[RUSTYME]

Yes ... there really is a world food shortage happening right now.  For some reason not that much is being said about it in the media or by governments. But the wheat harvest alone is down by 50% in some places and down 75% at worst in others . This is due to a number of reasons , one being drought , another being floods . Yes... sounds crazy but it is true !! Yet another reason is land being used to grow biofuel crops . It seems people would rather drive their car than eat ?
 It is difficult to pick up much clear information , but places such as India and Africa and China are facing a very serious risk of huge food shortages from now on (much worse than anything seen before!). This shortage also has a knock on effect on us . Already prices have started to creep up . The wheat shortage is also having an effect on other grains such as oats barley and rice .  With the wheat shortage being so great other grains are being used instead .
 For people who are prepared (and can afford) to pay whatever , for a loaf of bread (maybe £5 or £10 ), or a few lbs of spuds , then let them do so , no probs. But for people who either just don't want to pay that much or just can't afford to , then now would be a good time to start growing your own food , if you are not already . If you are , think about growing MORE . This really is the calm before the storm ...... get digging and get ready. This isn't dig for victory .... but it could be dig for life !!!

cheers

Russ

[doganjo]

I was just thinking Russ.  You find all this information on the internet and yet you were intending to give it all up - and us - for what you think is a better life - a solitary life if everything you say comes true.  What on earth will you do without this lifeline of yours if you do go powerless    You must spend a great deal of time trawling the 'net.  You'd have to find another hobby!  And would it be so interesting, I wonder?

[Snoopy]

Ah it wont be solitary, he has family and friends around - and is capable of looking after them all.

He used to worry me Annie, as I thought he would be lonely and crack up or get depressed - but he has too many
hobbies and things to do for that to happen him 

- although he does need us and the computer now,  as we      hopefully
help him to slow     down and look after his heart    and his health.

I do hope you are resting Russ and not overdoing it - again   

Julie

[RUSTYME]

Hello Annie,
        lol... Yes I know what you mean sort of !!  I do trawl the net, as it were, for information , but I have become rather good and fast at doing so . It therefore takes me very little time to find major stories or information on particular subjects I  am watching . Many subjects have leads within them, which makes research even easier.
  The giving it all up bit is just a personal thing really . I am not giving IT up because it is the end of the world . I am just choosing to live a different way to what has become the norm . Wether it is a better life or not I don't know , it's just how I am happy to live . It isn't for everybody , but there again would you want to clean out the bed pans in a hospital all day ? someone does !!!
  Giving it up has come about slowly . It is a realization by me that I can't (even if I wanted to ) live the 'normal' life and all it's expenses . However, I don't want to .... I don't want all the plastic crap that falls apart the day you buy it , I don't want all the new latest electrical techno crap thing that is out of date the day you buy it , I can't help it .. it is just the way I am .
 These days before someone even thinks of cutting a lump of wood , out they go and spend £?? on the latest electric saw . A saw they will most likely use once maybe twice . I just use my old hand saw , the dearest one cost me 50p at a boot sale 20 years ago . Others I have been given , and they all cut perfectly well and all I need to make them run , is a cup of tea and a cheese sarnie.
 People seem to be unable to live without a mobile phone stuck to their ear these days ....why ? what is so important that they have to be on the phone nearly every minute of the day ?  Still thats what they want to do , and thats fine by me .... but I don't want to ....
 I will be quite happy looking after my veggies and working in my woodwork shed or the metalwork shed , making a cart or a tool or fixing something that has broken, whatever. If the end of the world happens to come along , then so be it .... I will just be doing what I want to do anyway . It just so happens that the things I want to do and I am doing , will enable me to carry on as before .  Also if TSHTF and everything went tits up , then most of my family would be there with me , assuming they were all ok .
 I am very near to going off radar , and if I had too , I could go tomorrow , but I had a few set backs that slowed things up a bit, earlier this year. But things seem ok now , so on with the show again . While I am in limbo land ,  one toe on the merry go round  and the rest of me off . I need the PC to get by . But once I step off completely I won't need it for anything . My family all have pc's and can use the web , so If I needed to use one I could do so easily enough.
 As for hobbies ... well making a wagon or a replica of Jethro Tull's seed drill , or making parts for a new horse plough , or thatching a roof , or making a water wheel and mill , the list goes on and on ....as interesting as the net ? I can't speak for anybody else , but for me, yes !!!
 It may not be a better life ,  it is different I'll grant , but it is MY life , and what I want to do ...end of the world or not !!!

