Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Monday, April 21, 2008
Some U.S. consumers may be buying up extra bags of staples figuring the prices will only be going up in the near future. Others are buying up staples in a survival mode.
The so-called survivalists who have previously been viewed as the lunatic fringe are now being seen through what might be called a more pragmatic lens.
The NY Times ran a piece in it’s Fashion and Style section on April 6Th on the ‘new survivalists’. Is the implication it is now ‘fashionable, or stylish’ to stockpile supplies for a crisis?
CNN also ran an articlelast Sunday about ’survivalists’. A ‘former U.S. army intelligence officer’ featured in the piece has a 3 year supply of food stashed on his property; a ranch in an ‘undisclosed location.’
For whatever reason people are suddenly waking up to the fact that life as we know it is teetering on the brink of…not being what we will recognize…deciding to become more self-reliant can’t be a bad thing, or can it?
Of course we should all be responsible for our own survival during times of disaster. Anyone that has grown up in earthquake or tornado country knows there is always a possibility we could be left to our own devices for a number of days or even weeks following either.
Is the new trend toward survivalism going to lead to a nation of stingy, jaded-eye hoarders? Will people start to secretly hide sacks of rice under their beds and potatoes under their floor boards? Will they be looking at their neighbors wondering who among them they will have to fight with to protect the rice under their beds?
Will people become isolationists in their own neighborhoods and buildings in an effort to keep friends and neighbors in the dark about their stockpiles of food? Too few of us don’t know our neighbors now. Won’t the ‘every man for himself’ mentality pit us all against each other even further?
It looks to me like we are in the first stages of a total breakdown of civility. Is this the divide and conquer tactic, and if so by whom are we being divided?
Stories like this one are sprouting up all over. Costco employees snatching bags of rice from customers buggies who try to buy more than the limit. Keep in mind the limit varies. Apparently Costco is looking at ‘prior purchasing history’. At a Costco in Queens there was no limit on rice, but there was a limit on oil and flour.
Each one of these articles I’ve linked to above, reference the same ‘former U.S. army intelligence officer’. No small deal. Maybe he’s gone into the P.R. business in his spare time.
In researching this entry I found about 668,000 matches for survivalism.
Like the Boy Scouts say, “Be prepared”. But, I have to wonder if I’m prepared to defend what’s in my cupboard.
Labels: Costco, Food Crisis, Food Riots, Food Shortage, Hoarding, Rice, Survivalist, survivalism
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Food Shortages and Buying Limits Reach the U.S. Now that Mother Hubbard’s cupboard is full, will she have to shoot her dog to protect it?
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Biofuels are becoming the next Bogeyman. Is an explosion of fear over food shortages creating a new enemy or is it the Oil Industry?
The best quote I’ve seen in defense of biofuels comes from Brazil’s President Lula. “Don’t tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn’t prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat,” say Lula.
Biofuels are being billed as the diversion of food resources. Jean Ziegler at the U.N. calls biofuels a “crime against humanity,” Oil-rich Venezuela warns that biofuels could increase malnutrition in Latin America.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says, the rise in food prices is due to “inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries”. Merkel says “insufficient forecasts of changes in nutritional habits” in emerging markets are also part of the problem.
Imagine having debate over the ’second meal’. I guess that’s what Merkel feels is a change in nutritional habits. It must be shocking to think people might consider two meals a day. Merkel says of India, “People are eating twice a day, and if a third of one billion people in India do that, it adds up to 300 million people.” Indeed.
Imagine 100 million Chinese suddenly start drinking milk. I would imagine if the world starts eating like the Americans they will start dropping from heart disease and obesity like the Americans too. Perhaps those figures should be added into the mix of long range food forecasts.
Germany is the largest biofuels producer in Europe. Second is France whose biofuels program is said to use up only 7% of French fields.
The World Bank reports, increased bio-fuel production has contributed to the rise in food prices. World Bank President Bob Zoelick called biofuels a “significant contributor” to soaring food prices around the world.
On Tuesday a law went into affect in Britain that requires 2.5 % of all gasoline and diesel sold be derived from biofuels.
What’s the upshot? For now it seems we can’t move to cleaner forms of energy and feed the planet.
How is it possible this global food crisis has seemingly blind-sided the globe?
Labels: Bio Fuels, Climate Change, Food Shortage, Global Warming, Merkel, Survivalist, World Bank
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Will Biofuels Die of Starvation?
