JUNE 30
Fall Armyworm Havoc And COVID-19, Locust Invasion Is New Threat To Food Security
JUNE 26
Early Summer Urban Garden Harvest – We followed the advice in Holly's book, Garden Gold: Grow Maximum Veggies With Minimum Effort and planted early using the spring frost tables for our county and factored in the forecast early spring. Just once we had to protect plants from a late frost so we got a HUGE jump on this year's gardens. We've already harvested lettuces, zukes, yellow squash, and snap peas. The potatoes finished up so early (Yukon Gold take just 3 months) that we could plant an entire other crop. Biggest tomatoes are about 2" in diameter and first peppers are about a week away from harvesting. Everything else is looking good. – video
Trailblazing Gardener Discovers How to Grow Vegetables in Winter—Now He’s Helping Others Do It Too
JUNE 22
Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Food, Wealth And Bees Gone – video of week
JUNE 19
Innovators Are Turning To The Sea To Tackle Food Security
Colorado Farmers Receive $21.8M In Coronavirus Relief From USDA Program
JUNE 18
FOOD CRISIS: "Things Are About to Get Much Worse" – video of day
Weaponization Of Food: Starvation To Manufacture Compliance
Why You Must Prepare - Steve Quayle – video
JUNE 16
Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Grain Shortages Come Next in Lockdown 2.0
EU Farmers Fear The 'European Green New Deal' – A Plan To Eliminate Modern Farming in Europe – HOLLY NOTE: This is true insanity and surely its citizens won't put up with this. Every country should be able to self-sustain it the worst happens. Case in point in America: While Hawaii rates very high on the Locavore Index (see next article) in their commitment to "buy local and organic food whenever possible", it still must import 90% of its food.
Related: How Committed Is Your State to Local Food?
Global Sugar Consumption Declines For 1^st Time In 40 Years
JUNE 15
43,000 Pounds of Ground Beef Produced June 1 Is Being Recalled
JUNE 11
World On The Brink Of Worst Food Crisis In 50 Years, UN Warns
Angered Over Water Dispute, Mexican Farmers Shut Down Texas Border Crossing
Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Tick Swarms, H.K Money Reset And Seed Shortages Beginning – video
If You're Having Trouble Setting Veggie Fruit, Plant Purple Tansy
Worst Locust Swarm In Two Decades Moves On To Devastate Crops in South & Central Asia
JUNE 1
US Food Prices See Historic Jump And Are Likely To Stay High
At the San Antonio Food Bank, the Cars Keep Coming
100% Farm Workers have COVID-19? Forces Behind Riots Engineering Food Shortages Next – video
Meant To Eradicate Locusts, Pesticides Affect Soil, Crops
MAY 26
Coronavirus Outbreaks At Meat Processing Plants Force North Carolina Farmers To Euthanize 1.5 Million Chickens
MAY 20
Farmers Ahead Of Planting Schedule Could Also Benefit From This Prediction
The Farms Growing Beneath Our Cities
MAY 19
Why The Pandemic Is Sparking So Many First-Time Gardeners – video
MAY 15
Farmers Dubbed the 'Carbon Cowboys' Say Business Is Booming During Coronavirus