cheers

Russ

[RUSTYME]

yep ... been taking it easy Julie... gradually changing my diet over to more veg etc ... 6 months of the year I eat almost only salads . Trying to remember to eat more garlic and take Apple cider vinegar every day as well as hemp oil . Along with taking things easy , most of the first time digging is done now , so only digging over now . Much easier , and any new ground to be dug will be done by tractor or horseplough .
 Cracking up isn't really on my books ....I just throw utter wobblies .. then carry on .... Mind you I did walk to the land yesterday , 2.5 miles x 2 , in the wrong boots . They took the skin off of  the back of my heels, with the biggest blisters I have ever seen  , so I am hobling around like an old man today    ( like an old man ? ) .

cheers

Russ

[HappyHippy]

I think you've got the right idea Russ, as long as it makes you happy that's all that really matters (and you've got plenty of supplies for me & my brood when the end of the world comes and we all pile in the car, running on veg oil, and drive down to invade you  )
I'm definately 'getting back to basics' in some ways, but for the moment am stuck paying for utilities (until I get an alternative in place) and don't think I would be able to give up my broadband - I think the expression "not unless you prise it from my cold dead fingers" kinda sums it up  
But I love that you've the confidence and ability to do everything you do, and that it makes you happy  
When the end of the world does come you'll be the one with everything sorted and able to stick two fingers up at the 'establishment' and say "HaHa, I told you !" Unless, of course, they decide to issue a compulsory purchase order and take it all away from you  
But getting back to the food shortage - it's a worry. Maybe (my optimistic bit coming out here  ) it'll be better next year and not have a terrible impact on the food chain. Surely there are enough grain mountains to keep us going a wee while ?
Meanwhile I'll be getting some seed and maybe turning over half of the ground for my piggies into a wee wheat field next year (just in case  )

[RUSTYME]

stick two fingers up at the 'establishment' and say "HaHa, I told you !" Unless, of course, they decide to issue a compulsory purchase order and take it all away from you  

I think your other words

I think the expression "not unless you prise it from my cold dead fingers" kinda sums it up

applies there....
 If THEY leave me alone I will leave THEM alone ....But if they push to hard ... well, Rambo will look like a pussycat...compared to the mayhem and crap I would cause them ....

DON'T PUSH ME !!!  

As for grain mountains ...er nope ... they don't exist anymore....hand to mouth is how it is done these days , and there in lies the problem . I already have my wheat seed ...just as well, the cost has tripled since I got it . It is still rising now .Along with the cost of oats ,barley and to a lesser extent rye. Rice went through the roof then slid back and is now on the increase again.
If you do think of growing some grain , then 3lb of seed sown and harvested would supply enough to sow a half to one acre , (dependant on variety , soil and weather etc.) , the following year . An acre would give you about 1 to 2 tons of seed , and about the same in straw .   You can also lose the lot too ... as has happened in some places this year   .
 A very rough and easy calculation for how much wheat you need is , one square yard of wheat , will give up to about 1lb of seed at harvest ,(a 1/2lb or 3/4lb maybe a bit nearer the mark) but for rough reckoning 1lb per sq yd . That would yield about 3/4lb of flour . So if you needed 1 loaf a day , you could very roughly say that would be 1 sq yd for each day ...365 sq yds for the year . I would then double or even treble that amount to allow for losses. I know that is a weird calculation , but it isn't rocket science , it is wheat !!! and the calculation seems to work ok on a small scale .

cheers

Russ

[sausagesandcash]

Rusty (are you talkin' to) me!! Its De Niro in disguise!!! Just copped on ...can I call you Robert or Bob?
Lol

[RUSTYME]

you talkin' to me ?
 if your talkin' to me ? you can call me..... Russell , Russ , Rusty , Robert , Rob , Bob , Roger , Rog , Pillock , A*sehole , B*stard , Div , Dimwhit or a plethora of even more colourful titles ...all of which apply , and all of which I answer to readily . 

cheers

Russ

[doganjo]

Ok, SWEETHEART

[smiffy]

Back on topic

Rusty i have been watching this for a while, the food shortages are arising becouse of the failing water supply

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/07/02/28/the-water-shortage-crisis-in-america--amp-the-world-a-quick-overview-of-a-most-dangerous-crisis.htm

http://www.ft.com/indepth/water

http://www.countercurrents.org/en-dutt251006.htm

I say bomb the aswan dam and flood egypt again, that will produce a huge amount of grain, they are in africa for gods sake, if they need electricity GET SOLAR!!!

[sausagesandcash]

Ah the 'ol dam busters!

[sandy]

 :love:Love you Rusty

[MiriMaran]

God it feels like if I don't se the apocolypse my children. Depressing or what.......