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From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

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531–540 of 589 posts

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#531

Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes? Cook it up for dinner and save some seeds! Wash off the pulp and dry them out on a paper towel. It's not too late to start some seedlings, and it's a nice way to pass the time. I've also been experimenting with different dried beans that we stocked up on, and most of them have a pretty high germination rate. Roma beans are super tasty and high in prot…

I like your initiative, the attention and how you've acted to the what I think has proven to be a DIRE logistical and production problem since at least 2008. But, I noticed this part: > Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes? Both of those are out of season, the Butternut squash has decent shelf life, so could have been harvested and stored back in the Fall. However, most of the store stuff…

Don't forget that it takes a full acre of land to produce enough food for one person.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#532
post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the paper towel trick: wrap the seeds in a moist paper towel (not too wet, or it will encourage fungus growth). Then, keep them inside a ziplock bag in a warm place for a couple of days, checking on them every day. I keep them on top of the refridgerator where it's nice and warm. Beans sprout super fast! For very dry seeds (lentils, beans, peas, edamamme) you could soak them in water overnight and just use the se…

Ditto. The only downside to this method is having to transplant twice: once to soil pots after sprouting, then to the ground.

> Ditto. The only downside to this method is having to transplant twice: once to soil pots after sprouting, then to the ground.

Consider getting a soil block maker, it makes propagation and transplanting so much easier:

https://growagoodlife.com/soil-blocks-for-growing-seedlings-...

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#533
post #389

This doesn't really track with Agricultural futures. They are all down in the last few months [1]. Either this is bait for retail investors or the pros are asleep at the wheel. [1] https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/

The obvious case of the epidemic in China progressing into a global pandemic wasn't clear to traders back in early February. I'm not sure the market is a beacon more than it is a barometer.

If you really believe that, then you have an opportunity to make a ton of money.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#534

Plant your Victory Garden now. (You should have a garden anyway or you're just not living the good life, eh?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden One packet each of your favorite veggies: $10-$30. The next three months of spring & summer: priceless. If you live in an apartment or condo fill your windows with plants using little planter boxes and whatnot. Every bit helps.

It takes a full acre of land to feed a single person.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#535
post #330
post #52

So we have labour shortages in countryside and unemployed people in urban centers. Problem?

The only reason people are unemployed is that they are confined in their homes. Once they can head to the countryside to pick strawberries, chances are they can just head back to their regular job too.

Working outside is orders of magnitude safer that working in an office.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a month or so, once the daily deaths subside, people will risk it with the coronavirus rather than having a recession turn into a depression. This will be the correct choice.

Human civilisation has reached the point where keeping our fake paper moving is more important than staying alive. How exciting!

> Human civilisation has reached the point where keeping our fake paper moving is more important than staying alive. How exciting!

If you only knew how many sleep-less nights this has given me for the past 12 years... its terrifying when you add that to the massive amount of misdirected and misallocated time and resources (emergence of SJW, cancel culture Internet trolling, Social Media flexing etc...).

I seriously hoped we had made more progress in fully automated planting/harvesting systems by now--progress has been made, but as seen in this article the Human element is still the bottle-neck/PoF in the system.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#537
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At some point enough harvests will be missed because of lockdown that famines become inevitable. The choice to risk it will probably me made too late. Not sure why I'm getting downvoted. Food takes months to grow and needs to be harvested within a short window. By the time people realize there's a famine coming it will be too late. Just look at how we could have prepared in January for this virus if people weren't so…

which country (except China in Hubei) actually locked down agriculture?

Kazakhstan suspends exports of food staples They are the #10 Global Wheat Exporter

[1] https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/update-1-kazakh...

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#538
post #389

This doesn't really track with Agricultural futures. They are all down in the last few months [1]. Either this is bait for retail investors or the pros are asleep at the wheel. [1] https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/

> This doesn't really track with Agricultural futures.

Excuse me but "Orange juice futures are the best performing asset so far this year" [1]

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52030133 [3 days ago]

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a month or so, once the daily deaths subside, people will risk it with the coronavirus rather than having a recession turn into a depression. This will be the correct choice.

Human civilisation has reached the point where keeping our fake paper moving is more important than staying alive. How exciting!

Welcome to how our superorganism allocates resources.
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