Weather Is Driving Farmers' Planting Despite Uncertainty
US: Organic Produce Sales Up 18 % in April
California Growers Face Uncertain Spring And Summer
Gardening Is 'Good For The Soul': Digging, Weeding and Planting Improve Happiness and 'Emotional Wellbeing' as Much as Physical Exercise or Eating Out, Study Finds
Hail Damages 15,000 Of Crops in the Region of Valencia, Spain
MAY 14
US Grocery Costs Jump The Most In 46 Years, Led By Rising Prices For Meat And Eggs
Grocery Prices And Shortages Drive Consumers To Locally Grown Meat And Produce
MAY 12
ANALYSIS: As U.S. Meat Workers Fall Sick and Supplies Dwindle, Exports to China Soar
Food Supply Collapse: Ice Age Farmer with Spiro Skouras – video
Shrinking Snowcaps Threaten Food Supply for Millions
Colorado Restaurant That Hosted Large Mother's Day Crowds Closed By Health Department
MAY 11
US to Purchase $3 Billion Worth Of Food From Farmers – video
Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Will record May cold in Europe and N. America Wipe Out Crops? – video
Kroger Buys and Redirects Dairy Farmers’ Excess Milk, Sending 50,000 Gallons Per Month to Food Banks
MAY 7
Meat Shortage to End Within 10 Days: Agriculture Secretary
Virus Threatens To Break Meat Supply Chain
Pa. Church Gives Away Over 300 Boxes of Food to Help Out During Coronavirus Pandemic
New Wave of Locust, Severe Floods Threaten East Africa’s Food Supply
MAY 5
Shake Shack Sees ‘Significant’ Increases In Beef Prices As Coronavirus Leads To Plant Closures
Beef Prices Explode To Record Highs As More Stores Limit Meat Purchases
MAY 4
New Numbers Show How Much Beef Output Has Fallen
Small Farms See Growth In Direct-To-Consumer Sales
Wendy's Locations Face Possible Supply Shortages As Nation's Meat Supply Chain Struggles
US to See Some Meat Shortages For 2 Weeks Before Supply Chain Recovery: C&S Wholesale Grocers CEO – video
APRIL 29
Producers Warn America Is Facing Protein Shortage
President to Order Meat Plants to Stay Open Via the Defense Production Act
AI Takeover of Food Launched - Trumps' Meat XO – video
Costco, Walmart, Kroger 'grossly Inflated' The Price Of Eggs During Coronavirus Pandemic, Lawsuit Claims
Quarantine Kitchen Swaps: How To Substitute Eggs In Baked Goods
APRIL 28
Food Banks Are Closing And Losing Their Workforce Because Of COVID-19
Smithfield Foods Shutters Its FIFTH Plant After Coronavirus Outbreak At World's Largest Pork Producer As Farmers Warn They May Have to EUTHANIZE Tens Of Thousands Of Pigs
Tyson Foods Issues Dire Warning In Full-Page NYT Ad As Lockdowns Threaten US' Food Supply
Rain, Hailstorm Destroys Wheat, Tobacco And Vegetable Crops In Swabi, Pakistan
APRIL 27
Coronavirus Forces Farmers To Destroy Their Crops – American Farmers Are Dumping Milk, Throwing Out Eggs and Plowing Under Healthy Fruit and Veggies – HOLLY NOTE: Today we are transplanting seedlings to their permanent beds. This is just in time as some squash already have flowers opening. Usually we would have waited another week to start seeds in the first place, but NOAA had forecast an early spring.

