Food GONE. Toilet paper GONE. Shelves totally stripped down naked.
There were 3 packs of sausage left…
…normally there are 300.
I had heard of these things happening in “3rd World” countries like Venezuela… but NEVER in the United States of ‘Murica.
So tell me…
How Did You Feel When You Saw Empty Shelves?
Nervous?
Panicked?
Maybe even…
Righteous? (“told you our food system is unsustainable!”)
I did.
Naked shelves were pretty unsettling… but oddly…
They are NOT even the weirdest part of the story!
See, I spoke to the grocery store manager to investigate…
I asked him when he thought they’d replenish their stock.
And what he said next made me very uncomfortable.
He said:
“I Have No Problem Restocking Next Week… It’s 7 Months From Now I’m Worried About!”
At first, I was confused…
Then I remembered everything I know about our industrialized, “on-demand” food system
Here’s the thing:
It would appear “The Rona” (coronavirus) broke our food system.
Truth is… it was already broken!
And based on my research…
We could be in for a couple very rocky years in regards to food.
These potential food struggles ahead are due to a perfect storm.
It’s the combination of many factors, but mostly these two:
1. Big Ag’s Big Deception
2. “Rona” Related Supply Shocks
From what I’m seeing…
Our broken food system will not adapt well to what’s coming next.
That’s why WE need to adapt first… because things COULD get ugly.
Let me explain why NOW you need to be extremely aware of issues around food security, food availability, and of course, producing your own food supply at home.
And besides…
Plandemic or no-plandemic…
Empty shelves or full-shelves…
Producing your food at home boosts your health and your immunity…
It increases your sense of security…
And gives you something exciting and satisfying(!) to share with your friends, your family, your kids or neighbors.
Right? Right.
OK, now let’s talk food.
Food Crisis #1:
Big Ag’s Big Deception & Our Hijacked Brains
Long before the coronavirus killed “normal” and changed our entire way of life…
There was a A LOT of groundwork laid set us up for a food system disaster.
See, 100 years ago, you couldn’tpay someone to eat canned food.
People were literally terrified of canned food.
That’s because people were accustomed to either:
1. growing it themselves in their garden 2. trading/bartering food items with a neighbor
Or
3. going to a market, meeting with a friendly face who grew or raised the food, thereby ensuring immaculate quality of the food.
And then…
Until “Big Ag” Came Along & Hijacked Our Brains
Here’s what I mean…
Get a load of this Libby’s advertisement from roughly 100 years ago.
It shows the peaches falling into the can off the tree.
It’s saying:
“See, it’s just like the real thing from the orchard”.
“It’s the S-A-M-E thing. It’s S-A-F-E for you to eat.”
Again, with the corn and peas advertisement here:
“Reach for Libby’s and get the best in the garden!”
They had to reassure people – the food inside this can IS real food!
Because people were EXTREMELY skeptical…
And they remained skeptical for decades.
These types of ad campaigns were necessary to get Americans to change their habits… this took decades of persistent ads..
Finally, Americans changed their buying and eating habits…
MY POINT:
Slowly, the world switched from locally grown… to mass distribution food.
And behold…
Today, everything comes in cans…
Everything comes from God knows where…
Everything is “grown” far far away from where it’s consumed.
Nobody stores or saves any food.
Why would you? It’s all “on-demand”.
But, sure enough, when the world goes into lockdown…
The crops don’t get picked.
The trucks don’t run, and…
The Shelves Go Bare… Within Hours!
How safe and secure does this make you feel?
Personally, I don’t trust it. Then again, I always knew this was coming.
Point is…
First, Big Ag had to shift our psychology to create the destructive,distribution-dependent food system we are addicted to today…
First, they had to make us comfortable with the idea of our food coming from some far away unknown place.
Because around 100 years ago…
People had a DEEP connection with food.
They could TOUCH the food.
SEE it growing.
KNEW who grew it.
And they often grew or harvested it themselves.
In my opinion, our ancestors were very wise to be wary of long-distance food relationships…
Because it took literal decades of mass marketing from packaged food companies to get people to change their beliefs, change their buying behavior, and finally buy foods distributed over loooong distances. And now, we desperately need to un-brainwashourselves and change our mindset BACK to a sane way of producing food.
