. I can buy a young bird in the store, already plucked, for cheap. There are plucking machines, but I don't have one. So when I have a chicken that I no longer want, if nobody wants to take it for free, I just turn it loose. I have never seen one the next day. Something ate it. Coyote, mountain lion, eagle, hawk, who knows? Who cares? It didn't go to waste.

I built my own plucker (plans from good chap on the east coast - Maine)…even the toughest chicken isn’t too bad canned…

https://www.planetwhizbang.com/poultry-processing

Herrick is plum full of good ideas if you are into gardening and homesteading…and real solid Christian fellow to boot…

I’m a fan of his gardening ideas as well (beds, plastic, etc)

[Fred]

Eggs $8 per dozen wholesale

$25 per live chicken

[HVDC]

The only thing that grabbed my attention (besides what you have mentioned in the stores) was the sign in the feed store asking people to get the hay orders in quickly because the local farmers had very little hay available this year.

It is also tougher to find chicks. I think this might be because more people are deciding to try their hand at raising chickens.

We lived on a hobby farm in the midwest for a few years and raised chickens, gardens, bees and two pigs (Too sad - Can't understand it, we "named" them Hammie and Bacon and it was still way too hard in the end:) I didn't realize pigs had such personalities - I felt as though I had betrayed them) Anyway, we now live in ID in a suburb (dread of all dreads), but I found it funny how a lot of folks decided to try their hands at chickens during the last couple of years only to give it up after a very short run - I've never seen SO many "free" roosters on Craigslist! They all want the eggs, but no one wants the hard job of dispatching extra roos.

I don't kill them because I don't eat them. Plucking is a lot of work. Old chickens are tough. I don't skin them because I like the skin. I can buy a young bird in the store, already plucked, for cheap. There are plucking machines, but I don't have one. So when I have a chicken that I no longer want, if nobody wants to take it for free, I just turn it loose. I have never seen one the next day. Something ate it. Coyote, mountain lion, eagle, hawk, who knows? Who cares? It didn't go to waste.

When we lived on the farm, we let the gals live until they didn't. The roosters were safe unless they got mean or were hurting the girls (too many roos, not enough gals), then they got dispatched. However, in our new suburb, not allowed to have roos:( Ya, we tried cooking one of the old roos, yuck.

Young ones are okay.

And easier to pluck too.

Sir H

[Severus]

I was born and raised on a mom and pop chicken and dairy farm ( we also had pigs ) back in the old days.
This is how we did chickens:

My dad would make a small pile of wood and light it on fire right by one of those old clotheslines you can pull along, with a bag of clothespins within easy reach. Then he would lay one of those old metal laundry wash tubs on top and fill it with water. While waiting for the water to boil, he would go get his tree stump set aside just for this purpose, along with his hatchet. When the water boiled, he would grab a chicken by the feet, swing the chicken over and slap the head down very hard onto the stump. Then, with the hatchet in the other hand, he would chop the head off. At that grisly point, still holding onto the feet, he would lay down the hatchet, submerge the headless bird into the boiling water for a few seconds, and immediately hang it up by the feet with a clothespin in order to drain the blood, and then pulled down the line to make space for the next poor critter.

He would do this over and over again, always with great precision, efficiency and speed. Before he was done, quite a pile of heads had grown by the stump that would actually move all over the place as the eyes rolled around, and with the beaks making as if to cluck with no sound. As a child this was really really weird to me. In later years I wondered if the heads at the french guillotine on La Place du la Concord did the same thing.

It was my mother's job to pluck the chickens by hand and otherwise butcher them.

My mom and dad would run the chickens out of the coop at least once a week in order to get rid of black widow spiders and snakes. I guess that made them free range. My favorite part of chicken farming were the little chicks living under the big lamp in a special shed just for them. They were so funny to watch and so stupid.

We had a great many barncats and one bobcat on that farm. Somehow they never got to the chickens. But the bobcat got a stray dog once that tried to take a bite of a barn cat's newborn kittens. She had just had a litter of all stillborn kittens herself, and when she saw the dog getting into another cats' kittens, she went berserk and jumping on the dogs back she sunk her teeth into his neck and her claws wherever she could. The dog went yelping and running for his life so far til I couldn't see him anymore. Later on the bob came back. But never saw the dog again.

