Food security during this CoViD lock-down

[I live in a Western US rural area, outside a small down with two chain supermarkets and a small organic grocery. The two closest Walmarts are 45 minutes away in different directions. Personally, I followed the old advice "When you see people panicking at the grocery, stock up on gardening supplies..."]

My area has been shuttered for 7 days; schools, businesses, churches closed.

About 10 days ago there was the massive run on the grocery. No paper goods, no meat or milk. Nothing much of anything really.

All the grocery stores have gone to a 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. schedule (they used to be open till midnight). The first hour is for the old and sick.

They seem to get things unpredictably. One day its milk products. the next its meat. then only canned goods, etc.

So my question is, if we are having problems with supply lines the first week in to this.... what is the elite's plan for feeding us six months from now. The elites must know (from 5000 years experience) that if you cannot feed them, then you are no longer in control...

The government brought up food supplies since we had all the flooding. A lot of the food stores got flooded out. The big businesses got a tax break for keeping food in rotation and leaving it out so there would not be a shortage, but profiting happened and they sold their reserves and we developed a shortage at that time. The government gave tax credits to the big stores to buy more stock, and we had two big supermarkets here expand the store size. That was supposed to curb the rushes, but it still cannot handle what we have seen in this pandemic. It helped, but lots of people were not prepared, it seems like people will forget about what happened after some years have gone by and then relax their food stores.

It is not just the government that caused this, it is human nature to forget that we need to be prepared for things. The boy scout motto was to be prepared, but when all the crap about girls and gays being allowed to get into these groups happened, the boy scouts had to be taught to be polite instead of being prepared. That has complicated the issue. Our society is broken.

Governments want people to be dependent on them, to fear that we cannot survive on our own. That is the policy of almost all the governments of the world, not just the American way.

a reply to: rickymouse

all true, rickymouse.

Part of it is that we want to live in a highly specialized society. That means that unless you specialize in food production, you will ultimately have to rely on someone else to feed you.

I am a generalist at heart. I also enjoy hunting, fishing and gardening as primary hobbies.

Incidentally, my kids are in scouting. The motto is still "be prepared." The boys went squirrel hunting, just for practice, and the girls downloaded squirrel recipes and printed them out, in case we lose internet...

None of them like tomato-based soups, and so they won't eat my 'squirrel Brunswick stew.'

which is excellent by the way.

a reply to: Graysen

This is all I have to say.
"Ordo Ab Chao"

"All the grocery stores have gone to a 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. schedule (they used to be open till midnight). The first hour is for the old and sick."

One more hint but that's all. These exact measures are taking place in other countries. There are no shortages. Just think.

a reply to: TheInfiniteFantastic

Well, if there's not at my convenience shopping point, THAT'S a shortage, by my definition of the word.


Just thinking about milk, for example.

a lot of American kids skip breakfast, so they can sleep in and still catch the school bus. They used to get a paper carton of a cup of milk at school.

Now, schools are closed.

So, probably millions of gallons of milk are no longer being distributed in 8 oz. cartons. as of 7 days ago.

But, all those kids are at home now, ready to enjoy a leisurely breakfast of cold cereal and milk their parents have fearfully stockpiled. And all of them drinking milk by the gallon.

Plus the moms and dads who have been laid off, who now eat breakfast as well, and are probably trying some home cooking. rice and ... milk, hmmm.

originally posted by: Graysen
a reply to: rickymouse

all true, rickymouse.

Part of it is that we want to live in a highly specialized society. That means that unless you specialize in food production, you will ultimately have to rely on someone else to feed you.

I am a generalist at heart. I also enjoy hunting, fishing and gardening as primary hobbies.

Incidentally, my kids are in scouting. The motto is still "be prepared." The boys went squirrel hunting, just for practice, and the girls downloaded squirrel recipes and printed them out, in case we lose internet...

None of them like tomato-based soups, and so they won't eat my 'squirrel Brunswick stew.'

which is excellent by the way.

I have avoided tomatoes since I was young. I learned when we grew tomatoes about five years back why I unknowingly disliked tomatoes. Cuts won't heal, I had a sore that would not go away on top of my head, and I had pimples that were like achne. How come I never knew why I did not like tomatoes, I thought I could eat anything, but that anything did not include any benzoic acid or benzoate foods evidently. I have a balsam of peru allergy or intolerance, and my wife loves pizzas and spaghetti. Before I got in the accident we went out a lot to eat, she ordered what she wanted, like spaghetti and lazagna, and I ordered fish or chicken or maybe a burger, hold the ketsup and extra onion. Never ketsup on my fries either. But I was unaware of my intolerances till our income dropped and we started to cook at home. When out for a pizza, I would order a cudighi, no sauce, extra onion.

