Usually I don’t get gabby after only a month since you heard from me last. But here again are a few thoughts....
I went to my local supermarket to get coffee, rice, yogurt and all the other necessities that you periodically need. Anne informed me there were no carrots in the cooler as the last of the 2025 crop had gone out to the coop three weeks ago. So, we buy the little ground down carrots which are fine for our needs and the grandchildren like the novelty of the small size, at least until the first or our baby carrots become available. Carrots? There was not a carrot in the store.
I have read about impending food shortages. But carrots?? We had so many here at the beginning of the new year that I was sure we were going to be throwing them in the compost piles by May! So it made me think about a bit about food security...something that was a very sexy discussion back during covid. Back before the Iran war that seems to continue...at great expense... to us all.
This particular war affects all facets of agriculture in America. Despite what any talking head in Washington may say, it is not over and resolution is not in sight. Beyond what it will do to our taxes, you may have noticed a little jump in fuel prices. With the Straights of Hormuz tightened up like a constipated owl the fuel prices continue to escalate at the pumps. It is difficult enough to pay two dollars more per gallon to fill the Toyota than it did two months ago, however, it is really horrifying as to what the cost of diesel fuel is doing, now being between 6 and 7 dollars a gallon.
Tractors and trucks run on diesel fuel. It is not an insignificant expense in the production and delivery of food. Large commodity farms of the Midwest and western states are folding up like a pack of cards and the land is getting ready for real estate development. Escalating fuel prices would be bad enough if it were the only thing but there is still the small matter of fertilizer for crops. The Ukraine is a major supplier of fertilizer to the United States. As you know our government has somewhat turned its back on the Ukraine and the European Union in an apparent effort to curry favor with Russia. Other major sources of dry fertilizers are Canada and somewhat China as well and we certainly haven’t done anything to endear ourselves with those two countries. Our stockpiles of dry chemical fertilizer are diminishing and when they start to get low or non-existent its pretty easy to dream up some unpleasant scenarios.
Bottom line is this old fool is advising you to hold onto your shorts. The combination of short supplies of fuel and fertilizer will result in escalating food prices by fall, if not availability.
I can already hear Jenny and Sarah in my head saying “Good Lord Dad, must you be such a negative old fart all the time?” But there are some solutions/remedial measures you can take to improve your food security and provide food choices during the “off” season. It will take a small measure of sweat equity on your part.
Do a ‘victory” garden like folks used to do. Go back to interrupting your golf time/tanning time/TV time and grow food. You are not going to eat all winter out of a successful garden, but it will provide you with some food choices that might not be available. Growing food takes a little knowledge and effort, and I am not going to begin to tell you where to begin in this blog but people back during the WW II made a pretty good dent in their annual food needs with some chickens and a garden, and so can you.
So, you don’t have space or location to garden. Or you don’t know where to begin in trying to start one. Perhaps, like many families, time is really tight and you cant see how to make it happen this year. In the upper valley there are many diversified meat, fruit and vegetable farms that have stands or CSA models. Its pretty simple to utilize them. Talk to them/us.
Tell us what you want to put up for the winter. Tomatoes? Winter Squash? Pickles? Green beans? Spaghetti sauce? Farms are happy to wholesale to retail customers if you are willing to accept it in season and available. (I cannot tell you how many people show up September 20 and want pickling cukes. Folks, that season is long gone by mid August....)
So you have to be willing to act when its available. Additionally, there is always season 50lb bags of potatoes, bushels of sweet corn, and bushels of carrots. Buying in bulk is a good way to assure a small critical mass of food security.
Yes, I am concerned about what the shelves will look like for middle Americans in the next couple of years. If you are wealthy enough to buy your way out of being concerned then good for you, don’t quit the twilight golf league. But I feel pricing and availability of produce will reflect what is currently happening to fuel prices. So get those canning jars and freezer bags out and start looking at chest freezers, I really think you will be happy you did.
Because my crystal ball looks pretty cloudy for the near future.....