Food Shortage Already Here

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has already written several posts about the coming food shortage, both in this Country and Worldwide. With the droughts, natural disasters, economic condition and high taxes/expenses this Country's ability to feed itself is rapidly declining. On the plus side, never before has hobby farming where regular people and even urban dwellers start their own gardens been so prevalent. Not only is a worthwhile skills, but the satisfaction you get from harvesting your own vegetables and having them for dinner just makes it all the more worthwhile.

A reader sent me this article entitled What Produce Drought Isn't Killing, People Are Stealing: Killing Drought in Arkansas

By Ron Klinefelter, owner of Spring Valley Organic Growers, 10 August 2011:

This is now our 77th consecutive day (Aug. 7) of this heat and drought. Temperatures all week were over 100. One day it was 104, one it was 107! We also broke 2 new all time heat records this week….108, and 112, and of course, no rain.

Several more things bit the dust this week. One, a patch of a beautiful heirloom grinding corn, that usually produces 2 ears, many a foot long. Even with every other day watering, they just couldn’t produce even one ear, and are now just curling up and dying.

Attention…..NO SEED for next year!

I was walking in one of the gardens yesterday, and the big elderberry bushes have so dried up that their big dinner plate sized clusters of fruit, which have just sat there green for weeks, instead of ripening, have begun to mummify, like they had been placed in a dehydrator. Also, the armadillo damage is so great now that they are ravaging whole beds. In the morning, it looks like a roto-tiller has gone thru there.

I have natural food stores calling me, asking for any produce, especially tomatoes. When I was in one of them last week, they were selling organic tomatoes FROM MEXICO! In talking to the manager/produce buyer of Prairie Markets last week, she told me that virtually everyone had “given up”, and there wasn’t even a viable farmers market in town now.

One more little problem. I was talking to someone in an adjoining county that was fortunate to get SOME rain. They had a pretty good bunch of tomatoes that they had been letting ripen on the vine. They were going to pick them one evening, but it was just too miserably hot. They decided to wait until morning to pick them for canning, when it was a little “cooler”. This is a relative term, as it is well after dark.9:00p.m., and it’s still 92 degrees. When they went out to pick them the next morning, someone(s) had snuck in, in the night and stolen EVERY SINGLE TOMATO! Not a one was left!

I have so much water and time invested in the gardens now, that I don’t hardly dare to stop now, but even if it were to start raining for days now, there probably wouldn’t be time enough before frost to bring another crop off. This will most likely be my last year of commercial growing. I am a vanishing species.

Seeing what I see, and reading what I’m reading from all around the country (and world), I find it almost impossible to believe that food shortages and possibly famine are not dead ahead. One would be a fool to not be putting up food like crazy, while you can get it. To NOT be doing that, I believe, is a very dangerous and foolhardy move – act now!

Read it yourself here: Produce Killing Drought

Survival Rifle for 15 Year Old

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an e-mail question concerning Sniper Rifles……”This is about the sniper issue. I am a Marine and have a 15 year old brother who is an excellent shot but not up to (handling) large loads and I don't like the idea of missing him (him being messed up) up in close-quarter combat. I have plenty of buddy's to cover that. I want a lightweight and long-range take-down weapon. I disagree with .22LR due to its lack of take-down and versatility. I mean there maybe other groups with a heavy military center to these groups which would include body armor. Just wanted some choices for SHTF that you might suggest. I was thinking along the M40A1.”

UrbanMan replies:: Thank you for your service, Marine. A .308 caliber battle rifle like the venerable M14 or M1A1 or in the AR platform such as the excellent LWRC’s (shown to the left) and the LaRue piston driven AR platforms in .308 may be too much to handle due to weight and felt recoil for a 15 year old boy, although I saw 10 year old boys carrying FN/FALS and G3 rifles in Africa, but they weren’t proficient in their use nor even safe. If you want something light, then the M40A1 rifle, which sniper platforms are built on, really isn’t it. Plus you would have to add a scope then training for a 15 year old. I sure it can be done but I would choose a different solution.

Sometimes the closer you are to the solution, the harder it is to see it. As a Marine you are familiar with the M-4 carbine in it’s variants. This is a light weight rifle, if you keep all the crap like lights, scopes, etc., off the gun. It can be broken down if necessary and purchased with a 16 inch barrel and collapsible stock for a smaller profile. Using the SS109 bullet, which is a steel core penetrator and known to you as the 62 grain green tip, is a very effective package against armed criminals wearing body armor when SHTF. And of course the 5.56mm cartridge is more accurate that most men (or boys) can use, and effective range is not an issue as it is accurate enough out to 500 meters. This weapon has been proven as an effective close quarter battle weapon for a lot of military and law enforcement units as well.

Another thing you can consider is the Kel-Tec SU-16D series carbine which is a very lightweight firearm. The weight, unloaded, is under 4 pounds. It is a gas operated much like the M16; uses the M16 bolt; uses M16 type magazines; is semi-automatic and has a cross bolt safety. If you are looking for something with some range, this is probably not it as it’s rudimentary sights probably won’t support accurate shooting past 200 yards. I think this gun best serves as a take down survival gun for Bug Out Bags, but at a retail price tag over $700 it probably is too expensive for what you get.

