Anecdotal and I'd love to be wrong about this, buuuut I'm in the rural midwest rn and all of the wheat fields in like a 75 mile radius from me look like they're absolutely fucked.
It's basically all turned gold already which is super early for it, especially because it's still short as fuck, like maybe a foot tall — it's usually still green until it's like 4 feet tall. The people who've lived here for a long time have been talking about how abnormal it is. I'm not a wheat scientist and haven't really gotten into with anyone who knows what they're actually talking about so I don't totally know what it means, but I know it doesn't mean anything good
Prob a good idea to stock up on food if you've got the means
:doomer:
Not that big of a problem, the US mostly exports domestic grain supply :porky-happy:
And then imports grain for domestic use from... Russia and Ukraine :porky-scared-flipped:
The oil required to transport oil increases demand for oil which increases the price of oil
:porky-happy: :brrrrrrrrrrrr:
I don’t even understand how that makes sense in capitalism. Moving shit around the world costs labor and therefor profits. How could it possibly be more profitable to do it that way instead of the obvious way that makes sense?
Set up a trade agreement with countries A, B, and C so that your wheat is priced in a certain range of prices when exported to there, then only export to those countries.
Set up another trade agreement with countries X, Y, and Z so that their wheat is priced at a certain range of prices when imported from there, and only import from there.
Now you're selling your wheat for a profit, and then buying wheat to replace it for less money.
Why didn't countries X, Y, Z, A, B, and C come to a trade agreement? Well the CIA will assure you that the CIA had nothing to do with it, there was no CIA meddling in their electoral systems whatsoever, they just all coincidentally happen to elect leaders sympathetic to American profits, no compradors here!
If you believe the CIA even exists then you’re a conspiracy theorist
:xi-clap: china is literally the only thing that gives me hope for the future most days
I don't live in midwest but same thing here. People who normally grow corn did wheat and it's brown already. Only about a foot tall.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21399-wheat-will-age-prematurely-in-a-warmer-world/
He found that the wheat turned brown earlier when average temperatures were higher, with spells over 34 ºC having a particularly strong effect. He then inferred yield loss, using previous field studies as a guide.
This revealed a much stronger effect of temperatures on yield than previous studies. Lobell’s data predicted that yield losses in the Ganges plain will be around 50 per cent greater from an average warming of 2 ºC than existing models
2012
I mean, who really needs cereal crops though? They're only the basis of all human civilization. Should be fine.
If you have the space + money:
-
Flour is much cheaper in bulk. 25 lbs is ~30-50% cheaper bought all at once rather then 5 lbs at a time.
-
Storage is very important. I recommend a 5 gallon food grade bucket with a gamma lid.
-
Pest control is important with bulk food storage. Things that help include putting bay leaves in the flour, using an oxygen-killing pack in with the flour before sealing it for the first time, and using a secondary container for ~3-5 libs at a time so that the storage container is opened infrequently.
For non-flour items, I recommend using the same strategy but for rice and beans. Rice can be kept free of pets by baking it at 150 for 30 minutes before storage. You can do the same for beans though the quality degrades a tiny bit (beans have fewer pests anyways).
1 bucket of each is enough food for 2 people for a couple months all by itself (plus a vitamin to avoid malnutrition). Not a bad way to buffer yourself from food price swings. If you get some bulk fat like a gallon of refined coconut oil or peanut butter, you'll have a ton more calories for cheap. I'd say the total cost for everything I just described is around $150-250 and would be enough calories for 2 people for 3ish months. Add some bulk spices and canned tomatoes and it could even taste good.
Also all of these tips work for mutual aid buys and storage if you have access to a kitchen.
Thank you for your service. I'm a little worried about the pests. How foolproof is the is the gamma lid and bay leaves? Also what is a oxygen-killing pack? Lastly, what does the baking the rice before do?
All good questions!
How foolproof is the gamma lid and bay leaves?
The gamma lid makes it so that you can properly seal the thing and then reopen it again later without needing special tools. Most 5 gallon pails use kids that basically require muscle + a tool to open. The bay leaves are very easy of course and you can get them in bulk super cheap.
In terms of efficacy, both work very well. If you are careful about handling and keeping your space pest-free, you will rarely actually need the oxygen-killing sachets. They're more like an insurance policy.
Also what is a oxygen-killing pack?
They're usually called oxygen scavengers or oxygen absorbers. If you put a food safe one in a sealed container with, say, rice, it'll eat up the oxygen and do a good job killing any pests that were present in the food. Makes it so that you don't open up the container later and find a bunch of bugs. The container doesn't even have to perfectly seal, just be sealed well enough for long enough (a few days, e.g.), so this method works with tightly-closed gamma lids. After the initial anoxic environment treatment you can use the food like normal.
Lastly, what does the baking the rice before do?
Kills any insects that were in it. Example: a cute little weevil or its larva might be in the or even in a grain of rice. The heat will kill them, preventing them from multiplying.
