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Jonathan Brentner -
Warnings of catastrophic food shortages by the end of 2022 abound. What are we to make of these?
In the book of Genesis, Joseph prepared Egypt for the coming famine and saved the lives of a great many people, including his entire family. Is it prudent to follow his example and prepare for what many tell us is coming our way?
There’s a Proverb that I believe speaks to the day in which we live.
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, / but the simple go on and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 22:3)
Please allow me to present the evidence that I have and demonstrate why it’s prudent, or wise, to prepare for the food shortages looming on our horizon.
WARNINGS OF GREAT ECONOMIC PERIL
The warnings of coming economic peril are far too frequent to ignore. Even if food remains on the shelves at some stores, this will make it difficult for a great many people to afford to buy groceries.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned about a coming “economic hurricane.” He said this:
“It’s a hurricane. Right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, everyone thinks the Fed can handle this . . . . That hurricane is right out there, down the road, coming our way. We just don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy or Andrew or something like that. You better brace yourself.”[i]
It’s more than a little disconcerting that the JPMorgan Chase CEO refers to record high gas prices and double-digit inflation for groceries as “kind of sunny.” What might the “hurricane” have in store for us if it’s “sunny” now when a great many people are already suffering and unable to make ends meet?
Robert Kiyosaki is an American businessman, author, the head of private financial education company that provides personal finance and business education to people through books and videos. Michael Snyder, in his article 4 Really Big Names That Are Warning That Major Economic Disaster Is Ahead, quoted one of his tweets (with his emphases):
“DO YOU HAVE a PLAN “B”? We are in BIGGEST BUBBLE in world history. Bubbles in stocks, real estate, commodities & oil. FUTURE? Possible DEPRESSION with HYPER-INFLATION. . . . “[ii]
Michael Snyder, a blogger and economic analyst, in that same article wrote:
I hope that you are enjoying these beautiful summer weekends while you still can, because it appears that very troubled times are dead ahead. Simultaneously, inflation continues to spiral out of control even as economic activity in the U.S. dramatically slows down. Many have compared what we are currently experiencing to the “stagflation” of the 1970s, but the truth is that what we are facing will eventually be so much worse than anything that we went through back then. A meltdown of historic proportions is here. . . .[iii]
Britt Gillette, prominent biblical prophecy author and blogger, recently wrote:
So what does all this mean? It means a major economic crisis is on the horizon. It may be the worst global economic crisis ever - worse than the Great Depression.[iv]
Besides the warnings of increasingly difficult economic times ahead, many are also warning of a severe crisis this fall and winter caused by dangerous food shortages and soaring costs for groceries beyond what we have already seen.
WARNINGS OF CATASTROPHIC FOOD SHORTAGES
Below is a sampling of quotes that speak of catastrophic food shortages in our future.
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue recently told Fox News that the world is on the brink of a food crisis. "We are on the precipice of a global food crisis," he told Maria Bartiromo.[v]
Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv Shah described what is soon to unfold as a “massive, immediate food crisis that will strike the entire world, leaving no country untouched.”[vi]
Michael Snyder, on his End of the American Dream blog, wrote about the dire situation facing America and the world. I know it’s long, but he sums my point better than I can:
“The hits just keep on coming. Over the past few months, I have carefully documented the rapidly growing global food crisis, and I have explained that even here in the United States food production is going to be way below original expectations this year. Unfortunately, most of the population still doesn’t grasp what is happening. Most people simply assume that everything will turn out okay somehow. Meanwhile, farmers are telling us as loudly as they can that everything will most definitely not be okay. In my entire lifetime, I have never seen America’s farmers this alarmed about what is ahead. And of course, everything that we are currently witnessing in the U.S. and around the globe is setting the stage for the sort of historic famines that I have been relentlessly warning my readers about. I wish that I knew a way to get through to the millions upon millions of apathetic people out there that don’t seem to care that a major food crisis is coming, because the suffering that we are going to witness all over the world will be off the charts.”[vii]
I follow a great many newsfeeds that include both believers and those outside the faith. I hear many voices warning of the food crisis that’s about to hit the world and America. Making matters worse are the famine and severe draughts in parts of the world, including the western half of the United States.
The title of this insightful article says it all, U.S. Farmers Issue Dire Warnings of Looming Food Shortages as Most Americans are Clueless as to How Their Food is Produced and Unprepared for What’s Coming. This piece puts together several news stores that contain warnings from farmers concerning the high prices of diesel fuel and fertilizers. Below is a quote from it:
“Today, less than 1% of the population of the United States now produces food for the other 99%, thanks to the technological age, so when farmers, particularly farmers with contracts in the commodity food industry, which is by far the majority, speak out with warnings about what is ahead, it is time to sit up and listen, and realize that if you cannot buy food from your usual local grocery outlets, that there will be no one to bail you out if you have not prepared for such a situation.”
A recent article on The Epoch Times website also warns of food shortages later this year and into 2023:
With each passing week, it’s becoming increasingly clear that severe food shortages are going to be inevitable, more or less worldwide, and whatever food is available will continue to go up in price.