Using the Last Spring Frost dates in Garden Gold: Grow Maximum Veggies With Minimum Effort and keeping track of our weather, we saw it was safe to plant earlier. This week it will be in the 50s at night so there's little chance it will dump 20º after sunset. If it does get close to cold, we'll put frost blankets on them and we're way ahead of the game.

Produce has been one of the few things in local grocery stores that could be counted on during the COVID-19 scarcity to be plentiful. However, reading this article, this scenario is poised to change drastically.

Since we grow everything organically, we aren't eating poisons. Not only do we save BIG $$ with a garden, we have an assured supply, get out in the sunshine and soak up natural Vitamin D. PLUS, in the midst of all this dreary CV19 and bumming economic news, it's uplifting to see plants we grew, leaf out and produce. Sustain life. Taking positive action in the face of adversity.
'The Food Supply Chain Is Breaking.' Tyson Foods Warns of Meat Shortage as Plants Close Due to COVID-19
Fire at Poultry Farm Kills Nearly 300,000 Chickens
Pork Shortages Could be Coming to America In Just a Few Weeks
Social Media Censors as Food Shortages Begin – video of week
'Win-Win For Our Farmers': Publix Buys Excess Produce And Donates To Families In Need
Exports Of Russian Wheat Dry Up, Stoking Food Security Concerns
APRIL 24
Coronavirus Lays Bare America's Looming Food Crisis
Grocers Hunt For Meat As Virus Decimates Plants, Threatens Supply
5 Threats to US Food Supply Chains
‘Instead of Coronavirus, the Hunger Will Kill Us.’ A Global Food Crisis Looms.
Paris Food Bank Lines Grow Longer
Horta River Flood Devastates Crops In The Region of Bolivar, Colombia
The Next Generation: Giant Locust Armies Of “Biblical Proportions” Threaten To Cause Mass Starvation In Africa
UN Warns Pandemic Will Cause Famine of “Biblical Proportions”
APRIL 22
US Pork Farmers Panic As Coronavirus Ruins Hopes For Great Year
Food Shock: Meat Prices Surge As More Processing Plants Shut Down
Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic
'Favorable' Weather Conditions Are Ahead For Many US Farmers
'Overwhelming in So Many Different Ways': Food Pantries Face Exhaustion And Infection Along With Huge Demand
IKEA Publishes Meatball Recipe for Devoted Fans in Quarantine Pining After the Store’s Beloved Cafés
APRIL 21
Meat Plants In At Least 10 States See Outbreaks Of Coronavirus – video
Pork Producers Consider Euthanizing Hogs Due To Financial Losses Sparked By Coronavirus
Tucker Carlson to Agriculture Lobby: ‘If You Want Workers, Pay U.S. Wages’
Wineries Get Creative To Boost Sales, Keep Workers Employed During Coronavirus Crisis
APRIL 20
The State of Global Food Production - Adapt 2030 + Ice Age Farmer – video of week
Tale of 2 Americas: Mile-Long Line of Cars For a Food Bank Snakes Through a Parking Lot Between 2 Luxury Miami Beach Hotels as Need For Help With Groceries Grows Across the Nation
2 US Meat Packing Plants Forced to Close After Brazilian Billionaire Owners 'Encourage Work While Sick Culture' That Saw 4 Employees Die of COVID-19 and 100+ Test Positive
Staffing Shortage at Delaware Chicken Plant Forcing Growers To Kill of Millions of Birds: Report
Growing Food and Gardening May Just Save Your Sanity During the Lockdown
First We Had To Worry About Toilet Paper Shortages, Now It's Frozen Pizza
Here's What Food Banks Need The Most Right Now
APRIL 17
Pork Plant at Center of South Dakota’s Virus Outbreak Had Visit From CCP-Tied Owners
Food Distribution 101: What Happens When the Food Supply is Disrupted by a Pandemic
Will COVID-19 Threaten Availability and Affordability of our Food?
It's Time To Talk More Seriously About The Food Supply
Long Lines As Food Banks Struggle To Feed Hungry Americans – video
Photos Show the Staggering Food Bank Lines Across America
How to Handle The Stress Of Going, Or Not Going, To The Grocery Store
Idaho Farm Donates Massive Supply Of Potatoes Amid Lack Of Demand Due To The Coronavirus
First Plane Carrying 150 'Critically Important' Romanian Fruit and Veggie Pickers Join 'Land Army' to Save the UK's Harvest
APRIL 16
Coronavirus Food Shortages Not Happening, Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue Says – HOLLY NOTE: We beg to differ. The U.S. may have plenty of food, but it's not getting to all the stores. Perdue states that bare shelves aren't a sign of a food shortage. That's a technical difference only. What good does having adequate food supplies if it isn't available?

When I went to the store Tuesday, once again all the lunch and breakfast meats were wiped clean. No packages of sliced cheese though shredded cheese was in good shape. Signs were posted limiting 1 purchase each of chicken, pork, beef and hamburger. Out of usually packed 2 vertical freezers of shrimp only 10 packages of the 'colossal' size remained. I don't even bother going down the soup isle anymore. (Guess I should start taking photos, but these days we try to get in, shop, and leave quickly.) The only things that seem in consistently good shape are the bakery, cereal, candy and produce.

It's unthinkable that farmers are dumping food intended for restaurants when tens of thousands of Americans are going hungry. In Prophetic Perils: End Time Events Revealed, I devote 40 pages to a coming famine as it's prophesied in Matthew, Luke and Mark. Since 3 of the 4 gospels address famine, it must be reasonably significant.

