It isn’t supposed to be this cold in October. The official start of winter is still almost two months away, and yet the weather in much of the western half of the country right now resembles what we might expect in mid-January. All-time record lows for the month of October are being set in city after city, and this extremely cold air is going to push into the Midwest by the end of the week. Temperatures in the heartland will be up to 50 degrees below normal, and unfortunately about half of all corn still has not been harvested. Due to unprecedented rainfall and extreme flooding early in the year, many farmers faced extraordinary delays in getting their crops planted, and so they were hoping that good weather at the end of the season would provide time for the crops to fully mature and be harvested. Unfortunately, a nightmare scenario has materialized instead. A couple of monster snow storms have already roared through the Midwest, and now record low temperatures threaten to absolutely wreck the rest of the harvest season. (Read More...)
Food Crisis
China Is “Turning To Dog Meat” As The Massive Global Pork Shortage Rapidly Intensifies
If other forms of meat suddenly became too expensive, would you feed dog meat to your family instead? Sadly, this is a dilemma that many families in China are facing right now. As I reported a few days ago, one-fourth of all the pigs in the entire world have already been wiped out by African Swine Fever. The epicenter of this crisis is in China, and as you will see below, their hog population has fallen by more than 40 percent so far. This has caused a dramatic spike in the price of pork, and as a result many Chinese citizens are now seeking out less expensive alternatives. (Read More...)
Food Crisis 2019: An Outbreak Of African Swine Fever Is Devastating The Global Pig Population, And Pork Prices Are Skyrocketing
An absolutely devastating disease is wiping out herds of pigs all over Asia, and most people in the western world don’t even realize what is happening. Since it was first detected last August, there have been 116 officially reported outbreaks of African Swine Fever in China, and since that time it has rapidly spread to surrounding nations such as Cambodia and Vietnam. African Swine Fever is not harmful to humans, but the vast majority of the pigs that catch it end up dead. It spreads very quickly and there is no cure, and this outbreak has already driven global pork prices through the roof. If this crisis continues to escalate, we are potentially talking about a crippling blow to global food production. (Read More...)
The Worst Drought In The History Of California Is Happening Right Now
Did you know that 2013 was the driest year ever recorded in the state of California? And did you know that so far this is the driest January that the state of California has ever experienced? The worst drought in the history of California is happening right now. Just check out the current conditions on the U.S. Drought Monitor. About two-thirds of the state is experiencing “extreme drought” at the moment, and Governor Jerry Brown says that it is “not likely to rain for several weeks“. Unfortunately for California, the truth is that the weather in the western half of the country is simply returning to historical norms. Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century in the western half of the United States in 1000 years, and that extremely dry conditions are normally what we should expect for most areas from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi River. If long-term conditions truly are “returning to normal”, then the state of California could be heading for a water crisis of unprecedented magnitude. (Read More...)
Food Crisis 2011? 14 Disturbing Facts That Make You Wonder If The Coming Global Food Shortage Has Already Begun
Will 2011 be the year that we point to as the beginning of the great global food crisis? Food prices are soaring, supplies are very tight and already we have seen some very intense food protests flare up around the globe this year. When people don’t have enough to eat, they tend to become very desperate, and unfortunately it looks like the global food situation is not going to improve much any time soon. Right now the world is really struggling to feed itself, and with each passing day there are even more mouths to feed. It is being projected that the population of the world will reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. There are already way too many people starving to death around the globe, and unfortunately starvation is only going to become more rampant as food supplies get even tighter. Some of the key food producing provinces in China are facing their worst drought in 200 years. Flooding has absolutely devastated agricultural production in Australia and Brazil this winter. Russia is still trying to recover from the horrific drought of last summer. Global weather patterns have gone haywire over the past 12 months, and this is putting immense pressure on a global food system that was already on the verge of a major breakdown. (Read More...)
Will The Bizarre Weather Of 2010 Set The Stage For A Major Global Food Shortage In 2011?
Record-shattering heatwaves all over the world, massive wildfires in Russia, truly historic flooding in Pakistan and China and devastating droughts in many other areas are playing havoc with harvests all over the globe. This is leading many analysts to predict a sharp rise in food prices for the rest of 2010, and there are even whispers that 2011 could see the outbreak of global food riots that are even worse than what we witnessed back in 2008. The truth is that things are starting to get more than a bit frightening out there. One quarter of Russia’s grain crops have already been wiped out by the unprecedented heatwave and the massive wildfires that have been ravaging that nation. In fact, the Russian government has announced that they have banned all grain exports for the rest of this year. This has caused a dramatic surge in the price of wheat on world markets. Unfortunately, Russia is far from alone in dealing with bad harvests this year. So what happens when global food prices go so high that the hundreds of millions of people existing on the edge of poverty around the world can’t afford to buy food any longer? (Read More...)