Any concerns about food shortages?

[The Heretic]

Production outpaces consumption, if that changed, there would be issues, but stores being bare within a day during panic isn't a production issue, it's a logistics issue.

Whether it is production or logistics or both, depends on the scenario. We are seeing both right now and have for the past 18 months. Some farmers cannot get workers, supplies, fuel, so they have let crops rot and/or plow them into the ground. Then there is the logistics of fuel and truckers (the latter will probably be mitigated in the near future with autonomous trucks in at least some parts of the chain).

If we had a serious long term logistics issue, that obviously could be a major problem, but thankfully people who work for a living are incentivized to keep doing that.

Right now there are chinks in that "armor", weak links in the chain and we are seeing problems due to those issues.

 

[TTSX]

I'm not really concerned but I'm also capable. If I were an old fart or had children, I might be.

 

[Knobgoblin]

Heard a rumor from a friend that distribution trucks are stopping in Albany because they do not have any food to deliver.

That is all the info I got and I am wondering if any one can confirm or debunk?

I don't have any idea about your local realities.
However : a shortage of MANPOWER in the processing, warehousing, and delivery of food has been in effect for well over a year.
I work in the grocery business.
We're currently in the middle of the worst 2 weeks since Rona Prime .
Warehouse almost completely shut down due to no staff available. Drivers are also valued higher than virgins in a human sacrifice cult.
Compound the low delivery fulfillment numbers with the fact that food stampers are getting enough government digital scrip to buy indiscriminately in quantity and Ta-Da !
Empty shelves.

 

[The Heretic]

Just got home from a grocery store. Saw no empty shelves, but I avoided most aisles and I didn't need much, mostly just dairy products and a few frozen foods. Without looking in the storage area and knowing what they should look like, plus some kind of insight into the supply logistics/etc., empty shelves are the last thing a typical shopper sees long after problems have been present for a while and the first clue that there is a problem. I will take the word of people like KG who actually sees what is happening behind the scenes long before us shoppers know there are problems.

 

[Knobgoblin]

This weekend, in Lewis and less populated counties along the coast.

If store is supplied by a certain 4 letter named warehouse, you might see some holes. Frozen and dry goods most prominently.

Consider the Just In Time Delivery thread as complimentary to this one.

 

[Tony617]

Went to Costco yesterday evening and other bottled water, TP, and Paper Towels they had everything I needed on the shelves. They only thing they did not have was Bob's Red Mill Steel cut oats. I had been buying a large box each trip but have not seen for a couple of months now.

 

[Howard1955]

The world being the way it is now, I think the people who live in cities do have cause for concern. What would they do if the groceries stopped flowing into the cities?

 

[American123]

The world being the way it is now, I think the people who live in cities do have cause for concern. What would they do if the groceries stopped flowing into the cities?

Even most rural America isn't set up to subsist entirely on their own harvest/livestock. Cities would clearly get bad the fastest, but the vast majority of our entire society is set up to be able to go to the grocery store and buy a variety of foods. The farmers who grow all the wheat we eat still go to the grocery store to buy bread, etc.

 

[Howard1955]

Time to bring back the 'Victory Gardens'. We can all inundate each other with our surplus veggies.

 

[American123]

Time to bring back the 'Victory Gardens'. We can all inundate each other with our surplus veggies.

That and urban chickens have gotten really popular, but again - people are still going to the store to buy chicken feed. The whole system is intertwined, you just have to decide how much you want to prepare for it to have a problem.

 

[The Heretic]

Went to Costco yesterday evening and other bottled water, TP, and Paper Towels they had everything I needed on the shelves. They only thing they did not have was Bob's Red Mill Steel cut oats. I had been buying a large box each trip but have not seen for a couple of months now.

Winco usually has that - at least in small packages. I've not seen it at Costco.

Costco is problematic in two ways:

1) They will have something and then they won't - half their stuff they often have for a short period of time, and then when they run out they never have it again. They just happened upon an oversupply or other good deal for a short time.

2) They will move some things around just to force you to walk all the aisles. It increases buying of stuff you didn't know you wanted. https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-store-layouts-are-confusing-by-design-2018-3

 

[The Heretic]

Time to bring back the 'Victory Gardens'. We can all inundate each other with our surplus veggies.

This time of the year, back before we sold the family farm, we would visit the farm and my grandma would insist we take whatever bumper crop there was currently from the garden - often a full box of tomatoes or something like that, and half of it would spoil before we ate all of it. Good times & memories.

 

[Tony617]

Winco usually has that - at least in small packages. I've not seen it at Costco.

Costco is problematic in two ways:

1) They will have something and then they won't - half their stuff they often have for a short period of time, and then when they run out they never have it again. They just happened upon an oversupply or other good deal for a short time.

2) They will move some things around just to force you to walk all the aisles. It increases buying of stuff you didn't know you wanted. https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-store-layouts-are-confusing-by-design-2018-3

I know they move things around so I walk down each row at least once.

 

[RobMa]

Been stocking up for some time now, both ammo, water and food. always helps to be ready regardless of what's going on...

 

[P7M13]

The world being the way it is now, I think the people who live in cities do have cause for concern. What would they do if the groceries stopped flowing into the cities?

They would riot, and try to make up some catchy acronym to indicate that their insignificant lives matter. The donation site for them would all be funneled into Hunter Biden's offshore account.

That and urban chickens have gotten really popular, but again - people are still going to the store to buy chicken feed. The whole system is intertwined, you just have to decide how much you want to prepare for it to have a problem.

When I raised chickens in the city, once I had them established, seldom bought food, but did get gravel for their crops. They would eat finely chopped table scraps and feast on the bugs the scraps attracted. Those suckers laid year round.

 

[OldTengu]

Yes, I am concerned about shortages, but I have a second concern that is directly related to them.

Friends in the volunteer fire departments in and around Multnomah county have seen a marked increase in people getting sick from eating wild vegetation, mostly mushrooms, some berries. Most of them have been trying to supplement their grocery shopping by going out into the woods and harvesting what they find. I think we're going to see that spike as the shortages get worse.

 

[The Heretic]

Besides not eating poisonous berries, make sure the blackberries you eat have not been sprayed to kill them. I always tell my neighbors when I am spraying so they know not to mess with the berries.

 

[Xaevian]

Expect some pork shortages thanks to the new CA animal rights law.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Expect some pork shortages thanks to the new CA animal rights law.

Fake. There's a glut of pork in California.






Lol

 

[Knobgoblin]

Expect some pork shortages thanks to the new CA animal rights law.

Maybe, maybe not.
China and south Korea buying our exports would be a more significant factor in fresh pork availability. Price, while currently slightly higher, is almost unnoticeable when compared to beef.

Any shortage, or higher prices, in pork are almost always due to a lack of processing and transportation help.
Feed prices are also on the rise (drought).