Otherwise, we’ll just get more of this…
(this is a lab rat, full of cancerous tumors… 90~ days after eating GMO corn)
And we’ll get more of this…
Today, people think food comes from farms and ONLY farms.
We’ve been trained to believe, food comes from “out there somewhere”.
Somewhere far, far away that requires a semi-truck and fossil fuels to get the food from point of production to point of consumption.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
And for most of human history… it never did.
For thousands of years, it looked like this…
For thousands of years, food always came from as close as possible to its point of consumption.
It was just plainlogic!
As you know, it’s my mission to get us back to these “Old Ways”.
As you know by now…
It’s my personal MISSION to help resurrect and SPREAD the wisdom of these old ways… And how ancient people and indigenous cultures produced massive loads of food, with zero effort.
But first…
Let’s get real about why NOW it’s suddenly more important than ever to bring food production back into our own hands.
Food Crisis #2:
“Rona” Related Supply Shocks
If you thought our industrial food system was scary before “The Rona” (coronavirus) came to town…
Boy, are you in for some surprises.
Now, I will preface what I’m about to show you with this… I honestly DO NOT KNOW how bad things could get with food.
We are seeing food shortages in developing nations…
And it’s not just mainstream media narratives…
I got this email from a subscriber in Nigeria recently.
Turns out, they now have miles long locust swarms since biblical record.
Jesus…
Needless to say, I sent him all my trainings, free of charge.
Anyway, here’s what (supposedly) reputable sources are saying about the shifts ahead in our food supply…
Supply Chain Shock #1
Major Producers On Lockdown… Forever?
Major food exporting nations seem to have adopted a “take care of our own” policy.
Places like…
India
India locked down the entire country.
Their food prices have risen nearly 10%…
The Indian government has halted ALL rice exports. They need to make sure they can feed their own 1,379,233,699 population first.
India is responsible for 33% of the world’s rice.
So, now ⅓ of the world’s biggest staple crop just vanished off the market.
Of course, even I read that headline and thought:
“Oh sure, but that won’t affect ME…” Then I went to the grocery store literally 1 hour after reading that… to find all the rice… totally out of stock.
Honduras & Guatemala
These major producers of coffee and other staple crops like bananas have all but shut down their ports. Their curfews are also reducing production significantly.
Philippines
Ports in the Philippines, through which much of the world’s rice is shipped, are shut down. TIME Magazine published this article, discussing how this actually has nothing to do with food supply, as harvests have been great. It’s a distribution issue, like I keep saying.
No one is sure how long these will last, but experts agree the effects on supply and price will last years, not months.
Bottom line?
If you’re dependent on food grown anywhere except your own yard, you are at the mercy of supply shocks and price increases.
You have ZERO control over that.
Compare that to how amazing it would feel to have an abundant harvest of vegetables, nuts, root crops, and other high-calorie foods from your yard… You have 100% control over that.
Next, let’s cover…
Supply Chain Shock #2
Farmers Go Bankrupt And Throw Away Food?
Get this.
Even though we have people starving in some areas of the world…
In…
Wisconsin: Dairy farmers are dumping3.7 million gallons of milk down the drain per day.
Florida: vegetable growers are plowing under millions of pounds of vegetables.
Mississippi: Chicken farmers are breaking hundreds of thousands of chicken-hatching eggs, rather than raising the chicks for meat. That’s because restaurants saw a 95% drop in business and stopped ordering food. Many restaurants will go bankrupt and never reopen.
With restaurant demand vanishing, many farmers will struggle to stay afloat. Many will go into bankruptcy.
The Florida tomato farmer interviewed in the CBS News article above says:
“I’m just a small farm compared to some and I probably have in the neighborhood of 60,000 to 70,000 boxes that I’ll leave in the field,”
Sure enough, American Farm Bureau Federation said farm bankruptcies are
up 23% this year already, thanks to the plandemic.
Because of the sheer complexity…
We are seeing a total failure and collapse of this destructive,distribution-dependent food system.
I say “good riddance!” however, we need something better to replace it.
