It is much safer to be able to produce food on a regular basis. Those people who have seed, or who know how to and
are growing algae in water, for instance, will find this cannot be readily taken or carried away. Growing plants, algae
or fish, cannot be carted away as easily as grabbing a bag of rice or cans of food. Such food stuffs will spoil, is hard to
catch, is wet, smelly, and takes time. Those who are frightened or those who would steal and rob are not inclined to
spend the time to harvest. So somebody with algae in a fish tank or gardens in their basement will find that it is not as
worthwhile for a thug or a hungry person to break into the basement to take a tomato as it is to break into a garage
where someone has stored many sacks of flour or potatoes, something that is dry, compact, and easy to carry away.
In addition, the person who is growing their own food regularly will find that even should they be attacked by hungry
people, that they will be able to recover. Even should their hydroponics beds be ripped out and run off with, with
someone grabbing their carrots or tomatoes or cabbage or green peppers or the fish in the tanks, they will have baby
fish on the side to restart their fish tanks and seed and to restart their gardens. The person who has just stored food
cannot recover, and their food is usually gone. Therefore, we recommend the capability of growing food, in many and
varied ways to where the cycle of life is at hand and a temporary disruption of a garden is not a devastation. These
people will not be raided. It will be the hoards that will be raided. Therefore, we have encouraged growing seed and
helping people learn to grow, and helping people understand the simple things about them with which they can feed
themselves, such as insects and the foods found in nature, the minimum that they need to survive. This kind of
knowledge is more valuable than bags of potatoes or barrels of wheat in the garage, because knowledge cannot be
taken from a person, and it is therefore more valuable.
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ZetaTalk: Food Riots
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ZetaTalk: Food Riots
written April 5, 2008
Rice Jumps as Africa Joins Race for Supplies [Apr 4] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ Rice prices rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to a fresh all-time high as African countries joined south-east Asian importers
in the race to head off social unrest by securing supplies from the handful of exporters still selling the
grain in the international market. The rise in prices - 50 per cent in two weeks - threatens upheaval and
has resulted in riots and soldiers overseeing supplies in some emerging countries, where the grain is a
staple food for about 3bn people. India's trade minister, said the government would crack down on
hoarding of essential commodities to keep a lid on food prices. [and from another] City Dwellers Priced
Out of the Market [Apr 4] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ Yeshi Degefu stopped eating meat about a year ago.
Vegetables followed soon and, more recently, chickpeas and lentils. Today, Mrs Yeshi, 50, of Addis Ababa,
queues for subsidised wheat, the only food she can still afford. Mrs Yeshi is caught up in a food crisis that
is hitting the urban population rather than the rural poor, the group that has in the past faced the greatest
threat of hunger. This time, the problem is not a shortage of food but its price. Urban populations are
more likely to protest, triggering riots which in Africa have already hit Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Acute food shortages are in the news, as are the rising prices that accompany shortages. We have predicted that in the
years leading into the pole shift that crop shortages would occur, worldwide. Where this became evident in the year 2000, as documented by Nancy in her Shortage TOPIC within Troubled Times, these shortages did not make major
headlines because stocks of grain and other staples were on hand. Now, the stocks are depleted, or nearly so. Where
the price of wheat, corn, and soybeans has been rising in step with shortfalls, riots did not occur until shortages and
price increases for rice occurred. Rice is a staple for half the world's population, primarily the poorest half, and thus
this shortage is touching desperation. Rice was one of the cheapest foods for this populace, and now must be replaced
by more expensive items or starvation looms.
The reaction of various governments to their starving populace is varied. Some are buying what stocks of rice they can
secure and forcing price controls among the merchants distributing these stocks. Others are merely reacting to riots
with traditional riot control. The poor in many of these countries have always suffered at near starvation levels, with
little sympathy from the authorities who expect the starving to fade away quietly and not make a fuss. Malnutrition
affects such a populace before birth, creating mental retardation and a poor start in life for the newborn. Malnutrition
among the young stunts growth, particularly growth of the brain, exacerbating mental retardation. Thus deprived of an
ability to earn a good living except by manual labor, which their stunted bodies can scarcely enable, those affected by
chronic starvation hardly notice when their poor diet is diminished further.
It is the reasonably well fed who are being heard from during the recent food riots. Those who are not retarded or
stunted, and have been able to enjoy a varied diet previously. The first reaction to rising food prices is to carve
expensive treats from the menu. The second reaction is to alter the daily fare to emphasize inexpensive staples - a diet
more dull but affordable. When inexpensive staples like rice rise or double in price these households must trim other
expenses from their budget - less travel, clothing, and entertainment. In many cases, the household moves from being
economically viable and in the black to running in the red, running into debt. Arguments ensue, and demands that the
government do something about the situation is part of the argument. Tempers are at the trigger point, so that some
trivial argument at the food market can spark a riot. This class of citizen - the formerly well fed - does not slide
quietly or quickly into the stance of their chronically starved neighbors. They know about the underclass, the
chronically underfed, but have never imagined themselves forced into these straits. In horror, they see themselves
unable to afford enough food for good health, despite cutting back all budgetary items possible, so panic is just under
the surface and explodes into hysteria with every rise in food prices.
http://www.zetatalk2.com/index/zeta445.htm[2/5/2012 11:14:28 AM]
ZetaTalk: Food Riots
What are governments to do when a formerly quiet portion of the populace becomes noisy and hysterical? Price
controls are one avenue, but even with price controls the shortages will continue and increase due to the worsening
weather extremes we have so long predicted. In the US, soup kitchens are threatened as the US government cuts back