This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.
Let me warn you right up front – the information in this article might freak you out. If what some experts are telling us is true, a global food crisis appears to be inevitable. Even during good years, we have a really difficult time feeding everyone on the planet, and now a major climate shift appears to be happening.
Our sun has become exceedingly quiet, and many experts believe that this is a sign that a solar minimum is now upon us. Of course, we have seen solar minimums happen quite regularly in the past, and if this is just a normal solar minimum then conditions should begin to return to normal after a couple of years. Unfortunately, evidence continues to mount that we have entered what is known as a “grand solar minimum”. In fact, Professor Valentina Zharkova says that what we are facing is a “super grand solar minimum”, and if that is true we are going to be facing climate chaos like we have never seen before. During previous “grand solar minimums” the globe was gripped by devastating famines and vast numbers of people died. Could a similar scenario potentially be in our future?
Ice Age Farmer has compiled a “Grand Solar Minimum Crop Loss Map” which you can view right here, and I appreciate our friends at ANP for pointing it out to us. Ice Age Farmer’s map shows that there are literally dozens of locations all over the globe right now that are reporting significant crop losses, and this is really unlike anything we have ever seen before. Some parts of our planet are dealing with horrific drought, but in the middle of the United States, it just won’t stop raining. In some areas of the world, it is too cold, while others are experiencing record heat. Everywhere we look we see extremes, and the behavior of our sun is the primary reason this is happening.
Last November I warned that we could be facing one of the coldest winters in modern times, and that is precisely what happened. Back then top scientists were warning us that a solar minimum had arrived, and since that time the behavior of the sun has continued to confirm that hypothesis…
The surface of the sun is normally a roiling, super-heated hellscape.
But Nasa images have revealed that the face of our star is looking ominously calm right now, prompting claims it’s reached a stage of its cycle called the solar minimum.
During the minimum, there are significantly fewer sunspots and its magnetic field weakens, allowing cosmic rays from outside our solar system to rain down on Earth.
This solar minimum came early, and that is exactly what we would expect if we were entering a “grand solar minimum”. Perhaps the best known “grand solar minimum” in our history was the Maunder Minimum which stretched from 1645 to 1715…
The last time a deep solar minimum was in effect was the Maunder minimum, which saw seven decades of freezing weather, began in 1645 and lasted through to 1715, and happened when sunspots were exceedingly rare.
During this period, temperatures dropped globally by 1.3 degrees celsius leading to shorter seasons and ultimately food shortages.
The food shortages during the Maunder Minimum were quite severe, and the global death toll was enormous.
Could we be facing a similar scenario this time around?
Actually, economist Martin Armstrong seems to believe that it could be even worse…
The Maunder Minimum created such a deep cold in Europe and extreme weather events elsewhere that what unfolds is a series of droughts, floods, and harvest failures. Historically, this leads to massive migrations, wars and revolutions. The fatal synergy between human and natural disasters eradicated perhaps one-third of the human population during the last event and this time we are crashing more rapidly than before. Therefore, we may exceed more than a reduction in population of one-third and reach the levels of the 14th century of 50%, which was also combined with the Black Plague.
Without a doubt, our planet is behaving very strangely right now, and reports of crop failures are regularly coming in from all over the planet.
Just check out these examples…
That layer of stress on the agricultural industry is only intensified when you zoom out to the international level, where farmers around the world are facing various dire situations. As one North Dakota farmer and Twitter user Jordan Gackle pointed out in a recent thread: Drought is continuing to disrupt wheat crops in Australia forcing the country to import some of its wheat from Canada. Some farmers in Canada are now reporting long stretches without rain under the hashtag #drought19. Head over to China and you’ll find that a legion of fall armyworms are spreading rapidly and devouring key grain crops.
It is becoming quite clear that food prices are going to rise substantially and that the world is going to produce a lot less food than it normally does this year.
