Hello and welcome back to the Gubba podcast. I’m Gubba, a first time homesteader following in the footsteps of my homesteading forbears. I discuss homesteading, prepping, food storage, and everything in between on this podcast. Today I want to discuss the impending food shortages and how you can get prepared now.
What is a food shortage?
So rumor has it that food shortages will be rolling out soon. I follow a fellow homesteader on TikTok and she was showing how the farmers were massively unloading cattle at auctions in Texas due to the weather extremities and she tied this into the impending sky rocketing prices of meat.
I follow a few other farmers who are also talking about food shortages. I personally take everything with a grain of salt, so maybe a wide scale shortage never happens but it never hurts to be prepared right?
Are there food shortages?
It would make sense to me that there are food shortages on the horizon because look at all of the other shortages we have been dealing with.
I believe baby formula was the most recent one and that’s pretty huge - feeding babies right? I listened to a podcast that discussed how you can make homemade formula from raw milk or homemade meat formula to avoid the shortage and to give your baby optimal nutrients.
I seriously love that kind of thing. Sounds kind of weird right? Formula from raw milk or meat? Yes, there used to be baby meat formula but essentially was taken off the shelves due to cost to produce.
I love learning about lost traditions and knowledge. Anyway, I feel like we are being surrounded by shortages and they just keep rolling out.
What’s next? My advice right now is to stock up on what you eat before one of your favorite items sis a victim to the rolling shortage train.
How can I avoid a food shortage?
Beating shortages goes hand in hand with a few things: food storage,growing your own food, and buying local. All of these things will save you from facing food shortages.
You don’t want to be enjoying Mac and cheese one day then next thing you know Mac and cheese is out for the unforeseeable future. Ya know?
Continue to enjoy it by stocking up on your favorite noodles or better yet, learning how to make your own noodles.
Do you remember going to the store and there were no noodles on the shelf? I do.
How do you prepare?
I talk so much to you all about food storage because it is so vital and important to your survivability.
Growing your own food is a prices less skill that is key to surviving in tough situations and also learning how to shop local can be an absolute life saver.
All three of these things are what will protect you from any food shortage that rolls your way.
How do you build a food storage?
First step to do right now is to start your food storage like this week if you haven’t. Go open your cupboards, write down what you eat, and buy more of it.
See what you can find and get it before that ever runs out of stock and your favorite food runs into a supply shortage.
This is definitely the most important step in beating the supply chain issues. It doesn’t ever hurt to have more of what you eat right?
How do you find local farms?
The next step would be to shop local. Start looking for local sources that sell fruits and vegetables. Because it is summer right now, the best place to start would be a local farmers market.
If you don’t have a farmers market, you can look up farmers in your area and see what they sell. Seriously, source your farmers asap. They will have an abundance of meat and vegetables, hopefully and the more you support them, hopefully the more you can support your local food ecosystem.
When you rely on big stores, they aren’t reliable as we have all learned. The supply chain is so controlled and the stores are absolute chaos. You know what isn’t chaos? Going to my local farmer every Thursday to get fruits and vegetables.
It’s peaceful and I’m happy to support their growth. Try to find a local reliable source of food. There are co-ops that you can join where you sign up at the beginning of the year so the farmers know how much to grow then you get shares throughout the summer of their bounty.
These farm co ops are great because they also can provide a source for meat.
You will never have to buy store bought meat again. You can buy directly from the farm and then preserve your excess. I don’t know the intricacies of the meat market, but I do know the government killed the small dairy market back in the day so who knows what will happen with meat.
I have a freezer full of meat that I rotate through and can when I get time.
Canning is a great preservation method for meat because then it becomes shelf stable for years and not susceptible to power outages.
How do you garden?
If you can’t find anything local and do have to depend on a grocery store, I would learn to garden where you are at and whatever situation you got going on.
Build some planter boxes and do the sq ft gardening method. You can grow an abundance with that method. You can garden in an apartment and that is a skill no one can take away from you.
The food shortage seems to be no joke. It’s been constant rolling shortages since the weirdness of 2020, so who knows what is next. Like seriously, what is going on?
I’ve realized you don’t have to know exactly what is going on to start getting ready.
How do you prepare today?
A talk about preparedness actually popped up in my YouTube recommended and I clicked it. It was given in like the 80s or 90s and it discussed how people need to get ready for inflation, economy dumps, and turmoil.
They discussed having food storage for a year and learning to grow a garden wherever you are at. I found it interesting because they said they went to Europe shortly after world war 2 and they saw people loading up on trains in the morning with arms full of their possessions to take to the farms in the rural areas and trade for food.
Food was a rare commodity and people were trading all of their material worth for it. Think about that. Who is to say that couldn’t ever happen again?
I’m sure people thought it would never happen then or to them but it did. Food shortages were a thing and I know I don’t want to be in line somewhere waiting for the government to feed me.
I have a plethora of videos, podcasts, and social posts about building a food storage and there isn’t any reason to start. If you don’t think you have space, evaluate what things are taking up your space and see if you can fit one of your most important needs into there: food.
You don’t have to spend a ginormous amount of money right away, you can slowly build up your supply over time each time you are at the grocery store.
How do you find food locally?
Hunting down local sources for food is fun. You become part of a new community and meet like minded people. These people can also build out your network of resources.
Say you want to learn how to garden, the people at your local farm food pick ups will most likely be a great resource for that. One person may have a skill or resource valuable to you and vice versa.
Think about how that affects your community when you keep your money local instead of spending it at the big box stores. You are helping your neighbors be successful instead of feeding the stinky monster.
As I was writing this, a headline of “slim Jim’s are about to get expensive” popped into my feed. The article said the owner is hiking the prices to offset higher costs due to inflation.
You like slim Jim’s? Well get ready to pay more. You know who makes great beef jerky and other things of that sort? Your local farmers. Seriously, my local farm store as locally made jerkies and they are delicious! You can learn to make your own with a dehydrator too.
Do you see how you can start to make a dent in the costs, beat inflation, and avoid food shortages? I don’t believe it will be just slim Jim’s seeing the price increase but food across the board. Learn to make your beef jerky.
This principle can be applied to almost all foods. Price of bread went up? Make your own for the fraction of the price. Price of milk went up? Get a cow. Just kidding about the last one but you see what I mean?
So here’s your steps to avoid a food shortage: build a food storage, grow a garden, and shop local. Easy. You got this. I believe in you.
Thank you