I can eat tomatoes once a week and my body can handle that. I can make some great cinnamon rolls, but learned that I shouldn't eat them either. I rarely ever ate cinnamon rolls before but started liking them because everyone else loved my cinnamon rolls. Lots of recipes have spices in them high in eugenol, those goof me up. Not only my skin, which hardly ever shows any signs of rash, but my guts. They were pushing tomatoes as super healthy foods, in actuality, a lot of people cannot handle tomato chemistry, it is not rare.

Good to see that the Boy scouts are still pushing be prepared, I was a boy scout till I turned eighteen, never was interested in merit badges, so I never got too high up. I became an assistant scout master for a year after I turned eighteen, but with my father having brain cancer, I could not continue, so quit doing that, needed at home. Loved the woods more than merit badges, I had lots of them but did not want to go any higher, so never did the required ones to get past star. I could have probably got three merit badges and could have gotten two promotions, but never wanted to show up anyone or get corrupted by prestige like some of the other scouts did.

America produces enough food to feed everyone in the usa 2 times over

The only shortage we are seeing is transportation our system is not designed for everyone to buy 6 months worth of food at once food goes bad distribution is designed to only ship what is needed every week so food dosent rot

Around hear most the food is coming back some stores simply placed a item limit it really only takes 1 idiot with 5k to really empty a store

originally posted by: Graysen
a reply to: TheInfiniteFantastic

Well, if there's not at my convenience shopping point, THAT'S a shortage, by my definition of the word.

Oh I do not deny we are all experiencing these shortages everywhere. They are of course real. But the precise coordination and timing of these events globally. And the synchronicity, is what I am asking you to question. The impact to the global economy that looms will be far worst than the virus. Look what happened in Venezuela when there economy went down.

a reply to: Graysen

So my question is, if we are having problems with supply lines the first week in to this.... what is the elite's plan for feeding us six months from now

The problem now is not supply lines. It's panic and chain reaction.

When enough people realize that they don't need any more canned goods and that pasta does go stale, shelves will get back to normal.

I am delighted that I put my delivery order in at the Walmart warehouse last Thursday and the order has shipped as of the weekend


I ordered packages of soups and flats of sparkling waters and a few boxes of spicy cracker treats...

as I was scanning thru the Walmart food supply that can be shipped I found everything is listed as sold out


luck purchase at $ 44.44... delivered to doorstep with out getting into crowds, blue gloves being used for food packages

The problem now is not supply lines. It's panic and chain reaction.

Well that's not entirely true here in Australia. Its definitely an issue. But actually here we have had restrictions imposed on us at the supermarkets for several weeks now. We can only buy a limited quantity of certain types of items. Eg 1 packet of toilet rolls. (Max 6 rolls) Can't get family size packets. 2 cans of veges. 2 packets of meat. Etc. You get what I mean. So people here cant just go in to a store and buy up everything. Even with these restrictions I was unable to purchase any toilet rolls for around 2 weeks. And some items are still difficult to get. Powdered milk for example.
Actually I spoke to a local distributor who does the logistics for office supplies here. Even the distributor was unable to get toilet rolls from there suppliers. So that tells me that if the supply is likened to a flowing tap. Then someone has turned the tap down from a flow to a trickle. Hence why I directed you to the Latin phrase.

Maybe we all should be good boy scouts. And be prepared. I'm out all the best. God bless.

originally posted by: Phage


The problem now is not supply lines. It's panic and chain reaction.

That's still a supply-line problem. It may indeed be CAUSED by panic. but it's still a problem.

We switched to "Just in time" inventory, and warehouse-less supply chains. Because all that product was sitting there, waiting to be consumed. and time is money. So waiting is waste.

Redundancy isn't only a bug; it's also a feature. Getting rid of all the redundancies, all the "waste" meant that we also got rid of the resiliency built into the program. Now when there's any jolt to the system, whether it's a snowstorm or a temporary collapse in consumer trust, the system gets shut down.

Like the manufacturers of N95 masks or nitrile gloves. It is most efficient to run a factory AT capacity. When demand suddenly surges, they have to excess capacity with which to meet the changed demand.

As if there are thousands of people hoarding masks. They aren't even approved for medical protection. Medical personal use them because they cannot find an actual medical duckbills. No one planned on an epidemic.

The nazis blamed hoarders during the war, to explain why there were shortages. They couldn't just come out and say, "we're losing, that's why."