Saturday, May 10, 2008

Stocking Up For Our Future

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
Proverbs 22:3

Below is an excerpt from the article "Food Shock" by Jennifer Barry, GlobalAssistStrategist.com.

She wrote it for yesterday's edition of FSU. Her words chronicle the path that has led to the food shortages that are affecting populations across the globe. We are seeing the affects in the higher prices at the grocery store, but how long before our "affects" become more severe??

As an American, I’ve taken for granted that I can get just about any food I want at the supermarket. In fact, the number of choices are dizzying. I never really thought about the tenuous chain between myself and my food....

Read the rest here.

My husband and I and my dad and I have had some serious conversations about what the worldwide food shortages will eventually mean for those of us living in the United States. It is a problem--A problem that many are unaware of except for the higher prices at their local grocer.

We have decided that for our family, in the short run, we will begin to buy up larger amounts of rice, beans and possibly other grains as well. In the long run, we are on the look-out for a small piece of property where we can begin to grow our own food, and thus become less dependent on others to provide that food for us. Maybe this sounds crazy to you, or like we're being too cynical or making too much of this, but is it ever wrong to prudently decide to provide for and protect your family? This is our calling by God!!

So many of the blogs that I visit are all about providing for our families in the most economically practical way, working towards being out of debt, and ultimately, glorifying God by all that we, as wives and mothers, decide everyday on behalf of our families. I believe that we are to prepare for our futures as well.

This is what is working for us, but I would encourage any who read this to do some research of your own and begin to consider the impact these worldwide difficulties will have on your family. Begin to look at the big picture, and you may well begin to see, as we have, the importance of preparing for the lean times to come.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think some of the problem is also laziness. Years ago every family had a garden. They made their own bread, sewed their own clothes,etc. Now it is to easy to run to the store. We do need to be more self efficent.

Mavis D. said...

Funny you should mention this...I blogged about something very similar today.

Although we have a garden that we share with my parents, we are trying to work more toward self-sufficiency. I really do not like that term though because we all depend on God and I believe He gives us the wisdom to plan.

We do plan to garden differently next year because we would like to try raised beds instead of the "till the ground" type gardening. We think we will have a better yield for smaller area.

Soon we will have chickens (this week) and we hope to have goats by the end of the year for milk...we will see how we like the milk! LOL!

I have recently learned to make my own bread from fresh ground flour and we simply love it...the stuff in the store does not even come close to what real bread should be like!

We recently installed a "solar powered clothes dryer" otherwise known as a clothesline and we are working towards being debt free.

Sorry for the long post...just excited I am not the only one who can see a need to prepare for lean times. :)

Anonymous said...

My husband and I haven't given this much thought, but I believe it's going to become a popular household topic. We've had a summer / fall vegetable garden for about four years now. However, I have not made our bread nor have we tried to grow winter veggies. Thanks for bringing this to other people's attention.