A Catastrophic Year For Food Production In The United States – Beef Is Now A “Luxury Meat” And Goldman Sachs Says To Brace For “One Of The Largest Energy Supply Shocks Ever”

What I am about to share with you is extremely disturbing.  There are some that don’t want to hear bad news like this, but most people would rather know what is coming so that they can prepare for it.  As I have been documenting on my websites for months, we were already heading for a nightmarish global food crisis even before the war in Ukraine erupted.  Fertilizer prices have risen to absolutely absurd heights, and this is going to depress agricultural production all over the planet in 2022.  And of course the war in Ukraine has now made this emerging crisis a whole lot worse, because Russia and Ukraine collectively account for approximately 30 percent of all global wheat exports under normal conditions.  So with everything that has been going on, it is absolutely imperative that we have a good growing season here in the United States this year.  Unfortunately, it appears that a series of “mega disasters” is going to prevent that from happening.

In recent days, a number of people have written to me about the bizarre storms and unusually cold temperatures that we have been witnessing in our agricultural heartland.  Winter has stuck around a lot longer than usual in the middle of the country, and this has prevented large numbers of Midwest farmers from planting their crops in a timely manner…

In the last several weeks, farmers in the Northern Plains have been battered by blizzards, winter storms, high winds, and extreme flooding. These weather phenomena have delayed farmers from plantings in high-producing crop regions. Every week plantings are delayed, the harvest yield shrinks, and this comes at a precarious time as the global food supply chain is fracturing.

Private weather forecasters and ag specialist BAMWX warned about delayed plantings across the Northern Plains to Midwest to the Ohio Valley. Some farmers might not be able to plant until at least May as widespread above-average moisture, and widespread well below average temperatures inhibit farmers from working their fields.

Unfortunately, we still haven’t gotten a break in the weather.

In fact, forecasters were warning that temperatures would be plunging near all-time record lows in Ohio on Wednesday and Thursday…

The National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 9 a.m. Thursday with temperatures dipping into the 20s across the region.

Some areas could see temperatures as low as 25 degrees.

The weather service warns temperatures this cold could kill crops, sensitive plants and even damage outdoor plumbing.

A shorter growing season will mean less crops harvested in the fall.

And that is really bad news.

In the western third of the nation, the big news is the ongoing drought that continues to severely hurt agricultural production.

On Thursday, we learned that the water level in Lake Mead has dropped so low that one of the original intake valves is now visible for the first time ever…

The West is in the grips of a climate change-fueled megadrought, and Lake Mead — the largest manmade reservoir in the country and a source of water for millions of people — has fallen to an unprecedented low.

The lake’s plummeting water level has exposed one of the reservoir’s original water intake valves for the first time, officials say.

This drought has dragged on for more than two decades, and experts are now telling us that it is the worst that the region has experienced in more than a thousand years…

The West is in its worst drought in centuries, scientists reported Monday. A study published in February found the period from 2000 to 2021 was the driest in for the region 1,200 years.

Needless to say, all of this drought has created ideal conditions for wildfires.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than a million acres have already burned since the start of 2022, and we haven’t even gotten to the heart of fire season yet…

The agency said more than 21,181 wildfires had burned 1,080,836 acres in the US since the beginning of the year. That’s above a 10-year average of 14,958 wildfires that burned 727,141 acres. Some of the most devastating wildfires have been in Texas due to “extreme drought” and high winds.

On top of everything else, the new bird flu pandemic in the United States just continues to intensify.

On Thursday, the presence of the bird flu was confirmed at yet another poultry facility in Pennsylvania…

A highly contagious and deadly strain of avian influenza was confirmed on a sixth Lancaster County poultry operation on Thursday, requiring 18,000 birds to be destroyed in hopes of curtailing the virus’s spread.

I hope that you are sitting down for what I have to tell you next.