And as I noted earlier, we have a tough time feeding everyone on the planet even during ideal conditions. Sadly, this even includes the United States…
In fact, it’s not just older Americans who are already suffering from hunger and malnourishment, with this 2017 story over at Feeding America reporting that more than 41 million Americans were suffering from hunger daily, including more than 13 million children, with this National Geographic story reporting that 1 out of every 6 Americans aren’t getting enough to eat.
So what will things look like if global food production drops 10 percent, 20 percent or even more?
We have never had to deal with anything like this in modern times, and meanwhile, the population of the planet has grown from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.5 billion today.
We have entered the time of “the perfect storm”, and we are going to start to witness things happen that many people would consider to be unimaginable.
I truly hope that things will not be as bad as some of the experts are suggesting. But as far as crop failures are concerned, we don’t have to speculate. They are happening right now all over the planet, and that means that global food supplies are going to get tighter and tighter in the months ahead.
Economic expert Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog and Barbara Fix, author of Survival: Prepare Before Disaster Strikes, address the whys and the hows of getting prepared for the coming crisis in their new book. Topics include looming economic collapse, Ebola, drought and increasing weather-related disasters, our extremely vulnerable power grid, civil unrest, and practical steps for storing food and supplies that you will need.
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Even in good years we have a hard time feeding people. Couldn’t prove it by the huge number of obese lard asses We see everywhere . Heck if there is world wifde food shortage. Then Trumps Tariffs if the prevent the US farmers from selling on the export marker is a good think. It will keep that food here in the USA where it was grown and where it belongs. What is actually happening is a End of an Age Magnetic Pole Shift. These weird weather events and clatyclismic things will only increase in occurance and magnitude.
“If what some experts are telling us is true, a global food crisis appears to be inevitable.”
No surprise. The World entered the Last Days some time ago and the Constellations, Jupiter, and Venus confirmed the sign of a pregnant woman in Revelation in September of 2017.
Billions will die by starvation, plague, disease & war. Most of them in the Third World. A surprisingly large number of Americans are prepped for SHTF; but keep stacking & packing you cannot have too much food, water, & ammo stored for the hard times to come.
Don’t forget a little gold & silver & dollars to pay your personal carbon tax if the dems ever control the government again. 🙁
Damn skippy OG, go into the local Walmart. Don’t appear to be any missed meal hunger pains walking around in there.
I second that, and all the motorized shopping carts, oy vai.
USA has the fattest unemployable entitlement people. King Henry VIII would be skinny if he roamed the great American shithole.
I’ll never forget the prepper that appeared on TV and was showing the preps he had and displaying his tactical maneuvering for the camera.
The guy was laboring to breath after only a few yards due to obesity and completely out of shape..
It doesn’t matter how many preps you have or how great of a BOL you have,because if you’re obese,and out of shape,you’re no better off than a healthy,physically fit individual,with limited preps..
I don’t need ANYTHING that makes food prices go up anymore than they already have. I just got back from Costco and prices are going up.
I finally started stocking up on Ramen Noodles. I have not stored them previously because they are NOT a forever food. However, they are cheap and LIGHT. Weight matters because I put heavy buckets on the bottom of the stack and light ones on top. Because they are so light I can stack the buckets 5 or 6 high.
Because I finally believe that we are close to SHTF, after 10 or 12 years, I have started to store things that I previously avoided (that don’t have an unlimited shelf life). But mainly I am trying to balance my prepping budget between necessary items and quality of life stuff.
A great QUALITY OF LIFE PREP are flavored syrups because they make various things taste better and have an unlimited shelf life. For example:
1. Possmei Flavored Syrup, Peach, 5.5 Pound (They have all kinds of different flavors!!!
2. Torani Coffee Syrup
Above ALL I have to keep my focus on food stuffs!
Really?
“And as I noted earlier, we have a tough time feeding everyone on the planet even during ideal conditions. Sadly, this even includes the United States…”
I have lots of food.
The people that really have problems are city folk.