OK, let’s cover possibly the most glaring supply shock yet…
Supply Chain Shock #3
Record Breaking Unemployment
46 million Americans are unemployed at the time I’m writing this.
Wow.
According to a Forbes article, the unemployment rate is already HIGHER than that of the Great Depression.
Oh, and over 106 million loans are in forbearance (not making payments) totaling over $100B. What does this mean for food?
Well, as you know, most Americans have less than $500 saved for emergencies.
Which is crazy because apparently even Americans at “poverty level” spend 50% of their income on “luxury items”.
I guess Starbucks Frappucinnos are more important than saving $ for a rainy day… or a plandemic day?
I digress. Anyway…
Millions of Americans are tapping their local food banks for assistance.
In fact, there’s been so much demand for food assistance, food banks are getting overwhelmed and closing their doors.
Here’s what some food bank administrators said in the above article:
Here’s what some food bank administrators said in the above article:
Aside from raising money, there are lingering concerns on where the food will come from in the near future.
Chubbs is worried about “what this is going to look like 45 to 60 days from now, when we are all — not just the retail grocers but all 200 food banks in the country — trying to procure food from the same vendors.”
If those vendors cease to exist, this would add another yet another major hurdle.
OK there you have it…
Our food system is in a huge mess and to say things are uncertain would be an understatement…
Again, I HAVE NO IDEA how bad this is going to get…
I have no idea if you’ll see food shortages or legit hunger in your area.
I honestly do not know if this will get worse… or better…
But Ya Know What?
WHY ON EARTH would I put myself into such a vulnerable position?!
Why would YOU leave your food security to chance?
Especially if it’s completely unnecessary.
Especially because there is a simple solution to this food disaster.
It’s a solution that was actually developed 5,000+ years ago…
… and it’s been forced into the shadows by our destructive, transportation-based food system.
Now, it’s time we resurrect the old ways and take food production BACK where it belongs….
Your house!
If you have access to the Revolution Garden Training Materials, crack that baby open!
Keep in mind, thanks to good-ole “Rona” I’ve had a heckofa time sourcing materials for these kits, so I’m honestly not sure how long we can keep offering them.
I think that will change in the next year, but for now, supplies are strictly limited.
You’d have to eat EIGHT (yes 8) whole oranges to get the
SAME dose of Vitamin C!
What the heck happened?
That juicy orange you buy at the store sure LOOKS delicious, right?
Yeah, well… there’s nothing in it anymore.
The store-bought fruit and vegetables you eat are mostly empty… Devoid of nutrients.
(yes, even the ones you pay double for at Whole Foods my darlings)
And I’m not the only lunatic talking about this…
Here’s an article from Scientific American diving into the stats.
So…
WHY is this a problem?
HOW did we let this happen?
Allow me to explain…
I’m amazed by just how little the average Modernized Humanoid Cyborg (MHC) understands about Earth and it’s connection to their primitive human body.
Sooo, to explain what I consider common sense, I’ll use simple diagrams so anygoldfish-attention-spanned millennial can understand in 8 seconds or less.
But first, let’s cover the pre-reqs, shall we?
“C’mon James, Who Needs Nutrients Anyway?”
Many Americans seem to think if they eat enough cheetos to fill their hungry belly, they might get lucky and live to 100 (unless they get hit by a bus while texting).
Because remember: as modern humans whose technology solves everything for them, the sole purpose of eating is to satisfy hunger.
After all, your body is just like a car that goes vroom vroom! The engine just needs fuel when the tank runs empty.
And, that is why The Colonel in all his glory bestowed $5 Fill Ups upon us!
Sorry folks, it doesn’t work that way…
Here’s how it does work:
Your cells require a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats to replicate properly.
Your DNA needs these vital building blocks to replicate, rebuild, and repair itself. If the DNA becomes weak and breaks (from lack of nutrients or exposure to a toxic pesticide) it produces mutant cells.
It’s simple… as the nutrients in soil and food disappear, our levels of disease skyrocket.
This chart shows the correlation between availablenutrients in soil/food and increase of diseases caused by mineral deficiency.
Newsflash: 2,500 Americans are dying of cancer PER DAY.