I should've also mentioned that putting a bag of rice in the freezer for a day or two also works great, I just don't normally have freezer space.
pests
just eat the pests, or pick them out if you're really too squeamish
it's not like they devour the entire bag of dry beans. I've had beans/lentils/flour for 3 years that only had maybe 5 tiny gnats in the entire bag. I promise you won't care about that if that bag of wheat actually becomes important.
Weevils, flour beetles, moths, etc will get out and infest your whole pantry / food stock if you aren't diligent. Eating a couple weevils / picking them out isn't too bad. Decontaminating hundreds of beetles from a food storage location is just the pits.
-
Damn I'm starting to imagine the sorts of takes we'll see pushed to manufacture consent for invading Canada lol
I guess it depends on who's in office. Republicans, it'll be the playbook for countries that are starting to teeter towards socialism, all "some calling election results illegitimate" and funneling arms to reactionary paramilitary groups. Dems, try to smear them over "human rights" esp treatment of the First Nations people there, blatantly refusing to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people they've been committing for centuries
Republicans, it’ll be the playbook for countries that are starting to teeter towards socialism
haha. Canada isn't going to start teetering towards socialism, or even social democracy :sadness:
I wish I were a lot less paranoid honestly, but I’m right just often enough, if only by accident, to keep me paranoid XD. Also 'paranoid" isn’t exactly the right word but I don’t know of one for overcaution that really works without the implication of literal conspiracism or delusions of grandeur “they’re targeting me, specifically, I know too much!”
Lmao right there with you, I call it historical materialism and/or the immortal science of Marxism-Leninism and/or Cassandra syndrome depending on how I'm feeling that day
Thanks for sharing your read on the situation and the implications of the shitty harvests — that answered a lot of questions I keep forgetting to ask around here and a couple that I didn't know that I had. And weirdly makes me feel a bit better, that it'll be bad but hopefully not catastrophic.
Glad you decided to join us in the posting mines comrade, hope to catch you around more! :rosa-salute:
but I’m right just often enough, if only by accident, to keep me paranoid XD
It's easy to be right all the time. Just only take positions on the safest/surest claims. I was right about Trump running, Trump winning, long COVID existing, COVID's euro-strain being harsher than the Chinese one, and the vaccines doing fuck-all for long COVID.
Actually I made a prediction back in 2018, from listening to the conspiracy nuts and then doing a bunch of research on the yield curve and its inversions, and what that means for bonds vs stocks. My prediction was that there was gonna be a recession around 2019-2020, and there was (I couldn't predict COVID though)
mass cattle die-offs
This is the first I'm hearing about it. The fuck?
That paper is fascinating. 1,000,000 cows died in 2010 from "respiratory problems". Looking at the table on page 10 "Percent of Total Calf Non-Predator Losses by Type – States and United States: 2010" and just looking at the column for respiratory problems is wild. In Nebraska and Colorado 40% of basically all cow deaths are due to respiratory problems. In Kansas it's 63%. There's clearly a trend there, though I'm too lazy and disinterested to figure out what that trend is, and to then analyze why that trend exists. Still interesting, though.
Barely related, but your comment reminded me of this. I used to drive past a rendering plant a few times a year. Without question the worst thing I’ve ever smelled. I guess the smell was raw animal fat being melted down to tallow on an industrial scale. I remember it would fill the car. Cloying. Like the air had become too thin to breathe properly, but at the same time thick and heavy with this awful stench. Like a concentrated death-smell.
I’ve also driven past feedlots, which smell awful, but for me they lack the nightmare quality of the rendering plant smell.
When the drought hit Australia in the 2000s, crop yields went to shit. So yeah, expect the same in the US.
Yeah. We're actually getting tons of rain where I'm at, but it'll alternate like a week of rain with big storms followed by a week of intense sun and heat, so it'll be too wet by the end of one week, too dry the next, with extreme and rapid temp swings and strong winds. Climate machine broke
American wheat only gets 4ft tall? Maybe I’m wrong but in Australia it only grows like 2ft.
Yeah average height is like 4ft for summer wheat. I think winter wheat is shorter
you're probably right but it's a little strange that temperature has the same effect in plants and mammals
cold = stout, hot = lanky
My understanding is it mostly works with evaporative cooling, where more surface area means more places to sweat from? That doesn't seem like it would help with plants, where being taller doesn't mean more surface area, and more evaporation means the plant is drying.
It's been awhile since I studied biology tho so I could be wrong
Hahahaha you idiots, I’m gluten intolerant! All my breads were already stupid expensive because they’re made with oats and potato starch and shit
Farmers have huge stocks of grain supplies but if the war continues then we'll likely pay a premium for wheat supplies that would normally be used for feed. Any shortage of cereals are conditions for famine.
I don’t live there, but I know that the Palouse growing region has had a very wet spring. Last year’s harvest was bad. This year’s winter wheat is looking fine. Next time I get a chance to talk to someone there I’ll ask if the moisture messed with the spring wheat planting.
Ukraine-Russian war, India shutting down wheat export, and this.