Ate a lot of chicken back then. Ate a lot of raw dairy, too, and then our home cured hams. Those were good eats and those were the days.

[Fred]

Walmart announces coming shortages and higher prices

[JuneBug12000]

Couple of bits:

I live near farmers in Idaho. Potato, wheat, etc. Old farmer next door (retired 70s) says he's never seen a winter like this. He says they have to get the potatoes in by June 1 at the latest. They normally plant them mid April. We finally had the snow drifts melt the last week or two. But still had snow yesterday again.

As for chickens, no need to have the creepy experience with the heads. Get a couple of funnels and put the chicken in upside down (head first.) The blood rushes to the brain and they are calm. Poke the neck to bleed out and they don't bat an eye.) When dead cut off the head.

[JuneBug12000]

I should have made note, my husband works at a feed store and the hay is almost gone. Won't be another week.

[Fred]

[Fred]

Last year's drought is over.
https://www.digitaljournal.com/business ... ld/article

Farmers in Kansas are abandoning their winter wheat crops after a severe drought and damaging cold ravaged farms.

On a three-day tour of the state, the biggest U.S. wheat producer, Reuters found that some farmers were intentionally spraying wheat fields with crop-killing chemicals, betting the grain is not worth harvesting. Other farmers are turning cattle out to graze the meager fields.

Abandoning fields will lead to a smaller U.S. wheat supply in the world’s No. 5 wheat exporter, with stocks seen falling to a 16-year low. Nationally, according to Business Live, winter-wheat farmers plan to abandon 33 percent of the acres they planted, the highest percentage since World War 1, the US Department of Agriculture said in a May 12 report.

[Momma J]

Numerous coworkers have mentioned that it is getting tougher to find specific brands of foods that they like. And still out of 45 employees, only three of us have any type of garden. Close to 60% live on at least 1/2 acre. Several have 30+ acres.

They claim that they are too busy... or that their gardens never do well.... But they are extremely thankful for the produce that we bring in.

I wish I had more land so that I could plant grains... Instead, we store what we can.

[Ymarsakar]

Fred, it is kind of amazing watching how an exceptional nation like USSA is being chastised for warmongering and other sins.

This would have been far beyond my imagination or expectations in 2006 or 2012. I am surprised.

Surprised that a nation can be so arrogant they think they can win a genocidal war against a true god, just because they have nato, the mic, and dukes. Sayonarra mortals.

[mudflap]

Fred, it is kind of amazing watching how an exceptional nation like USSA is being chastised for warmongering and other sins.

This would have been far beyond my imagination or expectations in 2006 or 2012. I am surprised.

Surprised that a nation can be so arrogant they think they can win a genocidal war against a true god, just because they have nato, the mic, and dukes. Sayonarra mortals.

yes.

this article perfectly sums it up, leaving out the soon-to-be-verified conspiracy - ahem - "theories" (give the theories 6
months, and they'll all turn out to be true, IMO.... but I digress):

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation ... n-ukraine/

“Following the ouster of Mr. Trump in 2020, this new-new-left had exactly what it had been clamoring for, a liberal Democrat in the White House. Given the sense of impending catastrophe at present, it may be difficult to remember precisely how much sniveling @#!!$#!% went into selling Joe Biden.” — Rob Urie

Have you noticed that the president of Ukraine (or, governor of America’s fifty-first state), Mr. Zelensky, has been globe-trotting for weeks: London, Helsinki, Paris, Hiroshima? That’s because this is one of those months when years happen; the world is changing at hyper-speed. He seems to be running scared, a little bit, trying to keep ahead of the changing game. What sounded like a great idea to a certain claque of so-called neo-cons in our country — to use Ukraine as a bear trap — has instead rather suddenly revealed Europe’s and America’s manifold bankruptcies and revolted the whole rest of the world outside of Western Civ. Oh, the wonder and nausea!

