Nation's Food Shortage Already Underway

Something strange is happening to America’s food chain.

Last month Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah predicted that poorer nations would soon encounter a "massive, immediate food crisis" as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — considered the breadbasket of Europe.

Shah called upon the United States to lead an international effort of debt and food relief, as well as emergency financing to "fully fund" the United Nations World Food Programme, Bloomberg reported.

Apart from the fact that the country is already in debt up to its ears — $30.4 trillion and rising — we have our own food problems here at home.

For a number of reasons — inflation, supply chain issues, overregulation, sales of large tracts of farmland to foreign nations, as well as disasters of questionable origin — America may soon experience something unusual for first world nations: hunger.

At the production level:

• New California drilling regulations instituted by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, leave farmers in the state’s rich Central Valley unable to irrigate their crops in the midst of a drought.
• Iowa corn farmers are dedicating a larger percentage of their crops to the production of ethanol rather than food to meet U.S. government quotas.
• Farmers across the nation are faced with the same inflation issues, as the cost of fuel, seed and fertilizer continues to skyrocket, causing many to leave the industry.
• And many of those farms are being bought up by Chinese investors. As of the close of 2020, they owned about 192,000 acres of U.S. farmland valued at about $1.9 billion, Politico reported last year.
• A as of Friday, more than 27 million chickens and turkeys at poultry farms in at least 29 states have either died or been destroyed because of bird flu since February.

As disturbing as that sounds, what’s going on at the succeeding levels of the food chain is downright scary.

Benjamin Braddock, a Substack writer on health, current-affairs, and culture, noticed that U.S. food processing and distribution facilities were being destroyed under unusual circumstances. For example:

• A large food processing plant owned by Shearer's Foods in eastern Oregon was destroyed in February by an explosion and fire.
• In late March, a fire destroyed the Maricopa, Arizona Food Pantry, taking with it 50,000 pounds of food intended for needy families.
• Also in late March, a fire completely engulfed a huge Walmart distribution center in Plainfield, Ind., which employed more than 1,100.
• On March 31, fire damaged the San Juan, Texas Rio Fresh onion warehouse, described as "the largest fresh onion packing facilities in South Texas."
• On April 13 a plane crashed into an eastern Idaho food processing plant owned by Gem State Processing.
• On the very same day, a packing and processing plant at Taylor Farms in Salinas ,California was completely destroyed by fire.
• Six days later a mysterious fire completely destroyed the headquarters of Azure Standard, the largest independent food distributor in the country.
• The following day — Saturday, April 30 — the Perdue Farms grain processing facility in Chesapeake, Virginia was also engulfed in flames.

And it’s not just fires and explosions interrupting distribution. CF Industries, a manufacturer of nitrogen-based fertilizers, announced that Union Pacific was curtailing and delaying shipments of its products — during planting season.

But Biden’s administrator of the United States Agency for International Development Samantha Power saw the fertilizer shortages as an opportunity that will force farmers to "hasten transitions" to "natural solutions, like manure and compost."

Last week White House press secretary Jen Psaki assured Americans that "We are not expecting a food shortage here at home."

Too late — it’s already happening. Writer, Heroes Of Liberty editor and mother of five Bethany Mandel reported that her local grocery was out of some food items — "exotic" items like large plums, Gala apples, and whole milk mozzarella cheese.

If you’re expecting empathy, or at the very least concern from the White House, prepare to be disappointed.

Comedian and late night talk show host Trevor Noah cracked a joke at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday that was a spot-on summary of today’s economy.

"Since you’ve come into office, things are really looking up," he said. "Gas is up, rent is up, food is up! Everything!"

Biden laughed, clapped his hands and grinned like the Cheshire Cat. You can expect that clip to be run on every Republican candidate’s campaign website and TV ad.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once observed, "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."

The United States became energy independent and the world’s largest producer of fossil fuel in the world under the Trump administration; Biden reversed that, and now our food supply is being impacted.

Feeling hungry?

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.