Anecdotal and I’d love to be wrong about this, buuuut I’m in the rural midwest rn and all of the wheat fields in like a 75 mile radius from me look like they’re absolutely fucked.
It’s basically all turned gold already which is super early for it, especially because it’s still short as fuck, like maybe a foot tall — it’s usually still green until it’s like 4 feet tall. The people who’ve lived here for a long time have been talking about how abnormal it is. I’m not a wheat scientist and haven’t really gotten into with anyone who knows what they’re actually talking about so I don’t totally know what it means, but I know it doesn’t mean anything good
Prob a good idea to stock up on food if you’ve got the means
:doomer:
Not that big of a problem, the US mostly exports domestic grain supply :porky-happy:
And then imports grain for domestic use from… Russia and Ukraine :porky-scared-flipped:
I don’t even understand how that makes sense in capitalism. Moving shit around the world costs labor and therefor profits. How could it possibly be more profitable to do it that way instead of the obvious way that makes sense?
China just posted a reccord crop though
I don’t live in midwest but same thing here. People who normally grow corn did wheat and it’s brown already. Only about a foot tall.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21399-wheat-will-age-prematurely-in-a-warmer-world/
He found that the wheat turned brown earlier when average temperatures were higher, with spells over 34 ºC having a particularly strong effect. He then inferred yield loss, using previous field studies as a guide.
This revealed a much stronger effect of temperatures on yield than previous studies. Lobell’s data predicted that yield losses in the Ganges plain will be around 50 per cent greater from an average warming of 2 ºC than existing models
2012
If you have the space + money:
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Flour is much cheaper in bulk. 25 lbs is ~30-50% cheaper bought all at once rather then 5 lbs at a time.
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Storage is very important. I recommend a 5 gallon food grade bucket with a gamma lid.
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Pest control is important with bulk food storage. Things that help include putting bay leaves in the flour, using an oxygen-killing pack in with the flour before sealing it for the first time, and using a secondary container for ~3-5 libs at a time so that the storage container is opened infrequently.
For non-flour items, I recommend using the same strategy but for rice and beans. Rice can be kept free of pets by baking it at 150 for 30 minutes before storage. You can do the same for beans though the quality degrades a tiny bit (beans have fewer pests anyways).
1 bucket of each is enough food for 2 people for a couple months all by itself (plus a vitamin to avoid malnutrition). Not a bad way to buffer yourself from food price swings. If you get some bulk fat like a gallon of refined coconut oil or peanut butter, you’ll have a ton more calories for cheap. I’d say the total cost for everything I just described is around $150-250 and would be enough calories for 2 people for 3ish months. Add some bulk spices and canned tomatoes and it could even taste good.
Also all of these tips work for mutual aid buys and storage if you have access to a kitchen.
Thank you for your service. I’m a little worried about the pests. How foolproof is the is the gamma lid and bay leaves? Also what is a oxygen-killing pack? Lastly, what does the baking the rice before do?
All good questions!
How foolproof is the gamma lid and bay leaves?
The gamma lid makes it so that you can properly seal the thing and then reopen it again later without needing special tools. Most 5 gallon pails use kids that basically require muscle + a tool to open. The bay leaves are very easy of course and you can get them in bulk super cheap.
In terms of efficacy, both work very well. If you are careful about handling and keeping your space pest-free, you will rarely actually need the oxygen-killing sachets. They’re more like an insurance policy.
Also what is a oxygen-killing pack?
They’re usually called oxygen scavengers or oxygen absorbers. If you put a food safe one in a sealed container with, say, rice, it’ll eat up the oxygen and do a good job killing any pests that were present in the food. Makes it so that you don’t open up the container later and find a bunch of bugs. The container doesn’t even have to perfectly seal, just be sealed well enough for long enough (a few days, e.g.), so this method works with tightly-closed gamma lids. After the initial anoxic environment treatment you can use the food like normal.
Lastly, what does the baking the rice before do?
Kills any insects that were in it. Example: a cute little weevil or its larva might be in the or even in a grain of rice. The heat will kill them, preventing them from multiplying.
I should’ve also mentioned that putting a bag of rice in the freezer for a day or two also works great, I just don’t normally have freezer space.
pests
just eat the pests, or pick them out if you’re really too squeamish
it’s not like they devour the entire bag of dry beans. I’ve had beans/lentils/flour for 3 years that only had maybe 5 tiny gnats in the entire bag. I promise you won’t care about that if that bag of wheat actually becomes important.