That’s almost the number of people who were killed on 9/11… except they’re dying everysingledamnday people!
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that as we give our bodies LESS of what they’ve needed over the last several eons, we F ourselves up.
But, as Dr. Linus Pauling (two-time Nobel Prize winner) said…
“Nearly all disease can be traced to a nutritional deficiency.”
The cause of our health problems is stupidly simple – and yet the “we’re finding a cure for cancer” foundations trick you into donating your hard earned money to their futile research.
(NOTE: Yes, cancer is serious and I have personally been impacted by the disease… but our way of approaching “a cure” is utterly ridiculous, and from what I gather, shockingly corrupt. I recommend diving into Dr. Pauling’s research)
The cure to our cancer epidemic is to eat nutrient-dense foods without carcinogenic pesticides.
Boom. Solved. Please send the Nobel Prize for Obviousness to the address listed below. We can skip the award ceremony. Thanks.
Now, you might be wondering WHERE did all the nutrients go?
How do we get those nutrients BACK into our soil and into our food?
Where’d All Them Nutrients Go Anyway??
Feast your eyes on this chart from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Well looky there… minerals in soil are disappearing.
But where are they going?
Again, the answer is embarrassingly simple:
Step 1: Farmers grow crops.
Step 2: Crops are shipped to the city (right after they’re picked early and sprayed with argon gas to ripen).
Step 3: City slickers spend bookoo bucks on these crops and eat them.
Step 4: City slickers digest and excrete the crops in the form of poop.
Step 5: The poop floats away to a waste treatment plant via modern day plumbing
Step 6a: The poop water is then blasted with chemicals, the water is separated out, and the poop sludge gets dumped into a landfill.
Step 6b: The poop water is flushed into a river, lake, or ocean.
Step 7: The undigested minerals and nutrients NEVER make it back to the farm where they originated.
This is a classic example of the broken cycles of the modern world that destroy our planet and our health.
We forget that Earth is a living, breathing organism that regenerates itself and that WE play a critical role in keeping Earth’s natural cycles intact.
PROBLEM: All that poop FULL of undigested minerals and nutrients is NOT making it back to the farm where the food originally came from.
The “Simple as Sh*t in a Bucket” Solution
For some reason, our advanced technological society just couldn’t figure out how to not drink the SAME water we poop in…
Yes, the water you crap in gets “treated” with loads of chemicals and then pumped back to your faucet for you to drink and bathe in.
Yum!
Here’s what we should be doing instead:
Step 1: Do your biz in a 5 gallon bucket and cover your dung with wood shavings.
Remarkably, this smells 10x less bad than when you air drop human excrement into a giant bowl of water. Go figure.
If you wanna get fancy, you can add dried lavender flowers and activated charcoal to the wood shavings mix to eliminate the smell even more.
Step 2: Toss it in a pile outside and let it compost for 2~ years (killing all the scary pathogens that supposedly live in it).
Step 3: Use it to grow amazing vegetables in your garden.
Step 4: Eat the vegetables and enjoy vibrant health without cancer or fatal, life-limiting disease.
Again, see below for my address to send the Nobel Prize for Obviousness. Thanks.
For more detail, you can buy a copy of The Humanure Handbook by Joseph C. Jenkins which has sold 60,000+ copies despite the fact that every book publisher on Earth refused to publish it because the topic is “gross”.
If you’re not as hardcore as most people reading this blog post who have already stopped reading and are feverishly searching their garage for a spare 5 gallon bucket…
Don’t worry.
You’ll eventually warm up to the idea…
Just wanted to plant the seed in your soil.
Thoughts on this rant?
I’d love to read your comments below and continue the discussion.
Keep growing,
James~
James Fry
Founder
GrowEverywhere.com
The Dirt on America’s Disease “Epicdemic” – Where Did All The Nutrients Go?
This article is going to save you from wasting 5 years of banging your head on a wall… literally.
How do I know?
Because I grew with aquaponics for 5 years. I didn’t just grow… I taught aquaponics classes, I worked full-time for a big aquaponics company, and even I created a top-selling online aquaponics training.
