World Food Security / Insecurity

The Summer of Discontent: 'Pingdemonium' chaos sees ONE MILLION children off school, the pound PLUNGE, bins uncollected and food and fuel supplies running low amid warning England's workforce will grind to a halt if Boris doesn't abandon NHS ap

Around 1.7m people thought to be currently isolating after being notified by app or contacted by Test & Trace

More than a million pupils were out of the classroom last week, according to Department of Education data

Scores of firms forced to close due to self-isolating staff, which is exacerbating existing HGV driver shortage

The UK was today left fearing a Summer of Discontent as the NHS Covid app continued to 'ping' swathes of the country into isolation - while weary Britons complained of fuel and food shortages, bin collection cancellations, railways delays, and scores of school and business closures.

Around 1.7million people are thought to be currently isolating at home after being notified by the app or contacted by Test & Trace, with the problem set to get much worse as cases keep rising.

More than a million pupils were out of the classroom last week, according to new Department of Education data, with 81,000 reporting a confirmed or suspected case of Covid and the rest self-isolating following a positive contact.

With the summer break just 48 hours away, parents are pulling their children out of classrooms to avoid having their staycations ruined, amid warnings from travel bosses that a lack of staff will leave holiday lets and attractions unable to open.

Staff shortages fuelled by self-isolating staff have seen green bin deliveries suspended in at least eight council areas, including Liverpool and Bristol, as shoppers took pictures of empty shelves and oil giant BP blamed petrol shortages at an M25 service station on the closure of a distribution centre.

Yet more schools, libraries, art galleries and hospitality venues today revealed fresh tales of woe, with one Bournemouth restaurant losing thousands of pounds after having to cancel 100 table covers when one chef received an app notification.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9806013/Ping-demonium-Fears-Summer-Discontent.html

Desperate supermarkets hire more staff to beat the pingdemic: Iceland targets 2,000 temps to keep stores open as shelves empty across UK with meat, bottled water and ice cream in short supply

Iceland confirmed in the next few days it will start to draft in another 2,000 employees to fill temporary roles

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Lidl and Morrisons stores were seen with significant gaps in their shelves this afternoon

Comes after the British Meat Processors Association CEO warned about impact on supplies from 'pingdemic'

Issue is exacerbating an existing shortage of delivery drivers caused by Brexit and delays with HGV licenses

A Food and Drink Federation survey revealed three-quarters of its members reported a driver shortage  

It comes as a third of Dorset Police's control room staff were off work after being ordered to self-isolate

At Tesco there was a shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables, fridge food, water, beer and kitchen roll. Whilst Asda was short of bread, fruit and vegetables.
and sanitiser shelves almost empty at Morrisons at The Gyle, Edinburgh, in an image taken late this morning


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9809593/Pingdemic-crisis-deepens-Supermarket-shelves-food-supply-chains-start-fail.html

World’s Food Supplies Get Slammed by Drought, Floods and Frost
Bloomberg News
July 24, 2021, 2:46 AM CDT
Coffee surges to highest since 2014 after frost hits Brazil
As food vulnerability rises, social unrest often follows
Extreme weather is slamming crops across the globe, bringing with it the threat of further food inflation at a time costs are already hovering near the highest in a decade and hunger is on the rise.

Brazil’s worst frost in two decades brought a deadly blow to young coffee trees in the world’s biggest grower. Flooding in China’s key pork region inundated farms and raised the threat of animal disease. Scorching heat and drought crushed crops on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. And in Europe, torrential rains sparked the risk of fungal diseases for grains and stalled tractors in soaked fields.

Coffee’s the biggest recent mover, with prices surging 17% this week week and topping $2 a pound for the first time since 2014. But the recent frost in Brazil is just the latest example of woes that have struck farmers there this year. Brazil’s also experiencing a crippling drought that depleted reservoirs needed for irrigation.