Overall, the total death toll for this bird flu pandemic has now risen to more than 35 million…

As of noon Thursday, the flu had infected 247 domesticated commercial or backyard poultry flocks in 29 states, according to the USDA. About 35.52 million birds have died or been destroyed nationwide.

The very first case at a commercial facility in the U.S. was confirmed in early February.

That means that we have gone from one case to over 35 million dead in less than 3 months.

Of course this is going to deeply affect every single one of us when we go to the grocery store.

The price of eggs has already more than doubled.

Everything with turkey in it is going to become much more expensive.

Everything with chicken in it is going to become much more expensive.

And what will happen if this pandemic rages out of control for many more months?

We have never faced so many simultaneous threats to U.S. food production.  We truly are in unprecedented territory, and that should deeply concern all of us.

Sadly, global food production is going to be way down all over the planet this year, and the UN is telling us that we are heading into the worst global food crisis since World War II.

In other words, there is not going to be enough food for everyone.

Just a few years ago, a worldwide famine would have been unthinkable, but now we are on the precipice of a true global nightmare.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population still does not understand what is happening, and so they aren’t taking any steps to get prepared for the horror that is ahead of us.

The new global economic crisis that we have entered into is starting to hit home with hard working American families in a major way.  I have been hearing from so many people that are absolutely horrified by how rapidly the price of gasoline is rising.  Especially for those that have to drive a lot, this is going to cause a tremendous amount of pain.  Food prices continue to surge as well, and this is particularly true when it comes to meat.  Unless you are a vegan or a vegetarian, you are probably accustomed to eating quite a bit of meat on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, now we are being told that Americans are going to have to cut back due to global supply problems.  In fact, a Yahoo Finance article that I came across earlier today actually referred to beef as a “luxury meat”…

Americans could be cutting steaks and burgers from their diets as inflation soars, if beef-packer profit margins are any indication.

Processors like Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS USA are making the least amount of money per head of cattle slaughtered in more than two years, according to data from HedgersEdge LLC. That’s a sign that demand for the luxury meat is flagging.

In my entire life, I have never heard beef called a “luxury meat” before.

Have you?

But with the way that the price of beef is rising, many Americans will soon only be able to eat it once in a while.

In normal times, those moving away from beef would be able to eat more chicken and more turkey, but thanks to a devastating new outbreak supplies of chicken and turkey are going to be getting a whole lot tighter.  For much more on this, please see an article that I just published entitled “Nearly 2.8 Million Birds (Mostly Chickens And Turkeys) Have Died In The First Month Of America’s Raging New Bird Flu Pandemic”.

Of course it isn’t just meat supplies that are going to be tightening.  Ukraine and Russia normally account for about 30 percent of all global wheat exports, but now the war is going to cause that number to drop precipitously.

As panic about global food supplies spreads, some countries are already placing restrictions on how much can be sent out of the country.

For example, on Wednesday Indonesia “tightened curbs on palm oil exports”.

And in eastern Europe, Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria have all recently made moves to make sure that their people have enough to eat…

Serbia announced on Wednesday it will ban exports of wheat, corn, flour and cooking oil as of Thursday to counter price increases while Hungary banned all grain exports last week.

Bulgaria has also announced it will increase its grain reserves and might restrict exports until it has carried out planned purchases.

But of even greater concern is what Ukraine has decided to do.

Normally, Ukraine is one of the biggest exporters in the entire world, but now the Ukrainian government has issued an emergency order which essentially bans the export of most food…

Ukraine, known as the “breadbasket of Europe” given it’s long been among the world’s top ten wheat exporters and supplied over $6 billion in agricultural products to the European Union in 2020, has issued an emergency order Wednesday banning the export of grains and other products.

The ban includes the export of wheat, oats, millet, buckwheat, sugar, live cattle, meat, and other products considered vital to the global economy. But amid wartime, and with Ukraine’s government saying many of its citizens are now starving under Russian siege, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian and food policy Roman Leshchenko said the drastic action was taken to avert a “humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” stabilize the market and “meet the needs of the population in critical food products,” according to the AP.

