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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Survive Anything–Food Crisis
  • Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:55:35 -0700


Interesting about "just in time inventory"

Survive Anything–Food Crisis
November 30th, 2010
http://carolynbaker.net/2010/11/30/survive-anything-food-crisis/

Food production is one of the most essential concerns of any society. Without
direct availability and ease of consumption, without the consistent flow of
agricultural goods, every nation existing today (except the most primitive)
would immediately find its infrastructure crumbling and its people in a
furious panic. It’s strange to me, then, that long term independent food
planning is the one concern that many Americans seem to take most for
granted. Firearms and ammo, camping gear and bug-out-bags, MRE’s, beans, and
rice; these are the easiest part of your survival foundation. The hard part
is not storage of goods, but devising a solid and practical plan for
sustainability in the long term. This starts with the capacity to support
your own agriculture regardless of how long the grid is down, even if it is
down indefinitely.

Understandably, there will be some people who do not have enough land to
implement many of these strategies. They should still know the fundamentals
and be ready to apply them at a retreat location or within a community should
the opportunity arise.
.........
Emaciated Grocery Chains

Last winter, I witnessed perhaps the most incredible snow storm I have ever
seen in my life. A low pressure system punished the Northeast with downpour
after downpour, stopping most road travel and cutting power to millions for
at least a week. Being that the average family has only a week’s worth of
food or less in their pantry, you can imagine the chaos that unfolded. Those
grocery stores with backup power were flooded with customers buying armloads
of batteries, water, ice chests, and, of course, foods that don’t require
refrigeration. Now, what I want you to imagine, is what would have happened
if no grocery stores had been open that week. What would have happened if
they had never reopened? How many people would have been in the very real
position of starving to death? From what I observed that winter…far too many…

The problem of storage and backstock is widespread in the U.S. and the
culprit is actually one which we have been trained to admire; efficiency. It
is because of the over-application of efficiency in grocery models and in the
freight sector that most outlets carry little to no backstock in goods.
Instead, they order goods as quickly as they sell out, refilling shelves on a
product by product basis. This means that in most grocers, what you see on
the shelf, is all that they have. The speed of trucking deliveries makes this
business model possible, but its operation suffers from a seriously fatal
flaw…

Grocery stores may seem like a bounty of goods at first glance, but if
freight shipments shut down, or even slowed, those aisles would empty within
the span of a few days. Many households in America operate on the same faulty
“efficiency”. They rely on the weekly trip to the grocer to maintain the
pantry while also attempting to save money by reducing backstock. It’s a
frayed rope holding up too much weight, a completely inflexible system that
cannot withstand any deviation from the set routine. One unexpected disaster
could render the entire food and agriculture distribution network immobile.

Many grocery chains also function on a line of credit from banks while
operating at a loss. Profits are poured directly into the liabilities the
companies incur from loans and then more money is borrowed to continue
ordering goods. Some stores in the chain (flagship stores) usually bring in
enough money to cover the red ink of the other branches, however, what if
banks were to cut off credit completely to a grocery chain? Or maybe ALL
grocery chains? The cycle of debt, to sales, to profit, to debt, becomes
disrupted. Any stores that rely solely on credit to stay open for business
would immediately lose the ability to bring in new stock. Again, we are faced
with empty shelves in less than a week.

This scenario is entirely possible in the U.S. today, especially in the event
that big banks institute capital retention in order to protect themselves
from a further collapse of investment markets. Banks have already restricted
loans to consumers down to the bare minimum. A restriction of loans to the
business sector in the near future is not that far fetched.







  • [Livingontheland] Survive Anything–Food Crisis, Tradingpost, 11/30/2010

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