Emerging Market Food Vulnerability Scorecard
Yemen, Sudan and Lebanon are the most at risk
Note: Mapped data show vulnerability score for distinct economies

The Food Price Index from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization rose for 12 consecutive months through May before easing in June to 124.6 points, still up 34% from a year earlier. The index measures international prices of a basket of food commodities.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-24/world-s-food-supplies-get-slammed-by-drought-floods-and-frost?srnd=premium

In drought-plagued northern Mexico, tens of thousands of cows are starving to death

CAJEME, Mexico — In the parched hills of southern Sonora, Marco Antonio Gutierrez paced around a clearing, counting the dead.
There were seven rotting carcasses — jutting ribs and shriveled hides — and two sun-bleached skulls. Nine cows, felled by heat and hunger.

“There’s nothing for them to eat,” said Gutierrez, a wide-brimmed hat shading his downcast eyes. “There used to be big ranches here. Now it’s pure sorrow.”

Two years of extreme drought have turned large stretches of northern Mexico into a boneyard. Between starvation and ranchers forced to prematurely sell or slaughter their livestock, officials say the number of cattle in Sonora has dropped from 1.1 million to about 635,000.
It’s an unimaginable loss for a state that is world-famous for its high-quality cows, and where beef is not just a central part of the diet and economy but also a tradition that binds families together.

Gutierrez doesn’t use the phrase “climate change” to describe what’s happening, but he laments that every year seems drier and hotter than the last. In recent months, he has watched helplessly as 70 of his 100 cows have starved to death.

It wasn’t even noon yet, and the thermometer on Alcala’s truck read 104 degrees. As the friends drove, they passed people shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas, and dogs and horses hugging the sides of buildings, desperate for shade.

And then there were the cattle, thousands of them, some so skinny they looked like skeletons wandering the hills.

For months, ranchers had depended on alfalfa grown in fields irrigated with water from private wells or a nearby dam. But when the dam levels fell dangerously low, authorities had cut off the supply to ranches and farms to conserve water for drinking, cooking and bathing. The price of alfalfa had doubled — putting it out of reach for many.

Alcala’s organization had pleaded with authorities to drill wells in the region so ranchers could grow their own food for their cattle. But water table levels have fallen too, making it clearer each day that wells are at best a temporary solution.




https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/latino-life/story/2021-08-02/in-drought-plagued-northern-mexico-cows-are-starving-to-by-the-tens-of-thousands






The first cows were brought to Mexico by Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s. In Sonora, Jesuit missionaries encouraged Indigenous tribes, who had subsisted mostly on beans, corn and squash, to raise them.

By the second half of the 20th century, livestock had become big business here, with cattle roaming over 85% of the state. Tens of thousands of ranchers raised steers to sell at auction, many for export to the United States. Ranchers here say Sonora’s mix of native grasses give their beef a distinctive texture.

You know droughts usually end with floods...

GarryB wrote:You know droughts usually end with floods...

Yes, but sometimes droughts can last a long time. I was a kid in the 1950's drought in Texas, and I remember it. I also remember when it started raining.



Texas A&M Study: 21st Century ‘Mega-Drought’ Could Be State’s Driest In Last 1000 Years

TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas’ future climate will feature drier summers and decreasing water supplies for much of the state for the remainder of the 21st century – likely resulting in the driest conditions the state has endured in the last 1,000 years, according to a team of researchers led by a Texas A&M University professor.

Using what researchers call the most advanced climate models, the team projected drought conditions and relevant information for stakeholders like agricultural producers, large surface water suppliers, small groundwater water districts and regional water planning districts.


Regents Professor John Nielsen-Gammon, director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies and the Texas State Climatologist, said data shows Texas was much wetter 10-15,000 years ago coming out of the last Ice Age. Since then, the state’s climate has mostly been similar to today’s, with the exception of some wetter and drier periods. In the past thousand years, there were multiple decades of extended drought periods called “megadroughts” – something Texas will likely see through the end of the century.

“Our study shows that the drier conditions expected in the latter half of the 21st century could be drier than any of those megadroughts, depending on how you measure dryness,” Nielsen-Gammon said.

Nielsen-Gammon and colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, the University of Oklahoma, NASA and others recently had their work published in the Earth’s Future.

Texas policy makers have developed water projections and conservation plans for decades, but these fall short in many areas, the study concluded.

