John W. Boyd, Jr., the president of the National Black Farmers Association, recently expressed his concerns that the United States is headed toward a food shortage unless action is taking to thwart one soon.
“You have the high cost of fuel, the high cost of fertilizer and lime and all of these upfront costs for America’s farmers, and we haven’t done anything in place to fix that,” Boyd said.
According to the World Bank Group, the cost of fertilizer alone had risen by 30 percent in 2022 as of May, and that is added to an 80 percent increase in 2021.
As for Boyd himself, he reports paying $1,100 per ton of fertilizer now compared to just $400 per ton last year.
Those kinds of costs are not only going to be passed on to the consumer, it could threaten the business of many farmers as well.
In addition, Boyd mentioned his concerns regarding how the current geopolitical situation is affecting food production, noting “we’re heading for a food shortage in this country where you have different regions of the world, such as Ukraine, that won’t be producing enough commodities such as corn, wheat and soybeans. All of these things are going to affect us here at home.”
We have highlighted such situations here on this site many times now, in addition to even more, such as India halting all wheat exports and large swaths of California’s rice producing acreage effectively being shut down this year.
Also today we learn of another food production facility that has burned down in Pendleton, OR, only adding to a bafflingly long list of such facilities either damaged or destroyed in recent months.
The concern over future food shortages is not tin foil hat-type of thinking anymore. It is a very real possibility, if not verging entirely into probability.
The time to prepare your households is right now, while food can still be had relatively easily.
Once that is no longer the case, you do not want to be part of the chaos. In fact, taking yourself out of that mix helps another household get what they need if they haven’t prepared.
Our country can get through this, just like Egypt did in the days of Joseph. But, like Joseph, we must store up now.