How Many Meals Away From Chaos Are We?
United States 3D population density map (urban regions & clusters) Taking food for granted…
Food. It is becoming a bigger and bigger problem…
Look, many of you know that most of our food supply systems are what they call “JIT”, or just in time. I’ve written about it numerous times here on the blog. However some of you may not realize the extent of risk and dependence on these systems.
The Wuhan flu has exemplified some of this at our grocery stores. Surely most of you have experienced shortages in this regard. Especially toilet paper!
Modern Agriculture works EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, everything is JIT. There is no extra capacity built in to handle problems. Both under-supply and oversupply cause massive disruptions in the supply chain.
Look, JIT was designed to expand profits. Period. Problem is, it’s not exactly forward thinking towards our food security.
Before JIT, the system USED to be extremely fault-tolerant. That’s because AG was regional. Thousands of small farms in each region, so, problems in one region didn’t affect the rest of the country. People lived closer to the food so supply chains were not an issue either.
Interesting thing is that anyone with any sense would tell you that Modern AG is a national security issue, and the old way was vastly superior to a nations health.
However it’s always about the money, right?
How Many Skipped Meals Before Hungry People Get Desperate?
I often hear 6 or 9 meals away from chaos. That might be pretty close. Two to three days without any food and you’ll be pretty incredibly hungry and desperate to eat!
So let that sink in. Food. Think about how many people eat two or three meals a day here in the United States. A population of 330 million. That’s 600 to 900 million meals a day. And that doesn’t count desert! Where does all that food come from?
Did you know that approximately 80% of people in the United States live in urban regions or clusters?
“Rural areas cover 97 percent of the nation’s land area but contain 19.3 percent of the population (about 60 million people),” according to data from the Census Bureau.
You might say that the food for ~ 270 million people living in urban/suburban regions of the United States comes from outside their regions. But it’s worse than that… People living in rural America shop at big chain grocery stores too. And that food is likely coming from regions outside of where they live too.
With that said, I live rural. There are farms around here. Crops. Livestock. It’s not far away – and there are plenty of “farmers markets”. Definitely feel more food secure because of it. Plus I do my own part – growing a chunk of our own food. And now eggs…
Hey Ken, What’s the point?
I know that most of you already know all this. However it’s so very important to think about your food storage and ability to get food. JIT systems break. We came close with Covid-19 (Wuhan flu), which may or may not be over with.
Chaos yet unforeseen could put ~ 80% of the population into a hungry situation. I don’t like the fact that big AG has taken over. Did you know that China owns a bunch of it too? How smart is that? Answer: not smart, but it’s all about the money.
Take your food security into your own hands. I have tons of articles here on the subject. Just start searching.
One quick-and-easy way is to procure a quantity of ready-to-eat meals that are shelf stable for years, even decades. I happen to affiliate for Legacy Foods at this time. You might have a look.
In any event, how many meals away from chaos are we?