And yes, if you happen to be someone who purchased my aquaponics training I’m issuing you my deepest apology and a full refund AND sending you a free copy of my NEW training which is a MUCH better way to grow organic food. I’d be happy to tell ya more when you are ready to really get growing.
Anyways…one day I realized how incredibly stupid it was… and how much easier it is to grow a lot more food, while still using the SAME principles that aquaponics is actually based on:
That is: creating an environment that supports a symbiotic relationship.
I was just attempting to nurture the wrong relationship…
WARNING: If you’re a fish-poo flavored Kool Aid drinking aquaponics person (no judgement, I used to BE you) this information is probably going to piss you off.
You can fight me and gnash your teeth, but I suggest you hear me out and let me explain why there’s a much easier and better way of accomplishing your goal (which in theory is growing food, not to be a tinkering mad scientist, right?)
What Exactly IS Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is growing fish and plants together in the same system. In theory, this sounds really cool…
In practice, it turns out… (after 5+ years of doing it, teaching it, and being obsessed with it) aquaponics is pretty stooopid.
There are a multitude of reasons why you should NEVER drink the aquaponics kool-aid but…. Here are the top 5…
1. Over Complication – bell siphon.
One does not “simply”….. “do gardening.”
If there is a way to overcomplicate gardening, humanity will most assuredly find a way.
Case in Point: The Bell Siphon beloved by all aquapons.
Reason why bell-siphons are stupid:
The bell siphon in aquaponics was originally created because AT THAT TIME, about 10+ years ago, the pumps people were using were unreliable.
The pumps in THOSE DAYS weren’t meant to be turned off and on.
Wow. It’s amazing how much technology changes in 10 years, isn’t it?
Bell Siphons are vastly over complicated, and today, completely unnecessary- to the point of stoopidity.
What should you use instead?
I have been using an EcoPlus 66 submersible pump. It draws around 75-gallons per hour and it is very small. It costs a whopping $6. I’ve been running these for a long time in all sorts of weather conditions. These are practically indestructible. This pump is a bottom-draw pump. Other EcoPlus pumps come with a bottom draw adapter.
Battalions of pot growers use the very SAME pumps, turning them on and off all day long 24/7.
Seriously; OFF, ON, OFF, ON, OFF, ON ALL DAY LONG… the EcoPlus pumps run like clockwork and are reliable.
I’ve run these pumps in freezing water. Literally until they have ice in them. Just thaw them out, and they continue to perform.
Bell siphons are more tricky and complicated and failure prone than these pumps.
Bottom line:
There is no reason to have a bell siphon.
Just slap a simple analog timer onto the pump, save yourself hours of confusion and overflowing grow beds, and get on with your life.
(And I won’t even go into the “how many ways can we think of to move fish solids around” issue.)
2. Extra Fragile Ecosystem – Without HEAT the fish won’t EAT (and your plants won’t grow!)
Do you have any idea how fragile aquaponics systems are?.
This was the last straw for me.
A big reason that I (and probably you too) took up growing with aquaponics was that I wanted to live greener, eat healthier and do my part to help create a greener environment.
Saving money on food played a big role too.
If I had known then, how fragile and costly aquaponics systems are I would have stopped the aquaponics insanity before it even started.
The whole purpose of aquaponics is to create a symbiotic relationship between the plants and the fish to harvest amazing organic vegetables.
Truth is that aquaponics systems need consistent heat to function properly.
Aquaponics also require a balance of nutrients to grow healthy plants. Too much heat or too little heat and the oxygen levels get thrown and the entire aquaponics system throws the ecosystem out of balance. Too little heat —- the fish die.
Turns out that managing an aquaponics system can become a full time job and basically requires a degree in organic chemistry to keep everything in balance.
Don’t enslave yourself like I did.
Furthermore, don’t enslave these fish as your nitrogen whores when you can use an abundant nitrogen source instead! One that doesn’t even need to be imported. In fact, it’s so abundant we’re throwing it away and can’t seem to get rid of it fast enough. This nitrogen source is free and easy to obtain and 100% legal and safe.
3. Unsubstantial meat harvest
Let’s debunk the “I’m going to eat fish every day” myth.