I can understand why Ukraine has made this decision, but this is going to have a devastating domino effect.  Lebanon normally gets 60 percent of the wheat that it uses from Ukraine, and the fact that they have been cut off from Ukrainian wheat is already causing major problems…

Lebanon could face wheat shortages from July, forcing the government to reduce subsidized flat rounds of Arabic bread, which sustain the 80 percent of Lebanon’s population who live in poverty, according to a report by The Irish Times. Flour mills in Lebanon delivered supplies only to bread bakeries on Monday and Tuesday, forcing bakers who make pastries and thyme pizzas to close as a means of rationing wheat imported from Ukraine, which supplies 60 percent of the country’s wheat needs.

I am stunned when I read things like that.

If the war stretches on for an extended period of time, how bad will things be 6 months from now?

Here in the United States, fertilizer prices are causing havoc for farmers all over the country.

If you don’t believe me, perhaps you will believe a prominent farmer from Iowa that Tucker Carlson just interviewed…

Ben Riensche, the owner of Blue Diamond Farming Company in Iowa and a farmer of 16,000 acres in that state, told Carlson that the sanctions will have a far-reaching impact on our food supplies in the very near future.

“Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to bring spiked food prices,” Riensche said. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until your grocery bill is up $1,000 a month, and it might not just manifest itself in terms of price. It could be quantity as well. Empty-shelf syndrome may be starting.”

Weeks ago, I passed along what a farming insider shared with me.

He explained that some fertilizer prices had doubled or even tripled in price, and he warned that this would make growing corn unprofitable for farmers all over America this year.

And that was before the war in Ukraine started.

Speaking of the war, Goldman Sachs is now telling us that it could result in “one of the largest energy supply shocks ever”…

“Given Russia’s key role in global energy supply, the global economy could soon be faced with one of the largest energy supply shocks ever,” Goldman Sachs said in the Monday night report, adding that the scale of the shock is “potentially enormous.”

I have been writing a lot about the price of oil lately, because it affects just about all of us on a daily basis.

We all have to fill up our vehicles with gasoline, and that is going to become a lot more expensive.  For example, gas prices in Washington D.C. have been shooting up dramatically…

The trajectory of gas prices at the Mobil station four miles north of the White House has been brutal, clocking in at $3.85 a week ago, $4.17 on Friday, then $4.43 Tuesday, leaving Elizabeth Lopez, a mother of three and employer of six, feeling trapped.

“I don’t know how we can do it,” Lopez said, filling up a Chrysler minivan across from a shuttered tire shop in Northwest Washington.

Needless to say, this is just the beginning.

If people think that things are bad now, how are they going to feel when the price of gasoline is six or seven dollars a gallon?

And as the price of gasoline rises, so does gasoline theft.  In fact, it is being reported that thieves are already drilling holes in fuel tanks so that they can siphon off the gasoline inside…

A FOX 11 viewer shared photos of what happened to a vehicle — a thief drilled a hole in the fuel tank, draining all the gas. AAA is seeing a rise in gas siphoning and theft across the country, and now they’re warning car owners about how to keep their vehicles safe.

“This is a sign of the times you know,” AAA’s Doug Shupe said. “It’s thieves looking for ways that they can make money by stealing what is becoming an increasingly more expensive and valuable commodity, gasoline.”

At one time, I never would have imagined that anyone would ever drill a hole in my fuel tank so that they could steal my gasoline.

But times have completely changed, and the worse things get the more desperate people are going to become.

I know that this article is getting quite long, but I wanted to squeeze as much in as I could.

Global events have really started to accelerate, and conditions are changing at a pace that is absolutely breathtaking.

We really have entered a “perfect storm”, and things are only going to get crazier in the months ahead.

READING ARTICLES IS NOT ENOUGH. YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED THIS BOOK TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING IS YOU ARE TO SURVIVE WHAT IS COMING.

 

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.