Conditions are heading in the direction that we have been anticipating, and that is not good news at all.  Food prices are rising at a very alarming rate, and at this point even the United Nations is sounding the alarm.  Most of my readers remember the global food riots that we witnessed in 2008 and 2011, and if conditions continue to deteriorate we could soon be facing something even worse.  Of course this crisis has not emerged out of a vacuum.  We struggle to feed the entire world even in the best of years, and for a very long time I have been warning that we would eventually be facing extremely painful food prices and serious shortages of food in the poorer areas of the planet.  But those running things just kept assuring us that everything would work out just fine somehow.

Unfortunately, they were wrong.

This week, even the United Nations was forced to admit that we are entering very dangerous territory after global food prices shot up for a 12th month in a row…

A United Nations gauge of world food costs climbed for a 12th straight month in May, its longest stretch in a decade. The continued advance risks accelerating broader inflation, complicating central banks efforts to provide more stimulus.

Drought in key Brazilian growing regions is crippling crops from corn to coffee, and vegetable oil production growth has slowed in Southeast Asia. That’s boosting costs for livestock producers and risks further straining global grain stockpiles that have been depleted by soaring Chinese demand. The surge has stirred memories of 2008 and 2011, when price spikes led to food riots in more than 30 nations.

Sadly, global food inflation appears to be accelerating.  We are being told that last month’s jump in prices was the largest “in more than 10 years”.

Here in the western world, we can just dig a little deeper into our pockets in order to pay our rising grocery bills.

But in the poorest areas of the world, higher prices can mean the difference between eating and not eating.

Things have already gotten so bad that one UN official is warning that we have “very little room for any production shock”…

“We have very little room for any production shock. We have very little room for any unexpected surge in demand in any country,” Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said by phone. “Any of those things could push prices up further than they are now, and then we could start getting worried.”

Of course there are “production shocks” happening all over the globe at this point.  The drought that is crippling agricultural production in Brazil and other South American countries has been absolutely devastating, and yesterday I wrote an entire article about how the endless megadrought in the western half of the United States is forcing some farmers to destroy their crops.

Things are especially dire in California right now.  It is being reported that the reservoirs in the state are “50% lower than normal”, and water levels are dropping much faster than they did during the previous drought…

Temperatures hit triple digits in much of California over the Memorial Day weekend, earlier than expected. State officials were surprised earlier this year when about 500,000 acre feet (61,674 hectare meters) of water they were expecting to flow into reservoirs never showed up. One acre-foot is enough water to supply up to two households for one year.

“In the previous drought, it took (the reservoirs) three years to get this low as they are in the second year of this drought,” Lund said.

California residents may soon be facing draconian water restrictions, and farmers in the state have already been informed that they will be receiving very little or no irrigation water this year depending on where they live.

Without enough water to irrigate their crops, many California farmers won’t be producing much at all this year.

And that is really bad news, because California produces more of our fruits and vegetables than anyone else does by a very wide margin.

What this means is that food prices are going to continue to rise aggressively.

Needless to say, the price of just about everything has been going up these days, and Americans have been doing more Google searches for “inflation” than ever before…

According to Google Trends, searches for the word “inflation” hit the highest level since 2004 between May 9 and May 15. That’s as far back as the data goes. Google charts trends numerically and during that time period interest in “inflation” went all the way up to 100.

In the end, it is just basic economics.

There are way too many dollars chasing way too few goods and services, and my readers knew that this sort of painful inflation was coming in advance.

As inflation rises, our standard of living goes down, and more Americans are being pushed out of the middle class with each passing day.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, poverty and homelessness have been absolutely exploding, and even those that live in wealthy areas are now discovering that this crisis is starting to show up on their doorsteps.

In fact, it appears that Hunter Biden has decided to move out of the luxury home that he was renting in Venice Beach, California because of the epidemic of homelessness that is ravaging that community…

Hunter Biden appears to have moved out of the luxury $5.4 million home he was renting in Venice Beach, California amid a crime and homelessness wave that has hit the beach-front Los Angeles city.