Historically, famines are the result of war and drought. Even though I wrote an entire chapter on preparing for pandemics in Dare To Prepare, I didn't tie it to famine. Pandemics are certainly a lot faster and more thorough route to bring on global famine than drought or war. If farmers, food processors, milkers and truck drivers get sick, food can't get to the stores. It's that simple.
White House Points to CDC Guidelines As More Meatpacking Workers Infected
Trump Administration Plans $15.5B in Initial Farm Aid Amid COVID-19 – HOLLY NOTE: Agricultural economist and dairy farmer Damian Mason makes the point that dairy farmers have been on the ropes for some time. This pandemic is really hurting them and they're having to dump milk because food banks can't accommodate an 8,000 gallon tanker truck of raw milk, let alone process it. It's eye-opening to realize that farmers make up just 1% of the U.S. population and just 40% of that 1% produce food in any quantity – food that actually ends up in grocery stores. That's how precarious the food supply is. – video
Crazy Long Food Lines Across America Reveal The Total LACK of Preparedness That Now Characterizes Our Just-In-Time Society
USDA Wants Direct Coronavirus Payments To Farmers: Perdue – Dairy Farmers Are Dumping Milk As Prices Crash
Trump Administration Aims To Buy Milk, Meat To Help Farmers Hit By Coronavirus: Perdue
Nebraska Farm Bureau Asks AG Barr to Probe Meat Packers’ Profits
APRIL 15
Coronavirus Has Broken America’s Food Supply
Concerns Grow Over Our Food Supply Chain During
Coronavirus Pandemic Could Threaten Global Food Supply, UN Warns
India's Food Supply Chain Frays as People Stay Home
Stress Baking: How COVID-19 Is Scrambling The Egg Business – HOLLY NOTE: On a personal note, I scampered out of bed yesterday to get to the grocery story by 5:40, get in line for senior's shopping at Walmart, 6-7am Tuesdays. It paid off. Scored the 1-only allowed can of their house brand of Lysol and ditto for disinfectant wipes. It's the first time we'd had access to these products in 8 weeks. One-allowed is the order of the day for meats, paper towels, and most everything else except produce. Until ours 'grow up', we're buying veggies that are organic and wrapped like romaine, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, etc or things that you roast like peppers, asparagus, and artichokes, or ones you can peel like potatoes and cucumbers. The rest we aren't touching.

Everyone is put on the honor system to buy just 1 because there are no cashiers, just self-check out. So here were us 'oldies' (50 and up) standing in the dark, outside in 24ºF temps yesterday, lined up like soldiers 6' apart with our shopping carts, waiting for the doors to open. P.S. Also got 12 rolls of TP. It was a great start to the day! Last week scored a jar of yeast. It wasn't Rapid Rise or for the Breadmaker. However, we were grateful. Stan looked online and said if you add 1/8 tsp of crushed Vit C to the bread flour, it aids in its rising and enhances shelf life. Dunno. Haven't tried it yet.
APRIL 14
'Our Supply Line Is Brittle': Thomas Massie Warns US Could Be Just Weeks Away From Food Shortages – HOLLY NOTE: Article says bankrupt farmers could be forced to euthanize livestock, leave fruits and vegetables to rot in the fields.
NO MORE MEAT: Plants Close "Indefinitely" – video of day
APRIL 13
Smithfield Foods – Now Owned By China – Warns of U.S. Meat Supply Disruption As It Closes Plant – HOLLY NOTE: In Chapter 10 of Prophetic Perils: End Time Events Revealed: Famine – It's Coming Again, I wrote: In September 2013, Shuanghui International, China's biggest meat products company, purchased Smithfield Foods – a deal valued at $7.1 billion – in an effort to meet their insatiable taste for pork. This is the single largest takeover of an American company by China, which carved out 25% from the U.S. pork industry. Smithfield, whose headquarters is located in Virginia, also owned Armour, Eckrich and Gwaltney. Now China does. The Smithfield acquisition should really bump up China's pig count, as they already owned about 475 million porkers - 60% of the world's supply. Now it's considerably more. The Smithfield takeover "stirred concern among U.S. politicians" – especially Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Democrat from Michigan and chairwoman of the Senate agriculture committee. She worried, "To be sure, the purchase of one American food company does not jeopardize America's food independence. But Smithfield is our largest pork producer – will China or other countries seek to purchase our largest poultry, or dairy, or corn producers next? Is it in America's security interests if in a decade or two our food supply is 30, or 60, or 90 percent foreign owned?"

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, warns, "The recent USDA decision to allow processed chicken imports from China, coupled with news of the Smithfield-Shuanghui merger approval by shareholders and a federal review commission, shows that U.S. regulators are paving the way for meat imported from China – a country with a terrible food safety record.

