Price increases and Shortages

[DirtMechanic]

My brother sent me a link about the upcoming natural gas shortage. Sounds brutal.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

I looked at the current market price and took this screenshot. Going up from there is gonna hurt my feelings.

What else has gone crazy?

 

[Sheal]

I don't have gas but the price of petrol and electricity has risen. Electricity to the point where a lot of people will suffer this coming winter.

 

[DirtMechanic]

This fellow explains why natural gas is practically free.

 

[Chuck]

My brother sent me a link about the upcoming natural gas shortage. Sounds brutal.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

I looked at the current market price and took this screenshot. Going up from there is gonna hurt my feelings.
View attachment 92553

What else has gone crazy?

Meat, of all types but beef most of all

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Preparing for winter I bought a can of fuel for my heater, £11.75. Last year I bought an identical can at about the same time of year for £8.
What annoys me more is I am told things like "Inflation has reached double figures." I guess it is because inflation is calculated on a 'basket' of goods which are produced by people who sell them at artificially low prices to support their friends in government.

 

[Sinajuavi]

Since this is a gardening forum, perhaps this is the place to mention what is bothering me lately.

We have shortages impending on most food items. Why? Due to climate change, crops are failing everywhere, plus the Ukraine war. One has to wonder how much food will come out of California's Central Valley this year given the weather and water situation.

I want to know WHY have not federal, state and local govts been urging people to grow "Victory gardens"? There was an increase in gardening during the pandemic. We need to develop that and quickly! The imperative to grow food is even greater now than in the Depression and during WW2, I would think. Local farms should be resuscitated, also. In my home state of WV something like 95% of farmland has gone out of production since 1945. Something is just wrong about that.

 

[Chuck]

Since this is a gardening forum, perhaps this is the place to mention what is bothering me lately.

We have shortages impending on most food items. Why? Due to climate change, crops are failing everywhere, plus the Ukraine war. One has to wonder how much food will come out of California's Central Valley this year given the weather and water situation.

I want to know WHY have not federal, state and local govts been urging people to grow "Victory gardens"? There was an increase in gardening during the pandemic. We need to develop that and quickly! The imperative to grow food is even greater now than in the Depression and during WW2, I would think. Local farms should be resuscitated, also. In my home state of WV something like 95% of farmland has gone out of production since 1945. Something is just wrong about that.

Probably because just about everyone must have "Instant Gratification" in their endeavors and gardening is anything but Instant. And why would any government entity want to get involved in something that doesn't somehow put money into their coffers. And complete ignorance of even the basics of growing anything due to a complete lack of any horticultural education.

 

[Sinajuavi]

Probably because just about everyone must have "Instant Gratification" in their endeavors and gardening is anything but Instant. And why would any government entity want to get involved in something that doesn't somehow put money into their coffers. And complete ignorance of even the basics of growing anything due to a complete lack of any horticultural education.

Well, the USA govt did engage in such efforts in the 30s and 40s. One can't be so cynical that one rejects anything a govt can or will do. Sometimes they do good, despite themselves.

The ignorance of gardening you mention is indeed another concern of mine. Peoples' grandparents knew how to grow food. My mother said that during the Depression they'd have starved without home gardens in her small WV town. I was selling produce I'd grown in a WV farmers market and people were asking me, "What's that?" about vegetables their grandparents had grown.

But there is plenty of info about how to garden. One could succeed simply by reading this forum. Or a few good books on the subject, or the endless websites about it. It's definitely a skill and an art but it's not rocket science, so to speak.

People who like the "instant gratification" of having FOOD to eat on a daily basis might want to learn the value of delayed gratification, at least in this case.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

People in England are growing food. There was a 'Dig for Victory' movement during the war and a lot of 'allotments' were created, areas where you could grow veg for a minimal rent. Some always persisted, but the majority went out of use not long after the war, they were our 'adventure playground' when I was a small boy in the 1950's. Now they are all back in use, and there is a waiting list to get one, despite the fact that they have halved the size of them to make twice as many.