The son of President Joe Biden was reportedly paying $25,000 a month to rent the three-story property on the Venice canals – just a block away from the beach.

But on Monday, DailyMail.com spotted a moving truck outside the palatial home with furniture being loaded into it.

For an idea of what life is like in Venice Beach today, just check out this video.

Once upon a time, Venice Beach was one of the most beautiful locations in the entire country.

Now it has been completely ruined, and the same could be said for much of the rest of the nation.

But if you think that things are bad now, just wait, because the chapters ahead are going to be even more terrifying.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post The United Nations Is Sounding The Alarm About The Dramatic Increase In Global Food Prices first appeared on The Economic Collapse.

This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. 

Following a series of corporate cyberattacks that American intelligence agencies have blamed on Russian actors, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (officially the National Wellbeing Fund) has decided to dump all of its dollars and dollar-denominated assets in favor of those denominated in euros, yuan – or simply buying precious metals like gold, which Russia’s central bank has increasingly favored for its own reserves.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov made the announcement Thursday morning at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“We can make this change rather quickly, within a month,” Siluanov told reporters Thursday.

He explained that the Kremlin is moving to reduce exposure to US assets as President Biden threatens more economic sanctions against Russia following the latest ransomware attacks. The transfer will affect $119 billion in liquid assets, Bloomberg reported, but the sales will largely be executed through the Russian Central bank and its massive reserves, limiting the market impact and reducing visibility on what exactly the sovereign wealth fund will be buying.

“The central bank can make these changes to the Wellbeing Fund without resorting to market operations,” said Sofya Donets, economist at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. “This in some sense a technical thing.”

Jordan Rochester, currency strategist at Nomura International PLC, said, “This is a transfer of euros from the central bank to the wealth fund, we’ll then see the central bank the holder of the USDs and it’s up to them to manage it. No initial market impact.”

The news isn’t a complete surprise: The Bank of Russia, Russia’s central bank, has steadily reduced its dollar holdings over the last few years amid increasing sanctions pressure from the US and Europe. That trend continued through President Trump’s term.

Just a few days ago, we reported that the Russian parliament had just authorized the sovereign wealth fund to buy gold through the central bank. However, the central bank reports its holdings with a six-month lag, making it impossible to determine its current holdings.

Russia’s gold holdings eclipsed its dollar reserves last year despite a halt in gold purchases. This was partly due to an increase in the value of its gold holdings with the rise in gold prices, and partly a function of the central bank’s continued efforts to shed dollar assets.

The wealth fund currently holds 35% of its liquid assets in dollars, worth about $41.5 billion, with the same amount in euros and the rest spread across yuan, gold, yen, and pounds. After this latest change, the fund’s assets will be held 40% in euros, 30% in yuan, 20% in gold, and 5% each in yen and pounds, Siluanov said.

 

The wealth fund holds savings from Russia’s oil revenues above a cutoff price and is used to help offset shortfalls when the market falls below that level. Together with illiquid assets, its total value is $185.9 billion.

A few years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Washington was inadvertently accelerating de-dollarization with its aggressive financial sanctions, which were forcing its geopolitical adversaries to reduce their dependence on the greenback. Just last month, Russia reached a new milestone whereby fewer than 50% of its exports were paid for in dollars.

Dedollarisation is inevitable as the US attempts to assert itself to prevent it's accelerating decline. Thus speeding up the attempts by Russia, China and others to remove themselves from the dollar. https://t.co/TeEO4K974A

— Red Star Radio (@Red_Star_Radio) June 3, 2021

The post Russia’s $186 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Dumps All Dollar Assets first appeared on SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.

There are a lot of articles and videos on bugging out and how to do it on foot, by packing into the family minivan, and …

Read more

The post Bug Out Boat: How to Bug Out on a Boat, Types of Boats appeared first on Survival Cache.

This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. 

