February 1, 2022, updated Feb. 8
Holly Deyo
standeyo.com


When researching material for Prophetic Perils: End Time Events Revealed and writing the "Coming Famine" chapter, it was easy to document past famines even in the U.S. However, today in the Land of Plenty, a devastating new famine seemed ridiculous. Now it doesn't.

Historically famines were caused by 2 things: war and drought. Nowhere did a COVID pandemic enter the picture. Now there is a conflagration of alarming events – a superstorm of food/famine developments:

• drought / water shortage
  
• skyrocketing cost of fertilizer
  
• skyrocketing crop insurance
  
• lack of pickers and farmhands
  
• rising fuel costs
  
• an 80,000-strong shortage of truckers to haul produce
  
• tripling shipping costs
  
• COVID restrictions
  
• scarcity of packaging for products sold in aluminum, paper and plastic
  
• supply chain bottlenecks and
  
• COVID shutdowns running smaller farmers out of business.
  

Drought has hit California's crops. Freeze has hit Florida's citrus. According to Citrus Industry, the deep freeze that hit at the end of January may have caused more damage than initially reported. Though it's too soon to know the exact extent of the crippling freeze, the coming weeks will tell the story. Drought is affecting cattle feed prices, hence costs escalate to keep their bellies full. More food recalls are sounded as there are fewer people to monitor food processing and food safety issues.


AVIAN FLU REARS ITS HEAD AGAIN

Little is in the news about this, but Avian flu is making another march around the globe first spotted in France. According to this BBC Science article, "It’s the worst-ever outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) on record."

This strain, H5N1, is High Pathogenicity (HPAI) and kills nearly all infected birds.

"Restrictions are in place across England, Scotland and Wales to mitigate the spread of the virus among kept birds. It is currently a legal requirement that all commercial flocks, pet birds and backyard flocks must be kept indoors."

Israel has culled over 560,000 chickens. That alone will cause a shortage of some 14 million eggs. A month ago Japan had already culled 10 million birds. It's likely a much higher number today. Canada just killed 12,000 turkeys over avian flu in Nova Scotia, which is the eastern-most region of our their country, so it's likely the culling has just begun.

Now Avian flu is caught up in the Atlantic Flyway – the bird migratory traffic way between Europe and North America – and has been detected in the Carolinas, Virginia and now Florida. In Canada, bird flu has come to Labrador and Newfoundland. Avian flu has made its way around the globe, detected in China, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Africa, Bhutan, Iran, Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, 5 Asian countries including South Korea and Japan, and Israel. It's pretty much everywhere and spreading west to states in the U.S. and Canada.

If you think your backyard chickens might be infected, these are the symptoms to look for.

According to the EFSA Journal (European Food Safety Authority) as of Sept. 2021 the highly contagious form of avian flu had affected approximately "22,900,000… poultry birds in 31 European Countries [and] appears to be one of the largest HPAI epidemics that has ever occurred in Europe."

It's not just chickens that get sick, but other 'dinner birds' that include turkeys, pheasant, quail, domestic ducks, geese and guinea fowl. So it could be another deadly blow to our food supplies.

Add to this, dead fish are showing up around the world. Stunning images of 100,000 dead blue whiting floating in the Bay of Biscay off France appeared on Feb. 3. They are washing ashore on the beaches of Mexico, England, Italy, Florida. New Jersey and Japan.


WILL CHINA STARVE THE WORLD INTO FAMINE?

According to this article, China’s Food-Hoarding Is Creating a Global Famine:

"NIKKEI noted that China, with 20% of the world population, is expected to have 69% of the globe’s maize reserves in the first half of the crop year 2022, 60% of its rice and 51% of its wheat. This represents a rise of 20 % over the past 10 years.

"China spent $98.1 billion importing food in 2020, up 4.6 times from a decade earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs of China. In the January-September period of 2021, China imported more food than it had since at least 2016.

"Over the past five years, China’s soybean, maize and wheat imports soared two- to twelvefold on aggressive purchases from the U.S., Brazil and other supplier nations. Imports of beef, pork, dairy and fruit jumped two- to fivefold.

"China is importing more grain and other food because domestic production is unable to keep up with consumption. China’s wheat imports surged 50% between January and July, compared to the same period of 2020. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China will hold 69% of the world’s corn reserves, 60% of its rice, and 51% of its wheat by mid-2022."

PAY TO NOT PLAY

Adding to food problems was news that came out last year that the Biden admin is paying farmers NOT to grow crops and raise animals, though studies show this program isn't saving the planet. Another Biden screw up.

Every 5 years a new Ag Census is conducted. Between 2007 to 2017, the U.S. had lost over 160,000 farms. Next year, the new Census will likely show many more lost due to COVID, shutdowns and the skyrocketing price of everything that has to do with farming. Small farms make up 88% of all U.S. farms and they are the least able to absorb rising costs and crop and animal losses.

The top 10 cattle raising states – Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, California, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Colorado – are all in drought. The top state for cattle, Texas, is in extreme drought. Cattle are raised in every state including Alaska and Hawaii. Nationally, America's cattle herd fell by nearly half a million head specifically due to drought. This silent killer is slowly creeping eastward and is affecting all but 9 states. As of last month, hog inventory was down 4%. Last Fall, corn stocks were down 36% from the preceding year and soybean stocks were down 51%.

AMERICA SOLD OUT

Stealthily and under the radar, America is losing tens of thousands of acres of farms to foreigners – nearly 38 million acres as of Dec. 2020 – the latest report. Then last year, globalist Bill Gates bought nearly 270,000 of prime farmland across 19 states. Who will he give this food to? Aisle after aisle of empty grocery shelves makes the specter famine a real possibility. For Christians, we know it's coming; it's fact. It's prophesied in scripture. You can find it in Hosea 4:3 and Revelation 6:6.