If you want proof of how hairy things can get when there is a shortage of the food supply, all you have to do is look at some of the towns in areas that are ravaged by natural disasters.
While it may seem like old advice, it bears repeating. Every home should have at least a few week’s worth of food and water for every resident of the home at all times. I remember when a hurricane hit near us a few years ago and we couldn’t get to the grocery store we were alright.
It taught us a lesson on how to deal with the pandemic. Always have more than you need on things you think you will never use.
Several months ago, the immediate effects of the sanitary crisis acted as the kickstart of the first noticeable supply chain disruption. Factories, distribution centers, and even farms were shut down under the new restrictions that envisioned flattening the curve.
The underlying indication that a restock in stores would not happen, prompted Americans to rush into the stores and panic-buy cleaning items and non-perishable goods, leaving shelves empty.
For weeks, finding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, Clorox, canned meals, meat, and rice was just impossible.
For the first time in years or even in decades, Americans found some of their basic necessities were missing on store shelves, triggering a fearful reaction that led some of them and the media to put the blame on preppers, who have been gradually stockpiling goods over the course of months or years aiming to be covered in situations like this one. It’s essential to highlight the differences between stockpiling and hoarding and making gradual purchases and panic-buying.
We discovered that many business owners were imposing farmers to dump their produce, destroy their crops, and slaughter their animals to create the idea of scarcity so that later the products could be sold for higher prices, and that was shown in their profits, which skyrocketed since inflation took over the markets.
In the meantime, while food prices soar, unemployment numbers keep increasing and the $600 unemployment benefit has expired leaving millions of Americans completely unassisted, a basic right is being denied to these people because they’re now unable to meet their basic nutritional needs.
Five months ago, a report by the Urban Institute revealed that one in six Americans was food insecure. Now, this number is even worse due to the disappearance of the $600 in extra benefits. That is to say, for the benefit of a handful of billionaires, American families are being dragged to the poverty line again. The famine is becoming a terrible reality and things may get even more disturbing from now on.
The aftereffects of recent natural disasters will culminate in further supply chain disruptions. This year, we witnessed devastating straight-line wind blows that destroyed extensive amounts of crops and farming infrastructure in states like Iowa, and catastrophic wildfires along all the West Coast from Washington to California and as far east as Colorado, South Dakota, and Texas. Now, fires seem to be heading east, burning up prairies and farmlands, ultimately boosting the hunger crisis.