Try to imagine Mr. Zelensky’s predicament. Mighty America and redoubtable Europe conned the former comedian to thinking that if he went along with a genius scheme to ruin Russia and knock Vlad Putin off the global gameboard, his sad-sack country would be transformed into something like Ukro-Disneyworld, while he, Mr. Z, would be lionized and made rich beyond his wildest imaginings. His backup was the greatest hegemonic power the world has ever seen. The game was called Let’s You and Him Fight.

The poor schlemiel fell for it. He let NATO (that is, the USA) set-up, equip, and train the largest army in Europe, including battalions of bad-@#$, hard-core Ukro-Nazis — who had previously been so useful in the American-sponsored 2014 Maidan “color revolution.” Mr. Z followed the US State Department’s orders to rain down rockets and artillery on Russian-speakers who lived in his own eastern provinces. He formally applied for membership in the NATO club. His country received billions of US dollars without audit oversight, just screaming to be creamed off by Ukraine’s leadership — who, after all, deserved a little something for all these goings-along. What could go wrong?

Thus, Western Civ kicked off Europe’s biggest hot war since the 1940s. So, in February, 2022, Mr. Putin had enough of the monkey business on his “front porch” and sent in a clean-up crew. Game on! The US neo-cons were ready to feed countless Ukrainian troops into a meat grinder that would, theoretically, exhaust the will and resources of the execrable bear and yield countless benefits reinforcing our dominant position in the world. Our hapless NATO “partners” went along with the program, despite being asked to commit economic suicide for the greater good of the alliance (or something like that). Anyway, they didn’t need that filthy Russian nat-gas. They were going “green” (Klaus Schwab said so, didn’t he?)

Meanwhile, the citizens of our country were groomed to perfection by the US Propaganda-Industrial Complex screaming “Russia, Russia, Russia,” at the behest of opinion-leader Hillary Clinton, a wannabe president. The news media demanded crucifixion for her opponent, Mr. Trump, who had idly tossed out the heinous idea that the USA and Russia could cultivate a friendly relationship, seeing as how the bear was no longer flying the red flag. Aye-yi-yi!!! He actually said that!?! The clueless orange boob!

Well, the folks running things in America — that is, the scores of unelected bureaucratic satraps guarding their nests throughhout the Okefenokee inside-the-Beltway, especially the gator-pit known politely as the Intel Community — decided to subject Mr. Trump to a one-man version of the exquisite torment intended for Russia, Russia, Russia: pain, ignominy, and ruin. They’re still at it six years later, since the relentless Mr. Trump will not give up his crusade to take back the White House and defenestrate all those attempting to defenestrate him. His enemies have captured all the levers of legal power, and yet, amazingly, they can come up with nothing but the most rinky-dink charges to railroad him in captured jurisdictions.

This internal political conflict in the USA has driven the populace plumb insane, while it has rendered our institutions rancid and left us subject to a pathocracy hiding behind a laughably fake chief executive. After a year-plus of America’s genius scheme to maintain world dominance, Russia is doing really well, thank you, in constructing a geo-economic framework for trade that will not be subject to the pranks of USA-led Western Civ. Russia is a nation of people who regard themselves as men and women, the toils of gender confusion happily absent. Ditto race hustles. Ditto banking Ponzis.

After two-plus years of “Joe Biden” — well, our country is bypassing the banana republic stage of dissolution and depravity and steaming quickly into a Hieronymus Bosch dystopia of financial, social, psychological and moral ruin. Every official utterance is a lie. Everything’s broken or breaking. And seemingly, on-purpose. The nagging question, of course, is on whose purposes?

And why is Mr. Zelensky flitting from one country to another the past month? Because the game of Let’s You and Him Fight is drawing to a close and Mr. Z may find himself fatally unpopular back on the home-front. He has managed to send upward of a hundred-thousand young Ukrainian men to their deaths in the meat-grinder, and perhaps a million more have hightailed it for other countries. Ukraine will now be a land of mostly women, children, and old folks — with just enough surviving soldiers left looking to hunt down the comedian who turned Ukraine into another one of history’s sick jokes.

[moving2zion]

We are buying our hay from a local farmer. We pay for everything with cash or silver when it comes to livestock. I am going to buy end of season 2nds and stack them in the back of the barn this summer. Wheat is not doing well here in Washington State either, but lots of big hay growers had excess that they are dumping to locals at a good price. Our issue up here has been getting feed for chickens and hogs. We like to buy by the ton and prices have doubled. We have stopped raising hogs for the time being and goats as well.