One of the widely touted benefits of aquaponics is that you can harvest the fish for food and protein
In theory this is great… A “thriving” aquaponics system provides bountiful veggies and fish to eat?
It sounds too good to be true. (because it is)
No wonder many homesteaders flock to the empty promises of aquaponics.
That is…until they do the math.
Check it out: A 200gallon aquaponic system is supposed to provide you with 50 fish per year while a 125gallon system can get you roughly 40 fish per year.
Those 40 fish will give you about 40 lbs of meat in about 9 months time….
Yes…It takes about 9 months at 85F to get your fish to plate size.
So when you break it down… you’ll get a whopping 4.4lbs of meat per month.
Now let’s compare that to other popular homestead animals for self-sufficiency. Rabbits and Chickens.
40 rabbits will give you about 160lbs of meat in only 3 months time….
Which is a 53.3 lbs/month. A quick internet research will tell you that: “Rabbits breed and grow so quickly that one pair of healthy does(females) can produce more than 600 pounds of meat in a year. Compare that to the dressed yield of 400 pounds for an average year-old beef steer.”
And 50 chickens will give you about 225lbs of meat in only 2 months time…
which is 112.5 lbs/month.
Conclusion: Sorry to break it to you aquapon…your fish aint gonna provide the meat you need…that is if they even survive. And if they do, are you sure you want to eat them after all GMO feed you give ‘em ( More on this in Reason #5)
4. Aquaponics requires heavy supplementation
…..soooo… again….why do I have these fish?
You’ll need to buy iron, you’ll need extra potassium for root crops, you’ll need phosphorus for fruiting growth like tomatoes.
You’ll basically have to buy a bunch of things that are safe for fish so they’re even more expensive than your standard hydroponic nutrients.
I supplemented so much to get the type of growth I was looking for… that I wondered “wait a minute, I’m adding all these supplements to the water, why the HELL do I have these fish?” This led me to realize that I was only keeping them for their nitrogen.
They were my nitrogen slaves. Because as I said, you’re not getting the bang for your buck by eating these fish and if you did you’d lose or diminish your nitrogen source.
So I found a MUCH better, more regenerative way to get nitrogen that does not require enslaving fish.
It does involve recycling an abundant waste stream that every country has an oversupply of and I’ll tell you more about this amazing, well-rounded fertilizer that people in India and Africa are already using to put chemical companies like Dow Chemical out of business by using this free home-made fertilizer instead.
There is even multi-million dollar research grant money available for the development of this type of resource. It’s that good….
5. It is NOT a healthy alternative growing method
Shhhhh… The Fertilizer is (GMO) Feed!
This is THE Achilles heel of aquaponics and the one of the most discussed items you’ll hear at any large aquaponics conference.
It’s why aquaponics….
a) destroys the environment,
b) destroys your health
c) is counterproductive in the one goal it sets out to achieve…
(Especially compared to all the other gardening alternatives out there)
Tune in for more information on my preferred food growing method.
Conclusion
In summary, after doing (and teaching) aquaponics for 5+ years…
I discovered that aquaponics actually… sucks bawls.
At first (and like many aquapons) I refused to believe it…
I wouldn’t… believe it
I was in denial…
After all…
How could I tell 900+ people I basically blew smoke up their bum?
Finally, I swallowed my pride…
And decided to tell everyone the truth:
1. Aquaponics is a huge waste of $.
2. Aquaponics actually destroys the Earth.
3. Aquaponics does NOT give you edible fish.
Bottom line?
Aquaponics is a huge waste of time, energy, and brain cells…
…and I’ve developed something that works 10 times better.
Don’t enslave yourself to an aquaponics system.
Excited for you to learn the truth.
Check it out here:
https://go.groweverywhere.com/long-form-generic
~James
5 Reasons Why Aquaponics is Terribly Stoopid (Confessions of a reformed Aquaponics expert)
Hi, I'm James! Here you can find resources and inspiration to help you grow your own REAL food with LESS time, money, and effort than you thought possible.
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Here at GrowEverywhere.com you can find resources and inspiration to help you grow your own REAL food with LESS time, money, and effort than you thought possible.