"Smithfield wants the public to believe this merger is just about exporting pork to China. And the USDA is trying to soothe consumers by promising that imported processed poultry products will be made from U.S.-origin birds. But it is only a matter of time until these initial conditions ease and we are importing meat and poultry from China." pp.152-153.
Coronavirus: How to Stay Safe During Grocery Store Visits
Michigan Gov. Whitmer Bans Residents From Buying Seeds Or Plants - And Gatherings 'Of Any Size' – HOLLY NOTE: What kind of madness is this where you can't buy seeds? We all want to be less dependent on stores, not more so, not going shopping as often, which is where gardening comes in. We've talked with a number of friends recently who thought to scale back their gardens this year. With the COVID-19 outbreak, we're all doing just the reverse by enlarging our gardens. Whether digging out more sod for additional rows, putting in more raised beds or simply adding more container pots on decks and porches – or in any sunny location, we all want veggies that are coronavirus-free, free of Round-up and non-GMO. Vermont Decrees Home Farming “Non-Essential”, Forbids Selling Seeds 10 days ago. How many other state will hop aboard the insanity train? If you find yourself in this situation, Garden Gold: Grow Maximum Veggies With Minimum Effort, lists over 100 resources for open-pollinated, non-hybrid and non-GMO seeds and another 400 sources for composting worms and supplies, shade cloth and rock dust.
You're All Baking Bread During Quarantine, But Are You Testing The Yeast? Don't Skip This Important Step
APRIL 9
Coronavirus Is 'a Very Real Issue' for US Farming
Quarantine Life Got You Down? Try Hitting The Garden
California Woman Arrested For Allegedly Licking Nearly $2,000 in Grocery Store Items
How to Make S'mores in a Solar Oven – video
APRIL 7
White House: Americans Should Avoid Grocery Shopping As Coronavirus Hits Apex
Grow Your Own: Urban Farming Flourishes In Coronavirus Lockdowns – HOLLY NOTE: Yesterday Stan and I spent a couple hours transplanting seedlings. They took on a sudden growing spurt in Super Soil – many already 5" tall. Since we need to wait till the end of the month at the earliest to transfer cold-tender ones outside, they went into bigger pots. So 32 peppers, hot and sweet varieties; yellow squash, butternut, zukes, watermelon, cantaloupe and cabbage all got new homes.

Monday it was nearly 80ºF and they loved being outside. By Resurrection Day/ Passover/ Easter, temps will shave off 30º. Also any gentle breeze helps strengthen their stems and root structure.

Snaps peas are up as well as onions. Potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes are doing their thing underground. They were snowed on last week and didn't mind in the slightest. It's weird, but a hybrid 'annual' parsley plant that should have died 4 years ago, has sent up green shoots.

This year we'll buy tomato plants because we ran out of room in the kitchen for more lights and trays. To free up extra space in the raised beds, 3 planters of romaine, buttercrunch lettuce and spinach are on the deck.

Two weeks ago, there wasn't a single bag of potatoes in Walmart or Safeway, just 20 loose lonely spuds. In addition to a 4x8 bed of potatoes, we planted 4 containers on the deck, along with extra onions in containers. There's really not much you can't container-grow so everyone can have a garden.