After receiving more than 75,000 individual complaints that its Alex-powered Echo devices were spying on them, Amazon has abandoned its policy that such complaints must be resolved outside the court system via secretive arbitration proceedings, and will instead allow customers to file lawsuits, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In other words, “so sue us.”

The company quietly changed its terms of service to file lawsuits, as the company already faces at least three class-action suits – including one brought May 18 alleging that the company’s Echo devices were recording people without permission.

The retail giant made the change after plaintiffs’ lawyers flooded Amazon with more than 75,000 individual arbitration demands on behalf of Echo users. That move triggered a bill for tens of millions of dollars in filing fees, according to lawyers involved, payable by Amazon under its own policies.

Amazon’s decision to drop its arbitration requirement is the starkest example yet of how companies are responding to plaintiffs’ lawyers pushing the arbitration system to its limits. -WSJ

Arbitration agreements are typically buried in the fine print in order to avoid costly litigation, while many employers use them for adjudicating issues such as discrimination complaints or pay disputes. The right to require arbitration has been repeatedly upheld by the US Supreme Court.

During private arbitration, less evidence is presented and there are no appeals – with companies typically agreeing to pay for initial filing fees ranging between $100 and $2,000. The proceedings are managed by companies that charge an additional fee, while the arbitrators themselves will of course bill for their time.

According to consumer advocates and plaintiffs’ lawyers, arbitration usually makes it financially worthwhile for individuals to pursue claims, while companies say it’s a fair process.

“Companies thought they were getting out of liability altogether,” with arbitration clauses, says Chicago lawyer Travis Lenkner, whose firm filed the majority of the Amazon claims. “Now they’re seeing exactly what they bargained for, and they don’t like it.”

The mass-arbitration filings have forced companies to scramble. Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and TurboTax maker Intuit Inc. have all tried to avoid paying filing fees or direct claims back into court after being hit in recent years with thousands of arbitration claims.

Few companies so far seem ready to scrap arbitration outright like Amazon.

Instead, some are requiring employees to speak to a lawyer at the company before filing an arbitration claim. One arbitration provider created a mass-claim protocol that calls for handling a few test cases before the full filing fees come due. -WSJ

Claims against Amazon began pouring in after it was revealed in 2019 that Alexa devices were storing recordings of users without their consent. When consumers filed for class-action lawsuits claiming that the recordings violated consent laws, Amazon was able to successfully argue that the claims belonged in arbitration. In early 2020, Keller Lenkner and other firms filed tens of thousands of individual arbitration demands.

One year later, Amazon’s attorneys notified plaintiffs’ attorneys of their recent change in terms of service – eliminating a 350-word arbitration requirement and replacing it with two sentences that say disputes can be brought in a state or federal court near Amazon’s Washington state headquarters.

Local attorneys are surely buzzing with excitement.

The post “So Sue Us”: Amazon Responds To 75,000 Customers Who Say Alexa Spied On Them first appeared on SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.

A United States agency says that it’s perfectly acceptable for an employer to mandate a COVID-19 “vaccine” or experimental gene therapy shot as a condition of employment. On Friday, right before the long holiday weekend, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said you don’t have to give equal opportunity to those who refuse the state’s injection.

In a push to get as many of these shots into as many people as possible, the government is pulling out all the stops. The EEOC, in a statement posted on its website explaining its updated guidance, said employees can be required to be vaccinated as long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws.

In addition, employers may offer incentives to workers to be vaccinated, as long as they are not coercive, it said, according to a report by Reuters.

Federal Government Want Employers To “Incentivize” Workers To Get The COVID Jab

The vast majority of employers have been reluctant to require workers to be vaccinated. A survey by management-side law firm Fisher Phillips earlier this year found that only 9% of the more than 700 employers surveyed said they were considering mandating vaccines.

COVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines

There is a desperate push to get people to take these shots.  There could even be incentives to companies from the government to help them mandate the jab. Why they continue to force these shots now that everyone who wanted one has gotten one, has yet to be seen, but it’s become glaringly obvious that the state wants as many people as possible to willingly take this thing. If this shot was so great, wouldn’t everyone have taken it already?  You don’t need to convince or incentivize people to do the right thing if it is actually the right thing.

