I’ve noticed a trend in Google search returns lately. And it’s a good thing. But it certainly reflects recent sweeping changes in the food supply chain, and the changes folks are making in their lives to adapt to rising food costs and shortages…
Bare store and food bank shelves – like these – will swiftly become more common
as the winter deepens… Are you ready for even higher food prices?
and more-serious food shortages in the new year?
The warnings were real
We have been bombarded with warnings, over the past few months, that serous food shortages and relentless food price increases are coming. Economists and nutritionists have been begging us to make preparations to offset the double-whammy impact. Human nature being what it is, most of us have ignored the warnings and done nothing. We’ve been told to stockpile shelf-stable staples. Fill our freezers with flash-frozen fruits and veggies. Most of us won’t really take a ‘coming crisis’ seriously until we’ve reached the real and palpable limits of our own personal abilitiy to meet the challenges involved. Each of us will know that time has arrived for us when we start facing choices such as cancelling meals, eating less, and reducing our food quality and variety expectations.
News Flash: The time is now!
Many of our friends and neighbours have already reached the breaking point of their food budgets. They just haven’t admitted it to you because it’s kind of embarrassing to admit they’ve slipped from the middle class to the lower class. Petty ego considerations aside, they’re finding the food banks are bare and their options for feeding their families are few and gloomy.
How do I know?
The Google search questions from average folks, on food crisis issues, have been increasing in urgency and frequency over the past few weeks. And the answers the world’s leading question-answering platform has been providing echo those elevated ‘DEFCON’ ratings.
Just take a look at some of the questions folks have been searching for over again in the past few days:
Will there be a 2022 food shortage? Google says ‘Yes’. And it’s here now: “Global supply chain interruptions are mainly to blame for 2022 food shortages.”
Should I be preparing for a food shortage? Google says ‘Yes’: And the preamble of this post eerily echoes most of the points the experts have neen making about the current and coming real-world situation.
How do I prepare for a food shortage? Google says the key word is ‘sacrifice’: There are lots of posts by international authorities like this one. And there are many posts by average folks, as well. The foregoing are both well organized and long on details; the first is a geo-political perspective, while the latter is a practical guide.
Has food quality gone down? Google says ‘Yes’, this is definitely something to consider: “There are studies that show the nutrient content, especially in fruit and vegetables, has been decreasing since over 50 years. Producing more and more food, using fertilizers, herbicides and ‘other-cides’, has depleted the soil of its nutrients and as a consequence depleted the foods grown in that soil as well.”
My take
As I’ve suggested in the past, there are some simple says to prepare for and combat (on the fly) food shortages:
Source (from local market gardeners) ‘ugly’ produce (see photo, top of page) that under normal conditions would be culled and just trashed.
Source surplus produce (usually from neighbours with tomato, winter squash or other surpluses).
Learn (or update) canning and freezing skills.
Build a root cellar (or bin) in a cool, dark corner of your basement.
Clean out your freezer – especially if you have a dedicated freezer in your garage or basement. Stock up on what ever produce and fresh fruits you like in flash frozen form. Flash freezing preserves food at it’s peak of nutritive value and flavourfulness.
Stock pile your fave dry pastas, beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, and so on. Ditto, inexpensive long-shelf-live sauces. You can go vegetarian or even full-on vegan in a blink if meat prices rocket out of site, without compromising he nutritional value of your meals.
DO follow some or all of the suggestions above. They will help you cushion the blow of shortages that are just starting but threaten to get much worse before next summer’s harvest season.
The horse has fled!
There is an old saying: ‘Don’t wait to close the barn door until after the horse has fled!’ Take a look around you: The horse has already fled – and the barn may well be on fire!
~ Maggie J.