Each year we love seeing everything come to life in the veggie beds and this year it's more important than ever. If you have freeze dried, canned, frozen or dehydrated foods, you're all good, but organic homegrown fresh fruits and veggies can't be beat for taste, scent and nutrition. It also saves you big $$ and from going to the grocery store as docs say we may see a Fall round of the ugly bug, COVID-19. We'll be ready.
Demand For Potatoes Spikes As Consumers Go Back To Basics
European Union Approves Bugs For Human Consumption
U.S. Stocking up on Gala, Honeycrisp, Fuji and Granny Smith Apples Amid COVID-19 Crisis – Sales Up 22.3% in March
Groups Urge OH Officials to Help Small Farms Survive Pandemic
Agriculture: The Key To Survival During A Crisis?
Pandemic Markets Continue Roller Coaster Season for California Citrus
Extreme Weather & Disease: The Fight To Save Europe's Olive Trees
APRIL 6
Coronavirus May Cause Some Food Shortages, Warns Government Task Force
FEMA/DHS Food Shortages Timeline Leaked / China Panic Buying Food / Have Hope – video of week
An Outbreak Among Farm Workers Would Be Catastrophic
Face Mask Shortage Could Impact Grocery Supply Chain, Trump Administration Study Finds
Conditions For Truck Drivers Worsen Amid COVID-19 – video
Stimulus Check Scams, Sanitize Food Deliveries, Spying Bosses And More
Food Banks Overwhelmed…
Watch: Americans’ Machines vs. Stoop-Labor Farm Migrants
APRIL 3
Vermont Decrees Home Farming “Non-Essential”, Forbids Selling Seeds… – HOLLY NOTE: Why would any state, anywhere, outlaw selling seeds, unless it is to make its residents more vulnerable and dependent. Any coincidence that Comrade Sanders is a state senator? Control the oil and you can control entire Continents. Control food and you control people. — former Secy. of State Henry Kissinger, 1974
Uproar Among Workers Supplying the World’s Meat Is Spreading
The Biggest Chokepoint in the Global Food Supply Chain Is Trucks
COVID-19 Is About To Reach US Farms in a Major Test For Food Supply Chains
Will the Coronavirus Threaten Our Food? The Supply Chain Has Plenty of Vulnerabilities.
Can't Find What You Want In The Grocery Store? Here's Why
Internal Documents: Monsanto Knew For Years Their Products Damaged Farms
APRIL 2
Already Reeling from Flooding and Heat Waves, Farmers Struggle as Coronavirus Pandemic Takes Hold
Supplies Are Starting To Get Really Tight Nationwide As Food Distribution Systems Break Down
Dog Delivers Winery's Booze During Coronavirus Outbreak
Drought in Brazil, Argentina Threatens Crucial Crop Harvests
MARCH 31
Agriculture: The Key To Survival During A Crisis?
When Should You Take Zinc to Shorten Your Cold?
Top 10 Foods High in Zinc
MARCH 30
Fury as Bins Overflow With OUT-OF-DATE Food – Droves of Shoppers Hit Supermarkets
'Twisted' Woman, 35, Who Coughed on Groceries For a 'Prank' - Forcing Store to Throw Out $35,000 of Food - Is Arrested
Can Coronavirus Spread Through Food Or Packaging? Possibly
Safe Grocery Shopping in COVID-19 Pandemic – video
MARCH 27
Food Distribution Crisis. Insights From a Grocer's Wife.
MARCH 26
Pennsylvania Supermarket Says Coughing 'Prank' Prompts Trashing of $35G in Produce, Other Items – HOLLY NOTE: We've heard repeatedly on the news that grocery stores are well-stocked across the country and in articles like this NY Times piece There Is Plenty of Food in the Country. On several occasions, Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt says she stops nearly every day to pick up this or that and has absolutely no problem finding stuff in New York City. Same thing for friends in Montana. That's not the case for our 3 area Walmart Super Centers or Safeway. We haven't checked Albertson's or King Soopers, but would guess they are experiencing the same thing. We're wondering if borders states are being supplied first and the 'flyover states' are restocked with what's left. MORE
Perdue Farms Chicken Plant Workers Walk Out over Coronavirus Fears
What to Bake During The Coronavirus Quarantine When You're Out Of Eggs, Milk Or Butter
America’s Favorite Coffee Brands: Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Folgers And More
MARCH 25
Agricultural Industry Claims Pandemic Immigration Restrictions Could Hurt Food Supply
Canadian Truckers, Print Your Papers For Cross-Border Deliveries
Tensions 'Quite High' As Alberta Truckers Move Supplies During COVID-19 Outbreak
Australia to Run Out of BEER Within Weeks Unless The Industry Is Classed 'Essential'
Kenyan Farmers Brace For Second Onslaught Of Crop-Devouring Locusts
MARCH 20
Safety Tips For Grocery Shopping During Outbreak
Out-of-Control Teenagers Coughing On Grocery Store Produce – HOLLY NOTE: This is even more disgusting than people licking buckets of ice cream and putting them back in grocery store freezers. The COVID-19 germ factor is exactly one of our concerns about grocery store produce that is unwrapped and exposed, and why we've expanded our veggie garden this year. Here is one possible solution: A Handy Guide For Washing Produce. However, if you don't already have hydrogen peroxide or household bleach, it could be a challenge finding it.
Panic Buyers Strip Shelves of Lettuce and Tomato Seeds in Case Hoarding Gets So Bad They Have to GROW Their Own Food
Amazon Halts Grocery Orders in the US to Restock Amid Huge Demand – No Hint When The Service Will Be Back
MARCH 13
Garden Thoughts – Get Ready Early – This Is the Thing – HOLLY NOTE: Because of the COVID-19 threat, this Spring we've spun up our veggie gardens early. Wednesday we planted potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes and onions. Sugar snap pea seeds are sitting on my desk, as we speak, under a high intensity light soaking up water on a paper towel to sprout. Pepper and tomato seeds will germinate in our kitchen in their little mini-greenhouses tomorrow. Will plant lettuce and baby spinach on the deck tomorrow. They like the cold. Those are my duties for gardening in early March. The other vegetables that are vulnerable too cold have to wait.