I’m a gentleman farmer, not quite fully “off grid”
sustainable, but close.
The only thing I think I might run out of is
beer.
My mule “Taz”is barely ride able.
I’m not sure my Donkey “buddy” will pull a
load.
But I can eat them, if necessary.
Get out of the city!
You have to boil the mule and donkey meat for three days. They did that with the horses in ww1.
r said, “The only thing I think I might run out of is beer.”
A simple concept, known to ancients. Learn to make it.
Let the crops fail worldwide, still the Americans will gain weight.
What I find about people amazes me.
No one really looks ahead or at the foods in stores.
What do you see?
The food is pretty bad looking for the most part. Lot of mold, even on the bread. Stamped of date items. Bread too, so it can’t last another year people.
Guess what? The canned goods off the shelf you save for that time may surprise you. I have seen top brands with mold in them. All kinds of mold.
You won’t be able to eat that.
Several brands I won’t buy now. Why waste your money on that? Bad thing is, many canning companies just change labels for different companies.
If you do not can your own, you are probably in trouble when you will need it most.
Putting things in glass jars ( even dried beans ) and on a shelf? What if a earthquake happens? Not good either.
And laughing at other people ? Not a nice thing to do really. It could be you one day.
I’ve noticed many preppers like to brag and tell. Dumb too in my book. You just don’t.
Pride before fall?
There will be a lot of things happen that many were not prepared for.
Lot of people out there beat on their chests and tell how better prepared they are. Maybe, maybe not.
This site has become more of a pissin match in the last few years. Sad.
The global warming crowd calls this unusual weather proof of climate change. An article I recently read said that people should disregard the apparent cooling we are seeing because it is caused by the grand solar minimum which is part of a natural cycle.
I’m sorry, if this is all part of a known solar cycle, why isn’t it built into the official UN Climate Models? The UN Climate models have never accurately predicted climate trends.
It was reported a couple weeks ago that NASA and NOAA were again caught red handed tweaking weather data to make Global warming look worse than it really is.
I have to say where I live we have had a long cool spring. We are going into July and still it’s beautiful and mild. It is likely Europe is getting heat that we here normally get.
Several nations have active weather control programs in place, does the UN Climate models take into account shifts in weather caused intentionally by man made weather modification experiments?
Weather trends tend toward averages. A warmer than average decade often is followed by a colder than average decade. We have been in a warming cycle since the end of the last Iceage. Even so, we have multiple solar cycles, orbital cycles etc regardless of mans puny efforts; we seem unable to actually have the climate follow our predictions. Why do we make political policy based on Climate models that just don’t work.
If we wanted to protect the earth:
1. We’d clean up Fukushima.
2. We complain about plastic dumping in the oceans, but 90% of the plastics in the oceans come from just two countries and the US isn’t one of them.
3. The single biggest fossil fuel pollution source is ocean shipping. But it’s totally unregulated.
4. We let our EPA destroy our clean manufacturing as they ever demanded cleaner. All that production has just moved overseas where there are no pollution controls, and we all share the same polluted air and oceans.
5. We have special treaties to protect us from Nuclear weapons because they are so terrible, but weather manipulation can be just as terrible.
Most of our crisis, were created by a few greedy people. We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.
It is proof of climate change, not proof of anthropogenic climate change.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=BusyV-NnPf4
I have made this point before w/ various stats. We here in the US are blessed w/ an abundance of arable land.
Our Agribusinesses don’t use anything but the Primo #1 land to grow our in-season fruits, vegetables, and grains and in the that process we employ less than 1% of our workforce to accomplish this magnificent harvest.
Now, that said, if we have to, we/I can grow a bunch of what we eat on plain ol’ North Georgia Red with chicken and horse poo amendments.
My production can multiplied a million times over in places w/ better and more productive land.
We will NOT starve, but if it comes to producing on lower quality land than we do today, the Prices will be higher so that the cost of food will be a higher proportion of budget than today.
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