While I shot one several months ago and shooting off hand at 50 yards it was easy to center mass hits on an IPSC target, I just would not buy one. I don’t need another 5.56mm gun and there is something about plastic guns. But I will say it did not fail on me, nor the owner, and we eventually shot about 160 to 200 rounds that day through it. It may be an option for someone who is concerned about weight. But remember what you give up in weigh, you get back in recoil given the same caliber.

Okay, we're back to the M-4. Magazines are plentiful. Easy to handle gun for older children. Ammunition is cheap. I'd be looking to this gun.

Survival Gardens - More Comments

UrbanSurvivalSkills. received the following on e-mail,....."Hey UrbanMan,really liked the article on Survival Gardening and the lessons learned. Here is what learned from my survival gardening and what helped me format my food stockpiling:.

Seeds. Quality of seeds are very important. Ensure you store them in a controlled manner.

Planting. Ensure the soil and planting location is prepped to control waste of water (important if and when the collapse hits and water sources may not be reliable). Make sure you cull the plants as they come up so you keep the strongest plant of that species otherwise they will compete with each other. Don't plant too close together. I planted my corn way too close together this year and the stalks are not growing very tall.
UrbanMan comment:. Yeah I planted too close together as well.

I also planted new vegetables every 2 to 3 weeks. I am only planting two or three plants at a time because of my limited space in my backyard.

Types of Crops.. Tomatoes, black squash not yellow, potatoes, onions and cucumbers were easy for me to grow. Corn was okay, but (again) too close together. I am know enjoying a piece of fresh vegetable almost every day! I am know buying more brown and white rice, and dried pasta so I'll always have something to make with my vegetables. Canned soup goes further when you can add a piece of fresh vegetable to it and it tastes much better!.

Container Growing. Any containers have to have the ability to drain, so consider this. A a few nail holes in the bottom of the container go along way to drainage and not rotting the roots.

I hope this helps your readers. I am so glad I planted crops this year as I have learned so much. I think people who buy those pre-made SHTF tins of seeds but have never grown anything are going to be in for a surprise and not a good surprise.

UrbanMan comment: I agree with the need to "practice" growing crops if you have never done so. I also think that the Survival Planner would probably be better of customizing his own survival seed stock or at least augmenting store bought survival seed kits by figuring out what grows best in his area and buying those non-hybrid seeds from a reputable source. Gurney's Seed and Nursery is one of the sources I like. They also offer growing information, supplies and growing aids as well as a free newsletter.

There are a lot of celebrities (radio and news) pushing the idea of stocking food; hardly any of them talk about Seeds for Survival Gardens. What are you doing to do when the food runs out?

Stay Safe All. Cheers, Urban Man.

Second Recession - Are We Going to See Riots then Economic Collapse?

Paraphrasing the article, "Second Recession in he U.S. Could Be Worse", from the New York Times,.....their view is that the second recession (are we out of the first yet?) could be extremely painful and may not be recoverable.

Glenn Beck is predicting riots in the streets. And he is pretty damn accurate. We are seeing riots in England right now, and not just from the Police killing a man in an attempted arrest,...what fueled the riots is the general feelings by the "have nots" that they are getting the "short end of the stick".  They like alot of us in the U.S. are tired of their government  running this country into the ground.

Nowhere will this be larger issue if the high density population groups in the U.S. can't get food anymore either due to escalating prices or lack of availability....or fuel,......or really any commodity necessary for life or just plain survival.


We have seen two consecutive days of giant losses on the Stock Market.  Over 500 point on Friday 5 August, then over 600 points on Monday 8 August. What is going to happen if the Stock Market goes into free fall?

If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.  “It would be disastrous if we entered into a recession at this stage, given that we haven’t yet made up for the last recession,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics. And this is the good news. This is an understatement.

Anxiety and uncertainty have increased in the last few days after the decision by Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating and as Europe continues its desperate attempt to stem its debt crisis. This is going to force the U.S. to execute entitlement reform, leaving millions without, or worse yet, have their credit dry up,..in effect becoming bankrupt.

We have had a population in the work force grow by 3% in the last four years, but jobs have declined, putting an extremely large number of people out of work and on some sort of welfare.  What happens when the Government either begfins entitlement reform or just goes plain bankrupt and people have no choice really but to take what they need. 
We are very lucky that  fuel prices and interest rates have remained comparitively low, but that just cannot last for very much longer and the decline will become much more rapid.

Think about what you are going to do once food cannot be obtained, due to either high prices or unavailability.   Where are the most likely places for riots to begin?  Where will they migrate to?  Speaking of migration, are you are a natural refugee route?   How is your OPSEC?  How many people know you stock food and supplies?  Are you tracking the indicators of this potenial collapse?

As I post this the morning of Tuesday August 9th, I have no idea what will happen today, but you can be damn sure I'll have both the Television and radio on at work, as well as surf through revelent sites when I have the time,...and I will make the time.  This week may very well be critical.     

New York Times article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Second-Recession-in-US-Could-nytimes-2428475539.html?x=0