Wheat Rationing? Seed Shortages?
Sharon March 19th, 2008
I’m hearing some interesting stories coming in about grain and seed availability. What’s most interesting is that we aren’t just seeing problems in the Global South, but here in the US as well.
-Idaho Locavore reports that WaltonFeed seems to be out of most Organic Wheats.
-Murray, a farmer and reader who produces organic seed for several small seed companies says he has had repeated calls from both existing customers and other seed companies seeking more seed - and he’s out of last year’s production. Several companies that don’t normally buy from him are sold out of their normal varieties and desperately seeking substitutes.
-Perhaps most disturbing, a member of my food storage class from the Northeast reports that when she bought flour at Costco yesterday, there were set 50lb limits, and that the check-out person actually verified on her membership card that she had not previously bought flour at any other Costco.
-Aaron tells me that there are no set limits at his local warehouse store, but that when he asked to buy 200 lbs, he was told that was “as much as we can sell you.”
- Littlebyte reports that her coop is experiencing “significant delays” in deliveries of several items, including whole wheat and whole wheat flour. Their supplier told them that availability was tight throughout the system.
- As I reported yesterday, Fedco and Johnny’s seeds are out of some varieties and are experiencing much greater demand than usual. A friend who runs an herb business tells me that her wholesale provider is also out of many seed varieties and says demand is way up.
As Aaron put it, we may be seeing the beginning of a real “threshold moment.” Anyone else seeing delays?
Note, it is not my claim that we are about to see massive food shortages - but I think we may see systemic problems with a few commodities, including wheat. And there’s something about the psychological weight of not being able to buy bread that I think will connect the dots for folks about how serious this is.
Besides all the usual culprits: biofuels, global warming which seems to be proceeding apace, there’s also the danger of major wheat diseases, which the UN FAO suggests could cause famine.
Since we’re already seeing violence over bread in places like Egypt, which is calling out the army to help stabilize the wheat crisis there.
So, keep watching everyone!
Sharon
sharonastyk.com |