The cost of agricultural inputs such as diesel and fertilizers is skyrocketing due to shortages — caused by a combination of intentional and coincidental events — and those costs will be reflected in consumer food prices come fall and next year.[viii]
SHORTAGES OF DIESEL FUEL AND DEF COULD SPELL DOOM FOR MANY AMERICANS
Because less than 1% of America’s population produce food, we are totally dependent of diesel fuel for our survival. Without engines propelled by it, food would never reach our groceries store and we would starve to death.
The following is a quote from Time magazine warning of dangers inherent in the shortages of diesel fuel:
“Though most consumers shake their heads at the cost of gasoline and complain about the cost of filling up their car tanks, what they really should be worried about is the price of diesel. The U.S. economy runs on diesel. It’s what powers the container ships that bring goods from Asia and the trucks that collect goods from the ports and bring them to warehouses and then to your home. The farmers who grow the food you eat put diesel in their tractors to plow the fields, and the workers that bring construction equipment to build your home put diesel in their trucks.”[ix]
Not only does the planting and harvesting of crops depend on diesel fuel, but it’s necessary to keep the trucks running that take the harvest of our food supply to relevant plants and then to the stores. I know that the majority of you know this, but so many assume that we can survive without gasoline, natural gas, and diesel fuel; the truth is that all these sources of energy are absolutely essential and without them tens of millions of Americans would die of starvation in a very short time.
The looming crisis extends beyond just the shortages of diesel fuel and the soaring prices for this fuel, but also to diesel engine oil and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). Newsweek magazine had this to say about the looming DEF shortage:
The U.S. could soon experience a severe shortage of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), impacting U.S. drivers already hit with soaring fuel prices.
DEF is a solution made up of urea and de-ionized water that is needed for almost everything that runs on diesel. It reduces harmful gases being released into the atmosphere and works by converting nitrogen oxide produced by diesel engines into nitrogen and steam.
The solution is injected into the exhaust stream to limit pollution from diesel engines in order to meet current exhaust emissions standards.[x]
Not only do these things potentially spell disaster for our food supply, but it could mean the deaths of great many people in the U.S. I cannot emphasize this enough; the warnings regarding shortages of diesel fuel, oil for diesel engines, and DEF could alone spell disaster for tens of millions of people in the U.S.
A CONTROLLED DEMOLITION
Perhaps even more alarming is the purposeful destruction of sources for both food and the draconian restrictions on energy production in the U.S.
Recently, thousands of cattle died in Kansas. The media gave the official cause as excessive heat. In response, I read numerous reports saying that the “official response” was a lie. Ranchers from many other states contradicted the story stating that even higher temperatures in the past did not impact their herds in this way.
They also said that it’s highly suspicious that so many died at the same time; such things just do not happen. Maybe a few weaker heifers might die from extreme heat, but never thousands at one time. That never happens.
The killing of these cattle was deliberate and fits with a pattern of demolishing the food supply in America.
Lest you think that I’m a wild conspiracy theorist, and some do, it’s well-documented that in the United States alone, fires and other disasters have struck at least 97 food processing facilities since January of 2021.
Michael Snyder lists all 97 of them in his blog post, More Major Disasters Hit U.S. Food Production – Are You Prepared For What Comes Next?[xi] Click here to see listing of all of these with dates and locations. Snyder provides details of instance of sabotage against our food supply. Other writers have similar lists to his.
The authorities in the U.S. are also ordering the slaughtering of chickens and turkeys in huge numbers. They blame the “bird flu,” but it’s too coincidental for me. I’m highly suspicious.
Combined with the famine in many of the western states, the controlled demolition of America’s adds up to a crisis that will soon hit the U.S. as well as the rest of the world.
JESUS IS COMING SOON
What does all this mean?
First, I believe it signifies that we prepare as best we are able to do. I believe it’s a matter of being prudent, just as Proverbs 22:3 tells us.
The writer of the article for The Epoch Times agrees:
While it’s difficult to predict just how bad it will get in any given area, it seems safe to say that everyone should prepare for some degree of food shortages, regardless of where you live, as we’re staring at a perfect storm of confounding factors that are global in nature and therefore can cause far-reaching and somewhat unpredictable ripple effects.[i]
Second, it tells us that Jesus is coming for His church in the very near future.
The catastrophic shortages of fuel and food that lie in the future for our world speak to conditions that the apostle John described in Revelation 6:1-8. (My recent post, The Sound of Approaching Hoofbeats, goes into much detail on how what we are seeing today fits with these verses.)
However, there’s good news in all of this: the Bible says we will be with Jesus before He unleashes the seal judgments described in these verses.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, Paul describes the judgments that John would decades later write about in Revelation as the Day of the Lord wrath that will come unexpectedly upon the people of the world.
For believers that are awake, however, this day will not surprise them “like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). Why is that?
First, we recognize the signs of this coming day and they are everywhere we look.
Second, the apostle promises that the Lord will come for us before this day in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10:
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”
This is joyous news for all of us that are securely in Christ. We may suffer between now and the Rapture, but the Bible tells us that the Rapture will happen before the astronomically high death toll of Revelation 6:8 occurs. That’s day of the Lord stuff and according to Paul, the Rapture must happen before that.
My wife and are bit by bit adding to our reserve of food; we believe that a crisis is coming and want to both be prepared and in a position to help others who are not as able to prepare. Our prayer is that if we do not need our added supply because of the Rapture, a tribulation saint might find our home.
Maranatha! Come soon Lord Jesus!
