(by Half Dollar) If you watched our short-run of Silver Doctors Live shows on YouTube, you would have known that for a variety of reasons, food price inflation was one of my main themes for 2020.
In part, I was looking for food price inflation because of covering all of the unprecedented natural disasters that took place around the world during all of the seasons in 2019.
From the flooding and the arctic blasts in the US, to the pig flu in China and the poor rice harvest in India, there really were shocks to the food production system all year long.
Enter 2020, and now we have a whole new level of problem to deal with when it comes to the food supply: How to make food production happen during a global pandemic, at a time when on top of getting off to a bad start, there are global supply chain disruptions, migrant labor issues, lockdowns and myriad curveballs which can only spell rising food prices?
Speaking of the supply chain disruptions, here’s some mainstream confirmation to what is and has been expected, from Bloomberg:
Key Food Prices Are Surging After Virus Upends Supply Chains
As the coronavirus pandemic penetrates more deeply into global supply chains, prices for key staples are starting to soar in some parts of the world.
Rice and wheat — crops that account for about a third of the world’s calories — have been making rapid climbs in spot and futures markets. For countries that rely on imports, this is creating an added financial burden just as the pandemic shatters their economies and erodes their purchasing power. In Nigeria, for example, the cost of rice in retail markets soared by more than 30% in the last four days of March alone.
It’s unclear what the biggest drivers were for the retail prices, whether it was a trickle-down effect from grain futures or local logistical choke points or panic buying, or a combination.
It may not be clear to Bloomberg, but the bottom line is that there are now many added costs to doing business in a coronavirus plagued world, no pun intended, such as more inspections, more sanitation practices (proof?), more logistics problems, and a host of other factors that are driving up the prices for food.
Note, however, the positive spin by Bloomberg:
What is clear is that, while the world isn’t about to run out of food anytime soon, anxiety over policy makers’ ability to deliver it to the right place at the right time and at the right price is mounting.
Which only speaks to the absurdity of the MSM in general, and the collective absurdity of drooling over Bloomberg specifically.
That is to say, in the previous paragraph, Bloomberg is unclear about the fundamentals, but in the very next paragraph, they’re so certain as to the global food supply?
Food price inflation will continue to be a thing.
Food shortages, in my opinion, will be a thing before its all over as well, and the extent of the shortages depends on where you live.
For example, if you’re in the United States or some other developed country with plush food sources from all over the world, you may have less selection and rising prices, but if you’re in the third world and your country is already food insecure, then get ready for famine.
Regardless, get a garden going, even if it bears no fruit this year because you’ve never done it before.
In my opinion, jalapenos, cucumbers and tomatoes are all easy to grow, which we’ve grown before, as well are herbs like cilantro, chives, basil, and mint.
Sure – veggies aren’t enough for subsistence, but every bit helps, and there is not doubt that vegetables are good for you.
Besides, perhaps the guy with the yard birds down the road will let go of some eggs for some jalapenos?
Food for thought…