Yet another entry from the e-mail files. Received an e-mail today saying that the sender had received a message and wanting to know if anyone in their e-mail realm could verify it or not. Can you? Here is the message, minus the added personal commentary, plus the extremely limited editing, and compliments of copy and paste:
"I just don't know how true this is - it sounds really wackky. So will have to see what is up.
I had a conversation last night with a family member who lives in north central Missouri out in farm country. We were discussing the signs of the times and he told me something that made my blood run cold! His friend/neighbor works for an agricultural supply company that furnishes fertilizer, pesticides, and the next season's crop seeds to most of the farmers throughout his region there in Missouri.
According to his friend, business at his company should be going full throttle right now, they'll do 80% of their business in a four month time frame. But right now, their business is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD! When the orders didn't start coming in at the end of Feb. like they usually do in years past, the company called the farmers to see when they were going to start ordering. They got the same answer from almost everyone, THEY WOULDN'T BE PLANTING THIS YEAR!
The agricultural supply company's business IS DOWN 85% over the same time last year, the farmers can't get credit from the banks to buy their seed and supplies for the beginning of the growing season. If this problem is typical across the country then the horse manure will be hitting the fan THIS YEAR. I'd like to get a sense of what's going on in other parts of the country and see if this credit problem is regional or national in scope. I'm hoping members of the forum can check in their local areas to see what's happening.
My relative's friend said that there is typically a 6-8 week lag time between ordering these supplies then getting them in and then out to the farmers. If the credit backup broke loose tomorrow, they could still get most of the supplies in and out to the farmers by the end of the planting season. But if the problem persists for another 30 days or more then forget it. This season will be toast as far as the food supply is concerned.
With all the talk in recent months about drought, floods, cold weather, wheat rust, false smut, and the like, I never considered the fact that perhaps the single biggest threat to our food supply would be the lack of credit!
I posed this on another thread a few days ago. Add to this the current world food storage supply which has been severely depleted and we are talking disaster here. The writing is on the wall. If building up your food storage is not your primary goal this year, then you are just plain nuts.
One of my best friends tells me of another of her friends- they own and supply about half of the dairy to the Las Vegas area.The Government is forcing them to sell their milk at a certain price which does not cover their expenses. They are about bankrupt. When they finally do go bankrupt the Government plans on taking over their business."
End of e-mail.
I asked the person who sent it to me if I could post this on this blog, and the first reaction they had was to wait until we found out if it was true or not. I said maybe someone in this national network knows if this is true, so it was agreed that I could post it. Anyone know what the status is with farming this year? I know that farming is down--I've posted about the decrease on my other blog. This, however, if true, is a decrease on a much larger scale.
Then there is the classic "friend of a friend" or "friend of a relative" thing going on. I'm always suspicious of reports where it's someone's best friend's uncle's mechanic's friend of a friend or something vague like that. Hard to know if it's true or not, because it could just be an attempt to respect someone's anonymity.
Not trying to perpetuate rumors, just trying to find out what is really going on. I actually checked out snopes.com before writing this post, but there was nothing there, at least under what I entered as the main ideas. Things can be scary enough without exaggerating an already difficult situation. If someone has the facts, I would appreciate the input....
7 comments:
I did see a news story and have read about farming problems on TotallyReady.com regarding the drought in California.
It is a fact that if farmers cannot give the banks certainty that they have water resources - they will not get credit to farm this year.
I immediately went to the store and stocked up on canned tomatoes and seeds for my own garden - after seeing the news story. You can also go to this link: http://blog.totallyready.com/?p=319
I have heard similar things as well. I will go into town tomorrow and for the next several days too and see if the fertilizer place is hopping with activity. It is usually busy this time of year but has been yucky and rainy lately. Supposed to be nice for next few days and that should allow the spray trucks out - I will let you know what I find out.
Sondra--Thanks very much for the link--that's a difficult situation in California, and California supplies a lot of produce for our nation. I hope it isn't as difficult elsewhere. Good ideas also on the stock-up items--thanks for your comment.
Ernie--I would appreciate any information you can provide--finding out what's going on in Indiana would give us a better indication what's going on in that part of the country. Thanks in advance, and thanks for your comment!
My husband went to the feed mill to buy seed for our wild birds. Without him asking, the clerk mentioned that they got in dent corn and that after washing, it was fit for human consumption and did he want any?
Now one could say she was just suggestive selling, but they've never done that before.
We live in farm country, too and everyone we know even old-timers who quit gardening years ago...are now planting gardens.
Everyone knows. We're not as stupid as the government seems to think.
Anonymous--Wow, that is different--when I mentioned what you wrote to my husband, I said that my first thought was that maybe the clerk is worried about everyone having at least something to eat in storage... Not possible to know of course, but that is really an unusual thing to say.
I'm glad the gardening is increasing in your area. I have always hoped that more people are preparing than just those that talk about it, because, as you indicate, it's a wise thing to do. Thanks for your comment!
Marie, I live in what is called the Central Sands of Wisconsin. It is so called because of the sandy soil.The last glacier left lots of sand and big rocks laying about.
We( we being the collective farmers) are big time Potato and corn producers. It is too early for Corn planting, But I see the big corporate farms planting potatos fevorously. The huge farm by us has planted 6000 acres so far.
As to the corn farmers. I do NOT see them out plowing and disking in huge numbers that I would normally. To make Corn grow here you need alot of help from chemicals, so perhaps the credit situation is effecting them.
The other problem I see is that we are in a pretty serious drought, While I am typing this it is actually raining out, but we are many many inches of rain short right now.
Last evening I had to go to a nearby town on business. This is a town that has about 10 small lakes around it. I went by one that is drying up. It is indicative of lakes around here. There are piers on dry land. So that lake is down some 3 to 6 feet... Very disturbing.
I have also noticed many more gardens being tilled up. My neighbor to the north has something like 10 kids and I see they are expanding thiers considirably.
In my humble opinion coomodity prices will go nuts in the fall.
Carl.
Carl--I'm glad that the potato planting is going well out there--my husband did some traveling around the state this past week and said that it looked like the fields that he passed had all been planted. I'm glad that those crops are in...
Sorry to hear about the drought conditions--that makes it scary, and I agree that it can only be bad news for us and the prices. I'm also glad about what I hear about people like your neighbor doing gardening to improve their own situations.
Glad to hear from you--I mentioned to my husband the other day that I wondered how you were doing. Hopefully the drought situation will improve, and Wisconsin will have good crops this year-and people will have the means to plant what they need to in the first place. Thanks for your comment!
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