by Red Hughes and Corcceigh Green

We’ve been running some predictions at Green Mountain/Upriver Journal for the past year. Most of our predictions were portents of doom and gloom. Though not apocalyptic to homesteaders, our predictions had some dire consequences if ignored and not prepared against. Some predictions had potential to culminate should certain events transpire, but fortunately, not all events took place to make matters as bad as they could have. Other predictions have been panning out, though at a slower pace than anticipated. We predicted that the state of the dollar (more accurately, the federal reserve note) was unsustainable and would have to either increase printing federal reserve notes to create hyper-inflation or allow the market to crash. Currently, it looks as though the federal reserve has chosen to print more notes, but at a slower rate. This is still causing inflation, but the printing has not yet reached the point to create hyper-inflation.

Other predictions concerned the nation’s and the world’s food supply. Last winter and spring, the southeast and southwest experienced fluctuations in the weather causing freezes that wiped out many fruit crops. This made citrus fruits, strawberries and many vegetables like lettuce and radishes in short supply and more expensive at the grocers. From this situation, we speculated that worsening weather conditions in America’s breadbasket could create further shortages and famine. Our speculation was based on a drought scenario withering our grain production. While droughts did occur, they occurred mainly in the southeast and west coast and included many Rocky Mountain States. The breadbasket did experience some drought, but the weather continued to fluctuate there causing the region to experience floods or droughts variously.

This did cause a shortage in grain production. In 2007, world wide grain production failed to produce enough wheat to feed everyone on the planet. This is the first year that has happened. Wheat prices has soared due to this fact and products are becoming less available at the stores. Other grains are faring the same as wheat as agro-corporations need to deliver their produce to ethanol plants to help produce fuel for transportation and heating. This situation has created a shortage in corn and sent corn prices into the sky. Purchasing corn for his homestead, writer Corcceigh Green, found the grain in shortage, more expensive and a great amount of silage from ground corn stalks mixed in. This poor state of feed corn was uniform across the spectrum of brand name products. The poor quality of feed corn continued throughout the summer ending only in the late fall.

Grain quality became even lower this year as genetically modified corn was harvested for feed. Reliable sources from Iowa and other States within America’s breadbasket reported that their livestock would not eat the modified corn until they began to starve. When they were forced to eat the transgenetic feed, the grain would pass through their digestive tract undigested and the animals would continue to lose weight.

Poor quality foods and foods spiked with toxins were imported into America from communist China. The first food scares were brought to light when pets began to die after eating processed foods manufactured using Chi-com imports. The first few tainted products were identified, but the public wasn’t alerted to the situation. Speculation on this subject has many thinking that it did not matter to the bureaucracies like the USDA that food imports were tainted. Since there was not enough food produced last year, bureaucracies were not going to stop the importation of toxically spiked products, because there would not be enough food to satisfy Americans. This situation led to many more deaths of pets than should have occurred and the spread of the toxically spiked products to other brands, then eventually to human foods before the outcry finally reached the politicos in Washington, D.C. and enough steps were taken to worry Chi-com exporters into stepping back in their practice of spiking foods with toxins. Even so, this situation has not been solved. America still has no mechanism with which to protect herself from toxins in imported food and food products. Thus far, we are only trusting that the Chi-coms will continue to spike their foods with less toxins that result in less illnesses and deaths.

The culmination of these events through the year has resulted in a weak economy and less food products on the grocer’s shelves. Considering that our delivery system is based on the principle of just in time delivery, when food products empty off of shelves, a shortage of imported food could leave those shelves empty. With the coming year, we are again at a crossroads of potential. The economy is in the tank, food production is not keeping up with population needs, weather patterns continue to shift. Interference with the genetic make up of life forms only served to make matters worse. Communist nations which used to be and should still be considered enemy nations poison our already short supply of food products. Government continues to expand beyond it’s lawful authority in our Constitution and curtails our freedoms. These problems could not only persist, but escalate with the year ahead.

Let’s assume the worst again. That won’t be hard to do. No matter what the circumstances, the federal reserve must continue to print money and escalate the inflation rate or allow the market to correct, which, with the amount of correction necessary, will cause a crash. We are in for some tough financial times regardless of any other event helping to escalate the situation. Whatever products are available at the grocer’s you will be paying more for it. It is not likely that increases in wages will keep up with this trend.

Weather patterns will probably continue to shift. Look for more floods, more freezes and more hot, dry weather in the west. Drought conditions could lead to more wildfires costing various regions it‘s resources in timber and grasslands. Crops could, again, become scarce. Throughout history it is normally three or for crop failures in a row that cause famines. Last year’s failures may be only a portent of things to come. A couple of more years with negative food production will have the most well fed of Americans noticing famine in the wind.