Yesterday a net acquaintance phoned to share his family's private roast recipe. It required a can of Campbell's Celery Soup. After I posted news really late Friday (sorry about that) went to Walmart for that soup. I was astonished at the parking lot. Since it'd snowed, thought no one would be out. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Really wrong.

We've been keeping tabs on grocery store supplies but today's run was exceptional. NO toilet paper, NO canned veggies, NO fresh chicken breasts, NO dish washing detergent, NO dish washer machine soap pods. NO soup. NO Lysol, NO Clorox. NO paper towels. To a lesser degree, folks are cleaning shelves of comfort food. Cakes and muffins box mixes remain in short supply. Didn't even bother looking at hand sanitizers. Argghh! NO Spam, which I'd have to be at death's door to eat. Patoui!

Well, anybody who has been keeping up on the weather forecast knows they're predicting a brutal – their words not mine – allergy season this year. When I told Stanley I had plans to clean the garage yesterday, he said be sure and put a face mask on, you know, a dust mask. Eventually their rubber bands fail for around the head, the masks get dirty, and you throw them away in one hit. Get a new one. It’s a no brainer. Something we always took for granted.

When I looked in our stash, there was maybe about 10 left and thought to order some from Lowe’s. They were sold out. When I talked to the gal in their paint department, she said people are buying these flimsy masks to protect them against COVID-19. Meanwhile, in this brutal allergy season, we're coughing and sneezing our way through Spring and Summer and Fall because some anal-retentive greed-balls thought they were going to make a mint converting OTC allergy masks to prevent COVID-19. Thanks a lot.
MARCH 11
Midwest Farmers Face a Crisis. Hundreds Are Dying By Suicide.
MARCH 4
Shortage In Chinese Products Could Mean Empty Shelves In U.S.
How Grocery Stores Are Trying To Prevent ‘Panic Buying’ As Coronavirus Causes Stockpiling, Emptying Shelves – HOLLY NOTE: Would have thought toilet paper had made on the list.
FEBRUARY 27
FREE FOOD STORAGE PROGRAM: As we discussed yesterday, it's a good idea to beef up your food storage items in light of a COVID-19 epidemic here – or any other disaster. We've always offered our FREE food storage planner because we want you to be prepared and to make it easy for you. This Excel program works for either Macs or Windows. Go to our FREE Dare To Prepare site. Click Food Storage under Long Term. Then click either US Measurements or Metric for the Deyo Food Planning Software.
Shipping Shutdown: Exporters Warn of Global Food Trade Collapse – video of day
The 10 Best Winter Fruits You Should Eat To Stay Healthy This Season
FEBRUARY 26
Empty Shelves: Coronavirus Shortages Could Hit U.S. Stores by April – HOLLY NOTE: We feel this is an exaggeration. That would mean that in 1 month you can buy no food. Maybe no food produced in China – and who wants that… This week when we purchased shrimp, we made sure it originated from our own Gulf Coast – not China's.

This said, we'll plant a larger veggie garden this spring, which is only 3 weeks away. If you haven't done so, please lay in a supply of food and store water. This is nothing different that what we've always advocated.

There are a TON of storable food suppliers. However many of their products include ingredients some people can't tolerate. For example, my mother couldn't eat anything containing corn syrup, which is in pretty much in everything. Stan can't eat soy- or lactose-containing products. To that end, we recommend Honeyville because they offer straight freeze-dried and dehydated foods with nothing added.

We've also purchased foods in bulk and re-packaged them for long-term storage, which is the most economical route. It's easy, but you have to know how to do it correctly as explained in Dare To Prepare so it doesn't spoil or get insect infestations. In addition to food and water, don't forget any needed medications and pet supplies.

