Farmers are warning of a food crisis sparked by shortages

I live in an agricultural area and there are many local farmers markets from which I can buy produce. But I do worry about food insecurity in the future so I will likely start growing some of my own vegetables. I don't like beef, I hate veal and I rarely eat pork. I prefer chicken and some seafood. Thinking of getting a storage freezer so I can stockpile some things.
 

Jules said:
@chic, we’ve had pineapples on loss leader prices for the past three weeks. Walmart and another store had them for $3 or $4. Bananas are abundant again; we went through a stage a few months ago when almost none were available.
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About 10 days ago, I got some large, sweet Chiquita pineapples at Kroger for .97 cents each. No shortage of bananas ranging .52 to .55 cents/lb.
 
Doesn’t the EU ordain what people can grow? I seem to recall that places like Turkey and the Ukraine supply a great many foodstuffs to Europe and elsewhere. Maybe it’s time to rethink locally grown products.
 

The big chicken and turkey farms in our area seem to have almost come to a halt....due to this recent Avian Flu outbreak that caused millions of birds to be destroyed.

However, everywhere we go in this area, there are fields filled with grazing cattle. I haven't seen herds of this size in all the years we've lived here. If these cattle found their way to the grocery stores, the price of meat would surely come down....but there probably aren't enough processing plants running at high capacity...due to the lingering effects of Covid.
 
My brilliant "grand" who just presented her 46 page thesis for her Masters just told me that she and one of her professors are doing experiments trying to develop a bio-fertilizer for crops. They are seeing good results so far. They are hoping it will help with the crop fertilizer shortages we are seeing here in the South. My BIL just sent me a pic of his garden he just started for this year. He already has small tomatoes, green onions, etc trying to make. He had trouble giving away his veggies last year as all his neighbors are growing them also and canning and freezing them. My daughter and I will be going there when the veggies are ready and bringing them back. My sister said she will be canning and freezing them also. So I am looking forward to home grown tomato sandwiches, okra and tomatoes cooked together, purple hulled peas and fresh pinto beans. With a pan of fresh cornbread I am in heaven!!. Nothing like country cooking!
 
I like to garden....mostly as a hobby. In a good year, we have plenty for us, and give the kids and neighbors the extras. Some years, I get enough to take a bunch of cantaloupe and cucumbers up to the local Senior care center.
Our soil is pretty good, so I don't add fertilizer. Instead, I cover the garden with Fall leaves, add some ashes from our outdoor wood furnace, and a small sack of Lime....the soil is rather "acidic"...and then till it up good. What we get is about as "organic" as it can be.
 
terry123 said:
My brilliant "grand" who just presented her 46 page thesis for her Masters just told me that she and one of her professors are doing experiments trying to develop a bio-fertilizer for crops. They are seeing good results so far. They are hoping it will help with the crop fertilizer shortages we are seeing here in the South. My BIL just sent me a pic of his garden he just started for this year. He already has small tomatoes, green onions, etc trying to make. He had trouble giving away his veggies last year as all his neighbors are growing them also and canning and freezing them. My daughter and I will be going there when the veggies are ready and bringing them back. My sister said she will be canning and freezing them also. So I am looking forward to home grown tomato sandwiches, okra and tomatoes cooked together, purple hulled peas and fresh pinto beans. With a pan of fresh cornbread I am in heaven!!. Nothing like country cooking!
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Many in the younger generations are turning away from the "better living through chemistry" credo of the past 60 years and are embracing Mother Nature's own cycles. My niece has a successful food to table organic farm that relies on regenerative farming.
 
Today I took mom grocery shopping and was surprised to see very few potatoes and those they had for sale were very small and all organic which is much more expensive. They were short on onions and cold weather root veggies which are usually cheap and this made me wonder if people who are struggling financially are finally loading up on the cheapest produce and hence producing a shortage? It was strange.
 
yesterday when I was shopping I went into 2 large supermarkets ( different companies).. and in both there was no Oils of any type.. except Rapeseed oil.. No Olive, no Groundnut, no Sunflower, none of the average 20 brands that are usually on the shelves... Apparently Ukraine is the biggest exporter of oils
 
Don M. said:
If the food situation got real bad, I've got a nice big 1+ acre meadow below the house that I could plow up, and grow all sorts of vegetables, and an ever increasing herd of deer roaming the property, that would supply us with meat. But then, it's hard to keep the deers out of my current garden, and I'd rather watch them, than eat them.
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Prepare for a seed shortage.
 
We took a nice drive through our area farm country yesterday, and noticed that there were almost NO farms that have been plowed and prepared for growing. Normally, this time of year, the farmers are out working the fields virtually every day....we didn't see one tractor out in the nearly 80 miles we drove. One of the big concerns seems to be the high costs of diesel fuel...nearly $5/gal. around here. It appears that a lot of farmers are saying "Nuts" to spending hundreds of extra dollars per week on fuel.