The drought of the 1950s is still considered the “drought of record” and remains the most severe in Texas in the past 125 years. But current water plans do not take into consideration likely declines in Texas’ water supply due to future climate change.


https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/07/08/texas-am-study-hotter-and-drier-mega-drought-1000-years/

https://www.thailandunique.com/edible-insects-bugs


I have heard that , it is much more environment friendly and cheaper to produce and eat insects . Is this true ? Also insects are eaten already by a large portion of the world population , but hardly in the rich North . Primates like Chimps and many smaller animals  eat insects , in fact there may have been an evolutionary link or symbiosis between some animals and the vegetation they lived in , for shelter or food . If insect populations grew too large , then these plants and trees would die out , because the insects , would eat the seeds or leaves or fruit of the plant . The animal seeking shelter in these plants , or eating them for food , would die out . Therefore it makes sense for these animals , to have evolved to eat insects , to protect the plants and also for food . Many medicines are derived from the exoskeleton of bugs to treat infections ( Chitin) and inflammation . Would you eat these bugs ? Would it make sense for governments ( apart from EU , who has legalised production ) in the ME , where there is shortage of protein in population , and water and animal feed are very expensive to legalise them too ?

Given a choice bugs should not be eaten. They are not a species specific diet. Like with most foods consumed, they don't kill you
outright but that does not mean they are a good option. The mere fact that the self-anointed masters of the universe are pushing
insects as food should warn people off.

A milk toast article:

https://www.farmersweekly.co.za/opinion/by-invitation/the-possible-dangers-of-eating-insects/

The article fails to discuss the biochemical aspects. Not all constituents of many insect species are healthy.

The fact that many cultures consume insects is irrelevant. The whole planet guzzles carbohydrates to the point that metabolic
syndrome and cancer are rampant. Yes, cancer is linked to high insulin levels (which acts like growth factor) and mitochondrial
damage from excessive glucose.

We already had the mad cow prion disease problem thanks to criminals feeding cows parts of other cows and animals. So the
question is what the insects will be raised on. The money grubbing elites dream of feeding insects the cheapest food and then
raking in the profits selling the "fine insect meat" to you.

Eating insects is a sure way to get some exotic disease or rare bacteria. Pass on that.

If you eat red coloured lollies you are already eating parts of insects.

Huge shortage of eggs and chicken here in New Zealand as new laws banning battery farming take effect...

The real irony is that most people have no idea at all what they are eating now and you ask if they would be happy eating insects... like they will get a choice... like they will even notice... like they even care.

Look at what goes into a chicken nugget and tell me eating insects is bad for you.

The oil they cook their chips in at McDonalds damages your brain directly... and tell me eating insects would be worse.

Here in New Zealand the Maori used to eat Hu Hu grubs... it is just protein... most people who try them say they taste a little like peanut butter but I don't believe them.

In many asian countries insects like grasshoppers and even spiders are cooked on oil till they are crunchy... kids eat them instead of the sugary crap western kids love.

Rest assured that the insect options you describe are not what is going to be fed to you.  
The point is not the theoretical discussion about which insects are OK food, the point is the forcing
of this "food" as the new wave.   By total criminal scum.

It is the same as with climate change.   I have enough qualifications to know that it is real, but I am not
going to support the globalist swine who are trying to use it to herd the sheeple into the new prole plantations.

Objections about criminality and new diseases are valid , I think . But is insect farming , because of the nature of the business , less or more prone to abuse ? Are insects more or less likely to pass disease to humans ? These questions can be answered by research . I was also wondering about , how cost effective or profitable this activity is , compared to farmed Beef or other source ? Some insect foods are being sold in say small packs , for five to ten USD ! More expensive than Beef ?

On a positive note , I can say that humans have been consuming insects for millions of years , compared to a few thousand years of farmed animals . If I remember right , there was a study in India , that discovered no vitamin B12 insufficiency in a population of total vegetarians . On further analysis , they found out that the reason was that a few insects had been eaten , inadvertently by the population , mixed in with the salad and fruit . I think it impossible to avoid eating insects , since some will always find their way into different foods !

https://www.cricketflours.com/cricket-flour-recipes/

Like I said, eating insects will not kill you and some inadvertent consumption can even help as posted above. Insect "farming" is way
more lucrative than cattle or any other livestock. You require vastly less space and can feed them what ever crap is the cheapest.
The turn around time is vastly shorter as well. A beef cow requires 3 years to get to market. Insects are on the order of days but
not months.