It's our health preference to buy the basic proteins and veggies, and add whatever spices and ingredients we choose. Then we know exactly what we're consuming. In the era of killing diseases, GMOs, gluten intolerance, it's primary to know. This is NOT a time to panic, but to be prepared.
The Largest Corn Crop Ever Is Coming, USDA Says
Potato Prices Increasing Due To $10 Million Loss Of Crops In Skagit Valley, Wash.
Plants And Crops Affected By Roller Coaster Weather
2019 SD Crops Valued At $4.56 Billion, Down 22% From 2018
Researchers Develop Fast, Accurate Test To Identify Toxins In Cereal Crops
The Arctic 'Doomsday' Seed Vault Just Stashed Away 60,000 More Seed Samples
…Welcomes Millionth Seed
FEBRUARY 24
Paul Harvey - So God Made A Farmer – video
Locust Infestation Could Cause Next Famine In Africa, Evangelical Charity Warns
Avocado Market Taken Over By Mexican Cartels
FEBRUARY 21
HOLLY NOTE: This isn't an article obviously, but a thought. Last week Stan and I made Deyo Super Nachos together. It's one of our favs. We had great fun tearing up the kitchen so I suggested we do a meal together once a week. He's game. Dogs are game because they got lots of treats. I've never minded doing the cooking, love baking, but am terminally tired of thinking up what to make every day. I've enlisted my other half. Today we're making Stanley's Elegant SOS. Didn't know there was such a thing, but we'll find out.
Locust Infestation Could Cause Next Famine In Africa, Evangelical Charity Warns
FEBRUARY 20
Trump Signs Memorandum Diverting More Water To California Farmers
FEBRUARY 17
Cherokee Nation First U.S. Tribe to be Invited to Preserve Their Heirloom Species in Global Seed Vault
Bees Are Benefiting From Hemp Pollen as More Legal Cannabis is Grown Since 2018 Farm Bill
Locust Swarm: UN Warns Of Food Crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia
Forget the ‘Best By’ Date; This Compostable Bioplastic Packaging Changes Color When the Food Goes Bad
Apple and Pear Cores Turned Into Chemical-Free Sweetener as an Alternative to Artificial Sweeteners and Sugar
FEBRUARY 14
Apocalyptic Footage Shows Millions of Locusts Swarm Motorist In Africa
Farmers Traumatized…
Over 2 Billion At Risk of Famine From Locust Plagues
AccuWeather Predicts Record-Setting Year For Corn Crops
FEBRUARY 5
The Zombie Apocalypse May Be Here – But it’s the Bird Flu Not the Coronavirus
FEBRUARY 4
Mexican Drug Kingpins Are Seizing Control of Mexico’s Lucrative Avocado Industry
Families Trek To Unsafe Wells As Taps Run Dry In Drought-Hit Zimbabwe
FEBRUARY 3
CHINA: It's NOT About the Coronavirus -- It's About the FOOD – video
JANUARY 20
Worst Locust Plague In 70 Years Is Wiping Out East Africa's Crops – video
JANUARY 17
Crystal Geyser Water Bottle Company Admits To Illegally Dumping Dangerous Arsenic
JANUARY 16
CDC Lifts Warning About E. Coli Outbreak In Romaine Lettuce
JANUARY 15
California Homeless Crisis: Fecal Bacteria Detected in State’s Waterways
JANUARY 14
Remembering the Farming Way
Fears Retardant Could Threaten Australia's Sensitive Drinking Water Catchments
JANUARY 13
Australian Wildfires May Impact Global Food Supply – Impacting Beef, Lamb, Wheat, Dairy
JANUARY 10
“Devastated” Muslim Demands Apology, Compensation After Biting Into Pork Sausage McMuffin From McDonald’s – HOLLY NOTE: Of course $$ will mollify his outrage.
JANUARY 7
Michigan Egg Farm Fire, 300,000 Hens Killed In Fire at Ostego
JANUARY 3
California Passes Insane New Law Limiting Personal Water Usage With Massive Fines
JANUARY 2
Avian Flu Outbreak Hits Europe's Largest Poultry Producers
JANUARY 1
We're All Eating A Credit Card's Worth Of Plastic Each Week: Shocking Graphics Reveal How Many Millions Of Sesame-Seed Size Microplastics Humans Ingest Over A Month, A Year, A Decade And A Lifetime