Keep your critical thinking skills up to par. Use discernment when reading or listening to anything and make sure your preps are in order. No one really knows what’s coming, but we do know (as evidenced by the great toilet paper shortage of 2020) that those who are prepared for as many situations as possible and plans in place will fare much better than those who do not.

The post Employers Can Mandate The COVID “Vaccine” first appeared on SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.

The federal government is still pushing the experimental gene therapy shot on everyone.  They have now given the go-ahead for employers to “incentivize” their workers to take the shot.

The government says that employers in the United States should do whatever it takes to get the “vaccine” into as many people as possible.  This comes as those willing to take this experimental jab slow.  Most of the holdouts now also say there is no convincing.

COVID-19 mRNA Shots Are Legally Not Vaccines

As vaccinations continue to slow, and states beef up incentives including lotteries and cash prizes to any adults who agree to get vaccinated who haven’t already, the EEOC has just issued some long-awaited guidance on how far companies can go in pushing workers to be vaccinated. Some companies, including Delta Air Lines, have said they won’t hire anyone who hasn’t already been vaccinated. -ZeroHedge

Earlier today, EEOC posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including answers to FAQs concerning vaccinations in the employment context. https://t.co/wUWNs6bG3L

— Sara Clark (@saracravenclark) May 28, 2021

The updated guidelines say employers may offer incentives to their employees to provide documentation showing they have been vaccinated since requesting this proof “is not a disability-related inquiry” or an “unlawful request” under federal anti-discrimination laws. What’s more, companies who choose to offer the vaccine on-site, or who incentivize employees to get vaccinated elsewhere, can’t offer perks or punishments substantial enough to be “coercive,” according to a report by ZeroHedge.

Employers including Dollar General, Aldi, and Instacart have already moved to reward their employees for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine by offering paid time off and cash stipends. And in April, President Joe Biden called on every employer to offer paid time off for workers to recover from potential vaccine side effects.

Side effects like:

Heart Inflammation: Another “Mild” Side Effect of The COVID “Vaccine”

Another Possible Side Effect Of COVID Vaccines: Herpes

“Vaccine” Side Effect: COVID Arm

Science Journals: Pfizer Vaccine Could Cause Deadly “Mad Cow Disease”

More COIVD-19 Vax Deaths: Think They’ll Blame This On COVID-21?

We are quickly approaching the punishment phase of the “vaccine” rollout. If people are not coerced into taking this shot with incentives, soon, we could see a dystopian reality of punishments doled out to those who continue to refuse to comply.  They have already told us it’s coming, it’s just a matter of time:

Medical Journal: Get The COVID-19 Vaccine, Or Be Punished HARSHLY

Stay prepared and alert to what is going on.  Make sure you use common sense, discernment, and your own critical thinking skills. We are going to see an interesting year if things continue down the path we are currently on.

 

The post Federal Government Want Employers To “Incentivize” Workers To Get The COVID Jab first appeared on SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.

There are dozens of reasons why you might want to get chickens. They can be a good way of getting rid of kitchen scraps. Their feces are rich in nutrients, making them a good fertilizer for your garden.  But, for most people, the biggest attraction is the eggs. Not only are they delicious, but they […]

RELATED: How To Dry Meats, Fruits & Vegetables In A Car

FMF2 Grow Up! (Thoughts On Trellising)

In this episode of Five Minute Fridays, we talk about trellising. We talk about its benefits and my favorite way to trellis vegetables.

Up Next:

• Off The Grid Gardening Tips
• Grow Your Own Organic Garden Even in Small Spaces
• Danger Zone: 5 Ways to Get Out of a Dangerous Situation Alive [PODCAST]

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5/26/21 Note: Olight is offering a sale on its new LEP “Odin Turbo” flashlight that begins 5/27/21. If you also…

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