Anyway, people are free to stuff whatever they want into their mouths. They can even feel good and righteous as they do it. But
the problem for me is that concurrently with this "freedom", the actual freedom of others will be curtailed. This includes the banning
of beef and other real meat. Because of CH4 and climate change, cancer or whatever other lies that the swine will pull out of their
control freak asses.

Objections about criminality and new diseases are valid , I think .

Not really... the main killer from insects is mosquitos, but it is infected human blood that they spread that gives people malaria... ticks and mites can also spread disease like they did in the black plague in Europe on rats, but insects themselves are not a huge disease threat AFAIK.

Some insect foods are being sold in say small packs , for five to ten USD ! More expensive than Beef ?

Anything new is expensive, to pay for all the new equipment and factories etc etc... plus the vegan tossers who don't want to eat meat should be fleeced for all the cash they have... they will show off about the sacrifice they are making to save the planet... I mean people will spend thousands of dollars on a watch or a purse, or a particular pair of shoes, so of course they are going to spend extra money on food.

There are places you can eat beef where you will be paying thousands of dollars for that beef to be cooked... and you are still hungry when you leave...

On further analysis , they found out that the reason was that a few insects had been eaten , inadvertently by the population , mixed in with the salad and fruit . I think it impossible to avoid eating insects , since some will always find their way into different foods !

If you are of a nervous disposition go no further, but there are mites that live in your eyelashes that come out at night and crawl and shag and shit all over your face at night... so tiny you wouldn't likely notice them even if you were looking directly at them... the world of the small is scary... and not for the faint hearted.

Anyway, people are free to stuff whatever they want into their mouths. They can even feel good and righteous as they do it. But
the problem for me is that concurrently with this "freedom", the actual freedom of others will be curtailed. This includes the banning
of beef and other real meat. Because of CH4 and climate change, cancer or whatever other lies that the swine will pull out of their
control freak asses.

The real irony is that many anti meat people claim to love animals, but some animals need to be farmed... we had a case where a sheep who was immediately called Shrek because those movies were on was found... he had escaped a farm and wandered off into bushland and was gone 5 or 10 years or something... he could barely move because the wool had grown and not been cut each year... if we had predators that eat large animals he would have been dead meat for sure... many domestic farm animals would not survive in the wild at all so banning farming them is basically a death sentence for them... they will go extinct very rapidly anyway.

What we really should be doing is farming pests... here in New Zealand rabbits and possums are real pests as are goats and we have them in enormous numbers. We even have a growing population of wallabies too... all of which could be killed for meat and at the same time improve the environment... but of course once you start farming them for food then they get bred and encouraged... rather than wiped out.

Fallout from the depleted uranium ammunition explosion in Ukraine reached England?


https://sputnikglobe.com/20231110/fallout-from-catastrophic-ukraine-depleted-uranium-explosion-reached-england-1114872089.html



I guess there is danger of food being contaminated?

Ironically because the factory was in the west of the country it will be food grown in the EU that will be at risk, but of course they are not going to throw out all that food and they can't possibly tell you that the food is contaminated because then they would have to say how it was contaminated because the UK and US still claim that DU ammo is completely safe... but you can bet your arse if it turns out EU food is contaminated that the US will block imports of it despite it being "safe".

The really funny thing is that Kiev has largely kept its Challenger tanks in the west of the country and I rather suspect that was because they lost all the ammo it uses in this attack.

So ammo they sent to kill Russian soldiers is instead damaging the health of European citizens who can't be warned because then they would have to admit that DU is dangerous.

Funny how all the western experts that we rely on to keep us all safe wont publish this guys findings or listen to what he says.... it is very much the catholic church syndrome... you cannot investigate real concerns that might make the church (west) look bad so instead you let boys get abused and raped, and your people suffer health problems they didn't need to suffer to keep the name of the organisation clean and shiny... when doing this sort of shit makes you realise they do more harm than good now their priorities are so messed up.

We see the same censorship with the coof vax fallout. Excess deaths that only showed up in 2021 and later are never to be properly attributed.
The new Orwellian normal is that children have coronary infarctions since forever. I recall before 2021 this was not the case. Congenital defect
heart failure was vastly more rare and not any sort of coronary infarction. There was no such thing as childhood myocarditis.