[Jason]

Couple of bits:

I live near farmers in Idaho. Potato, wheat, etc. Old farmer next door (retired 70s) says he's never seen a winter like this. He says they have to get the potatoes in by June 1 at the latest. They normally plant them mid April. We finally had the snow drifts melt the last week or two. But still had snow yesterday again.

As for chickens, no need to have the creepy experience with the heads. Get a couple of funnels and put the chicken in upside down (head first.) The blood rushes to the brain and they are calm. Poke the neck to bleed out and they don't bat an eye.) When dead cut off the head.

Sounds nice but they still jump out of the cones….and do the funky chicken dance on the ground…

[JuneBug12000]

Couple of bits:

I live near farmers in Idaho. Potato, wheat, etc. Old farmer next door (retired 70s) says he's never seen a winter like this. He says they have to get the potatoes in by June 1 at the latest. They normally plant them mid April. We finally had the snow drifts melt the last week or two. But still had snow yesterday again.

As for chickens, no need to have the creepy experience with the heads. Get a couple of funnels and put the chicken in upside down (head first.) The blood rushes to the brain and they are calm. Poke the neck to bleed out and they don't bat an eye.) When dead cut off the head.

Sounds nice but they still jump out of the cones….and do the funky chicken dance on the ground…

???

Mine did not.

[JuneBug12000]

I should have made note, my husband works at a feed store and the hay is almost gone. Won't be another week.

I figured I should update em two posts.

The feed store did get more hay, at what price I can't imagine.

The potatoes also made it into the field mid may, a month late, but before june 1.

[Fred]

Well, this isn't a food shortage, but it might be a cooking shortage. The cretins pushing electric cars know there is not enough electricity to run them. This lady is in Texas, but it pretty much applies to everywhere. Solar panels are as cheap as they have ever been. If you look, you can find refurbished panels for about thirty cents a watt. Dealer price on new panels start at about 45 cents per watt. A little less for no name or older ones. A solar system is far cheaper than the grid. If you install it yourself, you can run a house on $1,000. Not counting cooking, heating, or cooling. But nobody should use electricity for cooling or heating anyway. Propane is a lot cheaper.

[Jason]

Couple of bits:

I live near farmers in Idaho. Potato, wheat, etc. Old farmer next door (retired 70s) says he's never seen a winter like this. He says they have to get the potatoes in by June 1 at the latest. They normally plant them mid April. We finally had the snow drifts melt the last week or two. But still had snow yesterday again.

As for chickens, no need to have the creepy experience with the heads. Get a couple of funnels and put the chicken in upside down (head first.) The blood rushes to the brain and they are calm. Poke the neck to bleed out and they don't bat an eye.) When dead cut off the head.

Sounds nice but they still jump out of the cones….and do the funky chicken dance on the ground…

???

Mine did not.

Happens at least a couple of times every time I process chickens...next time I'll video it and share. Extra large cones too...feisty chickens!

[JuneBug12000]

Sounds nice but they still jump out of the cones….and do the funky chicken dance on the ground…

???

Mine did not.

Happens at least a couple of times every time I process chickens...next time I'll video it and share. Extra large cones too...feisty chickens!

I'm pretty slow at the process, so maybe mine are all outta energy by the time I take them out of the cone.

[Jason]

???

Mine did not.

Happens at least a couple of times every time I process chickens...next time I'll video it and share. Extra large cones too...feisty chickens!

I'm pretty slow at the process, so maybe mine are all outta energy by the time I take them out of the cone.

Been a little quick on a couple that got excited while getting scalded....but yeah usually wait till they are outa energy before pulling them outa the cones...

[Fred]

[harakim]

Not exactly a shortage, but I have been noticing most fresh produce prices returning to somewhat normal.

[mudflap]

Not exactly a shortage, but I have been noticing most fresh produce prices returning to somewhat normal.

I wonder if it's because of all the rain California got. I was saying last year if something doesn't change drastically, the price of fresh produce (most of which comes from California) was going to jump. It looks like God spared us a little longer: