Growing your own and the oncoming food crisis

Closet_Grower · Feb 14, 2011

i hear the worlds grain supply is going down down down....

i think grain is important, or so they say... i have no idea. But I use money to buy food, and or grain....

but what if i dont have any money? or I have lots of money but its rendered useless and obsolete?

Maybe I can trade my weed to a farmer I know for food or I'll fish cause I can and trade/eat fish... I dont like hunting much but I like to chop wood so i'll start the fire and get you baked all night for dinner

ohh plus the gov passed a law in a city I know that you can keep chickens in a coup... like CITY style... peeps got worried but then calmed down when no one actually got chickens. fuck i'd pluck sum chickens

CG

zenoonez · Feb 14, 2011

whodare said:
you guys who think your small garden in your back yard is gunna feed you are sorely mistaken... youd need somewhere around an acre of land per person...

and supposing it was really a fuel and weather crisis, cause thats likely what it will be, how are you gunna maintain a 4 acre garden without oil...

if the shit hits the fan for real itll be back to the basics... hunting and gathering, maybe when things settle agriculture will return...

realize that farming was the fall back, man was never able to live only off farming until the industrial revolution, before then we grew crops only as a supplement to hunting... no way a family could farm the acreage to feed them year round without anything else...

no offense
who.d

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng&feature=related

Might not be the food you want but it can and has been done. People have lived off of their gardens before when meat was something only eaten every once in a while.

stellblue · Feb 14, 2011

Well, obviously you've got to do something about harvesting rainwater. It's astonishing how much water just runs right off and into the sea; few people in the US have cisterns or care much about saving water. I'm part of the trial LA Rainwater harvesting Program, I even got a free 80 gal cistern that's right under my downspout. I download the water it collects into plastic garbage cans...and that's the perfect live water I give to my organic grow. It's all good.

But it's certainly true that if you live in a city and any one of the important life-supporting systems fail, you will not be able to live there for very long. If that happens in LA I'm planning on hiking out via the old LA river because I've seen enough post-apocalyptic sci-fi films to know that all the criminals will be out on the freeways demanding tolls & ripping you off...if you're lucky.
:hide:

Of course, I have no clue where I'd go once I got out of LA, so I know I've got a major flaw in my survival plan.

whodare · Feb 14, 2011

zenoonez said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng&feature=related

Might not be the food you want but it can and has been done. People have lived off of their gardens before when meat was something only eaten every once in a while.

sorry left out the fishing. but again large scale farming of any sort is out of the question if you dont have fuel, equipment, and are off the grid... all very likely circumstances in a shtf scenario...

Bullfrog44 · Feb 14, 2011

This is absurd. Are you saying you can collect enough rain water from your downspouts for a years worth of water?

stellblue said:
Well, obviously you've got to do something about harvesting rainwater. It's astonishing how much water just runs right off and into the sea; few people in the US have cisterns or care much about saving water. I'm part of the trial LA Rainwater harvesting Program, I even got a free 80 gal cistern that's right under my downspout. I download the water it collects into plastic garbage cans...and that's the perfect live water I give to my organic grow. It's all good.

But it's certainly true that if you live in a city and any one of the important life-supporting systems fail, you will not be able to live there for very long. If that happens in LA I'm planning on hiking out via the old LA river because I've seen enough post-apocalyptic sci-fi films to know that all the criminals will be out on the freeways demanding tolls & ripping you off...if you're lucky.

Of course, I have no clue where I'd go once I got out of LA, so I know I've got a major flaw in my survival plan.

robbiedublu · Feb 14, 2011

Deft said:
Honestly... I don't think the USA is going to have a food shortage any time soon. What crisis??

Look into if your municipality has a community garden program. I used to have a small plot I filled with basil and tomatoes etc (caprese salad and gallons of pesto FTW) it was $15 a year and well worth it.

Basil clones like a mofo

Are you kidding? Either you haven't been paying attention or you're unrealistically optimistic. As soon as farmers don't want worthless bernankebucks anymore or there's no fuel for shipping or it's just too expensive to ship stuff, this whole game grinds to a halt. 1 or 2 days without deliveries and store shelves are empty. Just ask the people in New Orleans. It's coming nationwide at some point. Obviously some areas will be worse than others depending on local conditions. Read a little bit about hyperinflation and you will realize that any amount of fiat dollars may not be able to buy anything. How much gold, silver or other tradeable commodities do you have?

greenmatter · Feb 14, 2011

i don't understand why everyone who can does not have an outdoor garden anyway. for as long as i can remember i have loved to have my hands in the dirt. i do it because i have always loved it, not so much to hold off starvation. if one day what i love saves my ass then good for me.

maybe if all the acreage in the US that is clogged up with the lawn that your HOA made you plant and was full of food we would not be talking about a crisis. just my opinion of course.

stellblue · Feb 14, 2011

no, of course not, that is absurd. And like I mentioned above, if our water, or electric systems for that matter, failed people would be forced to leave the cities to find water. You can't exist very long w/o it. I might go a few more days or weeks ...just maybe...than most, that's all.

Right now I collect perfectly ph'd h2o that's enough for my grow...not for my own, or families, needs...you'd have to build a big underground cistern to do that. From what i've seen at some green building expos cisterns are all the rage in places like Australia. they're developing lots of above ground cisterns, like free standing water walls, and systems you can attach to the side of you home.

Bullfrog44 said:
This is absurd. Are you saying you can collect enough rain water from your downspouts for a years worth of water?

greenmatter · Feb 14, 2011

stellblue said:
no, of course not, that is absurd. And like I mentioned above, if our water, or electric systems for that matter, failed people would be forced to leave the cities to find water. You can't exist very long w/o it. I might go a few more days or weeks ...just maybe...than most, that's all.

Right now I collect perfectly ph'd h2o that's enough for my grow...not for my own, or families, needs...you'd have to build a big underground cistern to do that. From what i've seen at some green building expos cisterns are all the rage in places like Australia. they're developing lots of above ground cisterns, like free standing water walls, and systems you can attach to the side of you home.

all great stuff. on the other hand in places like colorado it is illegal to harvest rain water. i know it's bullshit but its true. sucks IMHO

ronbo51 · Feb 14, 2011

For us growers having a garden is just natural. It feeds the need to tend plants, with the added benefit of feeding us also. I spent 7 years at farmers markets selling produce. I got to know growers bigger and smaller than me and learned a lot. Whether you would grow for yourself or others it is still basically mathematics. Input costs are skyrocketing along with everything else. I spent 100 dollars on just vegetable seed this year, and my garden is not that big. Straw for mulch, soil amendments, tools, fencing, water, and the biggest input-labor. Yesterday I spent all day double digging two 4* 25 foot beds for my early greens. I have a tiller but wanted real deep beds for carrots. Then I set up hoops and covered the beds with floating row cover. A full day of HARD labor for 8 rows of veggies. Don't get me wrong. I love it. I waited all winter for this. BUT the idea that you can go grow all your food is not realistic unless you were to have your entire family devote their lives to nothing else but growing, harvesting and storage. And what about winter?? Do you think you could successfully store a full harvest of potatoes and winter squash until next years crop comes in?
Everyone should have a garden. Everyone should grow as much of their own food as they can. Get good at it and learn. Go to your local farmers market and ask if you can spend a day sometime working gratis at their farm to get a sense of what its like. Plant this spring. Mulch like crazy. Stay ahead of the weeds and pests. Pick often and early. Replant as the season goes. Hang out at the local nursery and talk to the guy or girl that runs the greenhouse where you can buy starts of cabbage and tomatoes. Use the knowledge gained from growing cannabis to guide you. It is tremendously rewarding but like everything rewarding the satisfaction comes from hard work and stubborn perserverence. Oh, and don't forget to tuck in the autoflowers here and there for an extra bonus. Hiding autos in the veggie patch is a no brainer.

windsurfer · Feb 14, 2011

Americans on icmag are costantly talking about the day of doom.... the day when the fiat currency collapses there is anarchy all around with the country under martial law but the laws not being adhered to anymore, and how you (america, richest country on the planet) should "stock up on tinned food and drinking water" LOL America is the richest country in the world with the joint largest economy

theres not going to be any "panick" any time soon in US of A

SpasticGramps · Feb 14, 2011

windsurfer said:
America is the richest country in the world with the joint largest economy

theres not going to be any "panick" any time soon in US of A

We are also victims of our own hubris and arrogance. The "nothing bad can ever happen here" mentality is about to be seriously challenged.

If you know anything about economics you'd realize we have permanent structural economic problems that have only not collapsed because we are printing money to prop up the failed system. You cannot do this forever. It's been tried before. Currency destruction is inevitable.

It's not just Americans on IC Mag. If you paid attention to the markets this would be almost considered common knowledge. The third world will be the first to not be able to afford food and then it will be us. We are already in the beginning stages globally. Americans will reap what we have sown.

robbiedublu · Feb 14, 2011

windsurfer said:
Americans on icmag are costantly talking about the day of doom.... the day when the fiat currency collapses there is anarchy all around with the country under martial law but the laws not being adhered to anymore, and how you (america, richest country on the planet) should "stock up on tinned food and drinking water" LOL America is the richest country in the world with the joint largest economy

theres not going to be any "panick" any time soon in US of A

Wow! You just keep windsurfing and ignore everything going on around you. Everything will be fine. The US government will never let anything unpleasant happen to you.
How can you say that the US is the richest country on the planet? I think what you mean is that the US is the biggest debtor nation on the planet. The US owes so much money it can never be repayed. NEVER ! It's mathematically IMPOSSIBLE! I guess that makes us rich. LOL!!

SpasticGramps · Feb 14, 2011

Roubini’s Next Crisis Is Scary Food for Thought: William Pesek Bloomberg News

Forget Egypt for a moment. Skip the water crisis in China. Look past angst on the streets of Bangladesh. If you want to see how extreme the effects of surging food prices are becoming, look to wealthy Japan.

So big are the increases that economists are buzzing about them pushing deflationary Japan toward inflation. Yes, rising costs for commodities such as wheat, corn and coffee might do what trillions of dollars of central-bank liquidity couldn’t.

Yet the economic consequences of food prices pale in comparison with the social ones. Nowhere could the fallout be greater than Asia, where a critical mass of those living on less than $2 a day reside. It might have major implications for Asia’s debt outlook. It may have even bigger ones for leaders hoping to keep the peace and avoid mass protests.

What a difference a few months can make. Back in, say, October, the chatter was about Asia’s invulnerability to Wall Street’s woes. Now, governments in Jakarta, Manila and New Delhi are grappling with their own subprime crisis of sorts. This one reflects a toxic mix of suboptimal food stocks, exploding demand, wacky weather and zero interest rates around the globe.

More inflation please. CPI is still too low.

motaco · Feb 14, 2011

You know I hate to say it but clearly pot makes people paranoid and delusional.

Its amazing how many 2012 and random doomsday people pot forums attract.

FreeThePlant · Feb 14, 2011

motaco said:
You know I hate to say it but clearly pot makes people paranoid and delusional.

Its amazing how many 2012 and random doomsday people pot forums attract.

Wow, seriously? You're calling people names now? Fucked up, dude.

Pot doesn't make people paranoid and delusional. Sounds like you need to go work for the US government.

People are paranoid for good reasons 99% of the time. If you're out buying weed, of course you're going to be paranoid.

In this day and age it's commonplace to be paranoid of the government. If you simply educate yourself you will realize the lengths the US government has gone to to eliminate your rights and create a police state. You can think it's all "conspiracy garbage", but that's because you're uneducated. I suggest you stop calling people paranoid and delusional and read something.