If planting doesn't start soon, commodity and basic food prices will skyrocket by Fall.
 
Don M. said:
We took a nice drive through our area farm country yesterday, and noticed that there were almost NO farms that have been plowed and prepared for growing. Normally, this time of year, the farmers are out working the fields virtually every day....we didn't see one tractor out in the nearly 80 miles we drove. One of the big concerns seems to be the high costs of diesel fuel...nearly $5/gal. around here. It appears that a lot of farmers are saying "Nuts" to spending hundreds of extra dollars per week on fuel.

If planting doesn't start soon, commodity and basic food prices will skyrocket by Fall.
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'sactly the same here..Diesel is through the roof price.. as is Oil. I live in farming county, and the Mustard rape is all ready now, it'll be interesting to see what happens with that..

Farmers are having to throw away produce they can't afford to grow in greenhouses due to the cost of oil..therefore the produce which is available has shot up in price...
 
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Don M. said:
We took a nice drive through our area farm country yesterday, and noticed that there were almost NO farms that have been plowed and prepared for growing. Normally, this time of year, the farmers are out working the fields virtually every day....we didn't see one tractor out in the nearly 80 miles we drove. One of the big concerns seems to be the high costs of diesel fuel...nearly $5/gal. around here. It appears that a lot of farmers are saying "Nuts" to spending hundreds of extra dollars per week on fuel.

If planting doesn't start soon, commodity and basic food prices will skyrocket by Fall.ere.
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Diesel 's over $6.00 per gal here. 😖 Gasoline went back up 15 cents per gal at one of the cheaper places I buy gas but I still have a couple that are selling for $3.98 per gal so I buy there.
 
hollydolly said:
'sactly the same here..Diesel is through the roof price.. as is Oil. I live in farming country, and the Mustard rape is all ready now, it'll be interesting to see what happens with that..

Farmers are having to throw away produce they can't afford to grow in greenhouses due to the cost of oil..therefore the produce which is available has shot up in price...
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I think this happened before, like way back in the 70s maybe? And the federal gov't created an agricultural program that helped farmers pay for fuel and new equipment. I can't remember if it was a grant or subsidy.

Or was that Farm Aid? Remember those Farm Aid concerts, when farmers were forced to sell their farms?
 
Nosy Bee-54 said:
If all else fails, then we can import more food from Mexico. 🤷‍♂️
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The foods we import from Mexico are primarily fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, coffee beans, beer and other alcohols, and a small amount of snack foods. Not grains, meats, or other calorie dense foods.

Under the food umbrella, the US exports corn, soybeans, and dairy products to them.

Generally speaking, the US grows enough food to feed ourselves. Some items may be in short supply if there's a global food crisis - or be out of financial reach for many. Americans may have to adjust their habits to a lot less meat and dairy on their plates. (Oatmeal for breakfast instead of bacon and eggs, for instance.)

Not all countries are in the position of growing more than enough calories to sustain its populations. If there's a global food crisis we will need to generous with our friends, the UK being high on that list.
 
Murrmurr said:
I think this happened before, like way back in the 70s maybe? And the federal gov't created an agricultural program that helped farmers pay for fuel and new equipment. I can't remember if it was a grant or subsidy.

Or was that Farm Aid? Remember those Farm Aid concerts, when farmers were forced to sell their farms?
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I believe we've had both... the federal govt stepped in, as did private citizens through massive fundraisers.
 
My family has wheat farmers in it. In the USA, providing that the weather continues to be good. Wheat and Corn crops in the USA will be enough to exceed normal demand in our country. Also, most farmers are aware of the potential loss of wheat volumes from Ukraine and even some in Russia. This coupled with the increasing cost of fertilizers and fuel will drive up the cost of wheat and corn. But supplies will be ample (weather?), to take care of the USA and many other countries...
 
StarSong said:
I believe we've had both... the federal govt stepped in, as did private citizens through massive fundraisers.
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Yeah, I looked it up. I was a working single father at the time (mid to late 1980s) so was far too busy to keep up with it.

First was Farm Aid for starving Ethiopians, and at one of their first concerts, Bob Dylan asked the world-wide audience of over a billion if they would think about giving maybe a million or two to American farmers in foreclosure. Dylan was criticised, but Willie Nelson was totally for it and organized an advocacy group called American Farm Aid. The AFA took some farmers to a congressional hearing and congress created sort of a bail-out program for American farmers. But problems arose because the gov't program has strings attached that can really screw the farmers over. So the American Farm Aid still exists to help farmers navigate the legal pitfalls and stuff. I think Willie Nelson is still a member.
 
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