The whole article is below, but I was wondering if you could shed some light on this part:
"Australia, one of the biggest grain exporters, just stated that there is little change in the drought, even though they had some rain. They stated that it would take two years even if they did get rain to get the fields back in shape anyway.
I did hear that Aus still might get some significant grain harvests in spite of this, but frankly things are not looking good."
I'm in WA, and reckon the farmers in the South West will probably have a great year. However, as far as NSW and SA are concerned - I have no idea!
Needless to say I'm in NUF, and IPL/DXL and plan to hold for at least a year or two.
========================== Subscribers,
In several past NLs we stated that the world had to have record grain harvests in 08 to avoid a real worldwide famine in 09, that is according to experts.
If you have followed the Myanmar cyclone disaster, there are reports that 100,000 have died. But possibly worse, Myanmar is the world's 7th largest grain producer. The heart of their rice fields were wiped out, they lost the entire harvest there.
The Phillipines had cancelled rice tenders (offers to buy) of about 600,000 tons this week as there were no offers. They stated they pulled the tenders to seek what they expected would be lower prices after the spring and summer grain harvests.
That was before the Myanmar cyclone.
Now rice futures went up limit again, and what needed to happen is not happening (not a surprise, what are the odds of getting record harvests world wide?) we will not get record harvests in 08.
Australia, one of the biggest grain exporters, just stated that there is little change in the drought, even though they had some rain. They stated that it would take two years even if they did get rain to get the fields back in shape anyway.
I did hear that Aus still might get some significant grain harvests in spite of this, but frankly things are not looking good.
In the US, there is a new wheat rust going around in the midwest. Agriculturalists state that it is possible we will lose a big part of the US grain crop this year due to that, depending on how much the rust spreads. The rust prevents the wheat from growing heads.
In Asia, Vietnam, and also from Egypt to India there is a severe wheat rust spreading across the region, right now.
I think its clear we wont be seeing a record grain harvest in 08. That means famine in 09 in much of the world. I suppose the rich nations will get food, but we will still have shortages. The prospects for the poor who live on less than $2 a day, is famine. Thats about 1.5 billion people in Asia.
The implications of this are threefold. Famine, war, disease.
Asia has historically been a hotbed of flues and various diseases that spread to the rest of the world. The black death, plague, that killed about half of Europe in the 1600s roughly, came from Asia. When famines happen, diseases spread and incubate.
I know what I'm saying sounds alarmist, but frankly, my job is not to talk delicately about things like this. I do try to be moderate if I can. This time no.
I highly suggest that you do some basic preparations like getting some storable food set aside for what likely is going to be some very harsh years starting in 09.
If you go back into my archives, there is a NL called Disaster USA. It was based on what happened at New Orleans in hurricane Katrina. I talked about how one should prepare for disasters, and the US Department of Homeland Security then recommended people have something like a month of food stored anyway.
I know many people don't like the DHS, but I mention this because the US recommends this kind of preparation anyway. Australia and China also have in the past year's time recommended people store foods as a backstop.
I have ordered storable foods from beprepared.com and waltonfeed.com -they are presently back ordered. The superpails are good ways to store grains.
I guess this coming NL we will discuss this in more detail.
In other parts of the world, you will still be able to get storable foods, I'm sure, if you search the internet there will be sources in your country.
If you cannot find a source, the way you store grains and beans, the first line of nutrition, is to use plastic buckets with lids with a volume of about 4 to 6 gallons. Store them in cool dry places. Get some oxygen absorbers too.
Pretty much all of you can find plastic food grade buckets with sealable lids and rice and beans of varying kinds. The 16 bean mixes are pricey but nutritionally balanced. Get some canned meats too. And a number of bottles of multivitamins for each member of the family.
With these things, you should have far more options if anything bad happens, like food shortages, or some kind of pandmemic. The pandeminc thing is a real threat. As recently ast 1918 the spanish flu world wide killed millions, and in the US hundreds of thousands.
If that emerges again, you can be assured that the just in time supply lines in every country will fail for months. These are real risks today, not fantasys.
We have a lot of new subscribers. I wanted you to know that one of the things we focus on is how to deal with emergencies as well as the financial and gold markets. So don't be surprised to see these peices from time to time. Just focusing on the financial dimension is not enough by a long shot. IF these other things are not done, you will be running around in a panic if things like we are discussing happen. You cannot wait till the emergency appears, its too late to act then.
As I stated, the storable food outlets here in the US have a several month backlog. They are also stating they cannot ship till the next harvests come in in the US and Canada....you get the idea...So might as well get some orders in, before nothing is available and they declare a world food emergency.
If you can't get orders in with them, you can still do the buckets and grains and beans yourself with a small effort, and so on.
I can't say such an emergency is guaranteed, but it certainly does not look promising for 09.
