yes ..you hit the nail right on the head there Carl ...One good year and not only the public , but the government as well think everything is fine and dandy . However, I think we in the western civilisation , are about to experience the things that third world people have lived with forever ! Weather patterns are ( as we already know ) going to play a huge role in this . Crop failure (already started) animal disease ( already started) fuel crisis (just about to start ) . In the UK the government has been trying to kill off agriculture for the whole term of it's office. They change the basic setup that has taken centuries to evolve , to something they just think up on the spot and say oh this is better we will do it this way now....Then after a year or so when it all crumbles they invent a new 'better' system ?
The thing that really worries me is, that farming has taken such a huge hit for years now, that if ? WHEN the fuel crisis really hits, all this fantastic cheap food that we have got used to transporting all round the world, added to the decline in farming ,will become very every expensive at least, if ? even available. Food from around the world is only cheap as long as fuel to transport it is cheap . Also if world climate changes, and food becomes scarce, will the people that supply us the huge amounts we need, go without themselves ? Our food supply system is similar to the USA one , based on a 3 day turn round . So , after 3 days of no deliveries the towns and cities have NO food to fall back on ....It can all go wrong very fast, and like a lot of other things , it is more luck than judgment that has kept it going as long as it has so far ! Fuel crisis ! No fuel means no food can be moved around the country full stop . If you think that the government have plans for such an event , think again . There are , at most , 48-72 hours fuel set asside for emergency services , police ,fire and ambulance. The army have very little reserve. After 3 days it would very quickly become everyone for themselves. For those of us who have our own stock and grow our own food , life will be different , even very hard . But for those in big towns and cities , with no idea of how to grow food, let alone the space and time to do so ,what would happen to them ? It has been over the last 10-15 years that our lives have really changed so much , without us even realizing it . I just hope that my doom and gloom senario is wrong, and that life as we know it can hold on till a new (old) system returns . It is starting ( farmers markets and the like ) ( localy grown organic food) but is it enough ? can the crumbling system we have now hold on long enough ? I really hope so . A big problem that could play a part also is that for 60 years or so now , farming has become almost totally reliant on chemical fertilizer. Without the tons of it that is heaped on the ground to make crops grow , huge areas of land will be barron infertile wasteland. This has been known for years now . But very little done to solve the problem !
The best thing we can do (in my opinion ) is set ourselves up so that if/when it happens , we are able to step things up a bit to supply ourselves ,and who ever else we could help. Lets hope that things keep on sitting on the knife edge for a while longer , I do not like the thought of what is waiting if it slips off of the knife. Oh and although I keep this very firmly in my mind , I don't walk round thinking doom and gloom , the world is going to end ! I do what I do becuase I want to and I like doing it ! but it also has the added benefit that IF things go wrong I WILL SURVIVE ......Must go and take some happy pills now...