Fuel prices will continue to go up. Despite talk of peak oil production, the problem is not in the scarcity of oil. The problem lies in refining stations. There are not enough to keep up with demands and no more are planned to be built. We could pump a lot more oil out of existing oil fields, but to no avail, as existing facilities to process crude oil into fuel could not handle the increased volume. Look for fuel prices to reach record heights again this summer and travel decrease.

Government will continue to consolidate more power into itself and curtail remaining freedoms. The ability of individuals to develop industries, ideas and inventions that would help America to pull out of the coming situation is being restricted. Only through the freedom to exercise one’s God given, individual rights can a society’s individual develop the techniques to create economies that work through bad times. Collectivist governments fear and restrict individual rights and seek to control economies, curtailing those economies ability to adjust to a society’s needs. It is why the Soviet Empire failed and why socialism/communism doesn’t work. It’s also why government in Washington, D.C. and the various State capitals will not be able to adjust. They will continue to utilize socialist principles and enforce those principles with complete disregard for common sense.

The answer to these problems? Yes, it is the same as we have been extolling for the past years. Homesteading. Homesteaders will be effected by these problems, yes, but to a lesser extent. In many cases those problems can be reduced by a great extent. Unlike government, homesteaders have learned not to live beyond one’s means. Don’t spend more than you earn. Enjoy simple things and derive pleasure from the growth of nature that surrounds you. You don’t need an ATV or jet ski that costs in the tens of thousands of dollars. A bicycle, horse or John boat costs much less and get much more done. Why speed around a lake when you can fish and provide lunch at the same time? Your hobbies also can be entertaining, simple and provide extra income or trade. Craft products crafted on a home built loom or pounded out on a home forge can be traded amongst a community for other products that you don’t produce for yourself or can be sold for extra income.

Food should be grown by every homesteader. Garden plots can be as large as a homestead’s land will allow or may be a small shirt tail patch to match a suburban connoisseur’s backyard. Americans need to take a clue from years of shortage in the past. During WWII wartime production went toward the troops fighting a war in Europe and the Pacific. Food rationing was enforced at home and may be done so again. To offset this hardship, many Americans grew a victory garden. These were gardens whose primary purpose was to provide the gardeners with extra food that could not be purchased due to rationing. At the very least, a victory garden will provide homesteaders and suburbanites with fresh vegetables during growing season should those items come into short supply.

Beside a garden plot or two, staples like potatoes can be grown in boxes, plastic garbage bags or even garbage cans for those who do not have an abundance of growing land. Fruit trees can provide food and shade as well as decorative landscape foliage. A mini orchard on a corner lot can provide preserves for next winter’s shortages or a full blown homestead orchard can provide preserves and trade goods.

Animal husbandry will provide meat for those meatless Tuesdays. Homesteaders will generally have a flock of poultry, goats or cows. City dwellers may find that they are limited, but not excluded from animal husbandry. A backyard swimming pool may be converted to a ‘reflecting pond’ that is habitat for catfish rather than coy fish. Fish may be fed from a worm farm, pond weeds and crickets could be kept for ambiance as well as fish or poultry food. Suburbanites and city dwellers may find it hard to keep chickens as neighbors may hear the noise and help themselves to a chicken dinner, but when the oil is cut off, you can push the car out of the garage and put in some cages and pine shavings to convert the area into a coop for quail. Quail do not make the familiar noises that chickens do. There calls are usually mistaken for the calls of songbirds. Their eggs are much smaller, but delicious and their meat is delicious.

Rabbits make excellent pets that suburbanite neighbors don’t even give a second glance. For the homestead, they are easy animals to raise that can be fed from garden scraps and grains grown on your grounds. For the suburbanite, they take up little space, can be fed from a lawn that has not been treated with herbicides and pesticides, garden scraps and grains gleaned or traded for from farmers. Again a garage redecorated with rabbit cages can provide the space for dozens of rabbits. More rabbits can be bred to replace those butchered for food. Neighbors wouldn’t need to know about your source of rabbits, if they were only able to spot one at a time playing (and feeding) in the backyard as though it were a pet. Neighbors may assume you have only the one pet rabbit and leave your suburban homestead alone.

Rural homesteaders will have less problems with neighbors. They will already have made friendships and developed communities that will help each other pull through hard times. This will also help to lessen the severity of a government becoming more totalitarian with each year. Unconstitutional legislation and edicts can be more easily ignored in rural regions where neighbors will turn a blind eye toward their neighbor’s preparations and help each other to stay hidden while violating unconstitutional edicts like the NAIS edict. Such communities will be in a better shape to weather economic and social collapse and to help rebuild for the future.

Wherever you are located now, there are options for you to become even a little more self reliant. You will need to be self reliant in the years ahead. By transforming your rural, suburban or urban plot of ground into something that produces just a bit, then adding onto this in the coming years you will help yourself, neighbors and country to lessen the severity of hard times.

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