Stand By For Food Shortages

There’s a preconception that preppers are perpetually running around with their hair on fire. It’s probably because we look at so many events and recognize just how bad things can get.

For example, there are probably some preppers out there right now watching COVID-19 and trying to figure out the probability of it mutating or something and sending the mortality rate soaring.

However, for me, there’s another problem I can see that doesn’t require a virus to mutate far more than it already has.

That problem? Potential food shortages.

The truth of the matter is that food is vital. While water falls down from the sky in most of the U.S., the same can’t be said of food. There are ways to get water if worst comes to worst, but food is something different.

And several different sources are warning of potential food shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, the United Nations.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned of global food shortages caused by measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The worst that can happen is that governments restrict the flow of food,” Maximo Torero, chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, told the Guardian.

Harvests have been good and staple crops remain in demand, but a shortage of field workers brought on by the pandemic and a move towards protectionism — tariffs and export bans — could lead to problems in the coming weeks, Torero said, according to the report.

“All measures against free trade will be counterproductive. Now is not the time for restrictions or putting in place trade barriers. Now is the time to protect the flow of food around the world,” Torero added, the news course reported.

Some countries have begun to protect their food supplies by restricting exports, which Torero reportedly said could lead to an overall decrease in trade and a subsequent decline in food production.

That’s not good.

It’s important to remember that much of the world doesn’t use our industrial farming techniques because they can’t afford the equipment. That’s not to say the United States is the only nation that can, mind you, only that a lot of farms are very labor-intensive.

No workers, no help to harvest crops.

But, no worries, right? The United States does use those techniques. We shouldn’t have any problems, right?

Well, don’t be so sure.

The nation could begin to see food shortages for some products if the people working on the supply chain lack personal protective equipment, warns an internal Trump administration document obtained by Yahoo News.

Empty supermarket shelves have become one of the most jarring images of the coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened 270,000 Americans and killed 7,000. But so far, there have been no food shortages, despite 90 percent of the American population being under state-enforced lockdown orders.

And despite the difficulties people have had in obtaining certain foods, like pasta, grocery stores are generally well stocked. Government officials have argued that any temporary shortages are the result of unprecedented demand, as people have bought more than usual, rather than an actual supply-chain breakdown.

“I want to assure you that our food supply chain is sound,” Sonny Perdue, the secretary of agriculture, said on March 20.

That, however, could change if the people who make, package and deliver food lack personal protective equipment, or PPE, including face masks and gloves, according to the internal document shared with Yahoo News, which provides a daily update on various aspects of the coronavirus response, including details ranging from state-by-state infections to hospital capacity and test sites.

In other words, we’re not immune to the potential shortages.

Also, any gardner knows that temperature affects plant growth. That’s why we have tables to tell us when to plant which vegetables. You don’t plant beans in the dead of winter and you don’t try to plant spinach in the middle of July.

What does this have to do with PPE for food workers? Nothing. Nothing at all.

But what it does apply to is the food growing itself.

Krakatoa is erupting in Indonesia. There was an eruption in the Philipines earlier this year.

Depending on how much volcanic ash the two put up into the atmosphere, we could be facing a pretty cool summer. Not only might that have an effect on COVID-19–experts expect summer to reduce the spread of the disease–it may also reduce crop yields.

So even if food workers get the PPE they need, there may still not be enough food.

Now, is this a slam dunk?

Hardly. The entire food supply chain is a complex mechanism that’s probably more akin to a biological entity rather than a machine. If something stops working in the food supply, something else usually steps in to fix the problem. It’s why we’ve never really had a national-level famine in this country.

But that’s not to say the food supply isn’t vulnerable. It is. Go into your grocery store and look at all the empty shelves, then try to convince me it’s not. Go ahead. I dare you.

The problem with that vulnerability is that we’re already compromised due to COVID-19 anyway, particularly the panic many people experienced and are still experiencing and how that’s affecting their buying patterns. It wouldn’t take all that much to make the problem far, far worse.

And, of course, we’re staring right at a couple of things that would do just that.

So lay in your food supplies and get ready for a very bumpy road. I hope I’m wrong on this, but why risk it?