SpasticGramps · Feb 14, 2011

motaco said:
You know I hate to say it but clearly pot makes people paranoid and delusional.

A lot of highly respect economists, historians, and market makers must be paranoid and deluded too. Or maybe it's the sleeping masses who are deluded and uneducated.

Inflation is a conspiracy theory now? What do you think is triggering the social unrest in the middle east? Commodity prices going exponential? Eh, it's a conspiracy theory. It's not really happening. lmao.

We are about to see who the deluded ones really are. I know one thing for sure. You can't eat irony.

Closet_Grower · Feb 14, 2011

FreeThePlant said:
Wow, seriously? You're calling people names now? Fucked up, dude.

Pot doesn't make people paranoid and delusional. Sounds like you need to go work for the US government.

People are paranoid for good reasons 99% of the time. If you're out buying weed, of course you're going to be paranoid.

In this day and age it's commonplace to be paranoid of the government. If you simply educate yourself you will realize the lengths the US government has gone to to eliminate your rights and create a police state. You can think it's all "conspiracy garbage", but that's because you're uneducated. I suggest you stop calling people paranoid and delusional and read something.

People need to wake up a little to what the fuck is really going on in this world. Unfortunately most people "buy" in and believe in the system that they will do anything to maintain it. Even go to such things as name calling and type casting all who dont follow the status quo as "conspiracy theorists".

I too think people should educate themselves before believing in anything their precious government tells them. And believing that you live in the freest country in the world, or even the richest just shows your lack of knowledge on the subject.

SpasticGramps · Feb 14, 2011

Here's another "conspiracy theory." lmao

NBSC says food inflation in China in 50 cities has gone up 4.6% in 10 days. From January 21-31, 2011. Nothing to see here. Move along.

This is simply stunning. A quick parsing of the data released every ten days by the National Bureau Of Statistics of China indicates that the average price of food in 50 cities in the January 21-31 period has increased by 4.6% compared to the prior 10 day period (and 416% annualized)! Granted, this is a simple average calculation of the 29 food items tracked without any weighing, although a quick glance at the components confirms that tonight's Chinese CPI will likely be a doozy. Some of the key changes: cucumbers up 28.2% in ten days, kidney beans up 21.9%, rapes [no pun] up 14.5%, tomatoes up 12.9%, hair tails up 4.7%, bananas up 3.6%, chickens up 3.1%. And this, again, is in the past 10 days! But not all is lost: Soybean oil actually dropped by 0.1%. Time for China to release an adjusted adjusted CPI which excludes all foodstuffs except for Soybean oil (and remember, in China, food is 31.4% of CPI)... which actually is exactly what is about to happen.

From the NBSC, which is somehow more transparent, and accurate, than the US' own Department of Truth.

But fear not: that 31.4% for food as % of CPI...that's about to be revised dramatically lower. And that will make inflation disappear.

Chinese stocks jumped more than 1 percent in early trade on Monday on talk of slower-than-expected inflation in January.

Traders said that consumer prices may have risen 4.9 percent in the year to January, well below the consensus forecast of 5.3 percent. The official data will be announced on Tuesday.

But they added that the surprisingly low reading may have been the result of changes to the weighting of the consumer price index (CPI).
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.5 percent at 0237 GMT.

The National Bureau of Statistics regularly adjusts the composition of the CPI basket, conducting small tweaks every year and a major adjustment every five years. It is due for the five-year shift.

The statistics agency is expected to reduce the weighting of food in CPI and, with rising food prices having led the pick-up in Chinese inflation in recent months, such a change would likely lead to a lower inflation reading.

Click to expand...

So all shall be well, and people will never be hungry on paper ever again. In the meantime, buy stocks. Unlike gold and crude, paper is edible, if completely inert in the human digestive tract. Time for some biotech to come up with a drug allowing the stomach to decompose cellulose.

mosstrooper · Feb 14, 2011

In the future, real wealth will be measured in cattle, corn, potatoes and ganja.
Or it will where i live.

Growing your own and the oncoming food crisis

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