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I look at growing a garden like washing your hands for this current situation. It won't prevent starvation if the world turns into Fury Road but it can meaning

I look at growing a garden like washing your hands for this current situation. It won't prevent starvation if the world turns into Fury Road but it can meaningfully move the needle in aggregate and reduce pressure on strained supply chains.

tathougies 7y ago
There is no strained supply chain of food. If anything, coronavirus will cause a massive overproduction of food, because people are not splurging on giant feasts. The issue is that the supply chain typically leans towards restaurants and businesses, and that's been almost completely suspended. It will take time for the supply chain to adjust and food to start appearing in stores or direct to consumer, but it will.
- wins32767 7y ago
  > The issue is that the supply chain typically leans towards restaurants and businesses, and that's been almost completely suspended. It will take time for the supply chain to adjust That sounds like a strained supply chain to me. =) I'm looking at the current situation as just the beginning of the start of this situation. There may well be localized flareups for the next year or two. Ill-timed flareups may cause further disruption (think the central valley during a harvest). I don't think there's going to be widespread starvation or anything, but adding more resilience to the system can't hurt and gives me something to do outside for the next several months.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    But it's not. The suppliers that supply restaurants and stuff will have extra on hand. It's just a matter of their orders going down and grocery orders going up. I have seen the empty shelves, but grocery stores are still well stocked with enough food to eat.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
      Around here at least, the shelves are pretty much back to normal. ...except for toilet paper!
- devchix 7y ago
  Um ... > The empty grocery shelves are unnerving. While we're probably not going to starve in the long run, the farm system is going to be seriously stressed. Most of our fruits and vegetables are picked by hand. 73% of farmworkers in the U.S. are foreign born; half are undocumented. What happens when those workers get sick? How do we keep the food supply chain going when borders are closed over coronavirus concerns? https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/821593542/episode-984-food-and-farmworkers https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/821593542/episode-984-food-an...
  - tathougies 7y ago
    > the food supply chain going when borders are closed over coronavirus concerns? After the last two decades, believing the United States has any ability to police its borders (especially its southern one) is willful delusion.
    - devchix 7y ago
      I encourage you to give the podcast a listen. Hygiene and sanitation conditions for farm workers are horrific. The not-yet-realized future where undocumented farm workers successfully cross the border, then fall ill, is even worse. Now you have little or no crop, or contaminated crops, and a bunch of very sick people.
      - tathougies 7y ago
        It is highly unlikely the virus lives very long on many crops. In most cases, a few days of storage will denature the viral particles enough. Something surely for food regulators to think about, but nothing insurmountable.
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    Not only that, but a lot of food in US grocery stores comes from other countries. Many of these other countries are likely to get hit very hard by the pandemic, and most probably won't be responding as effectively as South Korea, so expect to see long-term shortages of foreign food.

tathougies 7y ago

There is no strained supply chain of food. If anything, coronavirus will cause a massive overproduction of food, because people are not splurging on giant feasts. The issue is that the supply chain typically leans towards restaurants and businesses, and that's been almost completely suspended. It will take time for the supply chain to adjust and food to start appearing in stores or direct to consumer, but it will.

wins32767 7y ago
> The issue is that the supply chain typically leans towards restaurants and businesses, and that's been almost completely suspended. It will take time for the supply chain to adjust That sounds like a strained supply chain to me. =) I'm looking at the current situation as just the beginning of the start of this situation. There may well be localized flareups for the next year or two. Ill-timed flareups may cause further disruption (think the central valley during a harvest). I don't think there's going to be widespread starvation or anything, but adding more resilience to the system can't hurt and gives me something to do outside for the next several months.
- tathougies 7y ago
  But it's not. The suppliers that supply restaurants and stuff will have extra on hand. It's just a matter of their orders going down and grocery orders going up. I have seen the empty shelves, but grocery stores are still well stocked with enough food to eat.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
    Around here at least, the shelves are pretty much back to normal. ...except for toilet paper!
devchix 7y ago
Um ... > The empty grocery shelves are unnerving. While we're probably not going to starve in the long run, the farm system is going to be seriously stressed. Most of our fruits and vegetables are picked by hand. 73% of farmworkers in the U.S. are foreign born; half are undocumented. What happens when those workers get sick? How do we keep the food supply chain going when borders are closed over coronavirus concerns? https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/821593542/episode-984-food-and-farmworkers https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/821593542/episode-984-food-an...
- tathougies 7y ago
  > the food supply chain going when borders are closed over coronavirus concerns? After the last two decades, believing the United States has any ability to police its borders (especially its southern one) is willful delusion.
  - devchix 7y ago
    I encourage you to give the podcast a listen. Hygiene and sanitation conditions for farm workers are horrific. The not-yet-realized future where undocumented farm workers successfully cross the border, then fall ill, is even worse. Now you have little or no crop, or contaminated crops, and a bunch of very sick people.
    - tathougies 7y ago
      It is highly unlikely the virus lives very long on many crops. In most cases, a few days of storage will denature the viral particles enough. Something surely for food regulators to think about, but nothing insurmountable.
- pmoriarty 7y ago
  Not only that, but a lot of food in US grocery stores comes from other countries. Many of these other countries are likely to get hit very hard by the pandemic, and most probably won't be responding as effectively as South Korea, so expect to see long-term shortages of foreign food.