The Coming Famine?

Lately the Blogosphere has been abuzz with talk of what the next year is to bring. The fact that our country is in a recession (really, more of a depression) is just now being accepted by most of the "hide your head in the sand" humans out there. It seems a large element of our population is deathly scared of any type of change, whether good or bad. According to some predictions, there may be far more changes in store, we just can't foretell as yet.

A man named Gerald Celente, the CEO of a respected trend research company, has recently made waves with his suggestion of food riots, famine, and revolution in the next several years. The sad thing is that his organization is known for it's accurate predictions. They forecast the fall of the USSR, the current economic unrest, and the decline of the dollar, among other things. Mr. Celente suggests that next year, our holiday season will be far different, with gifts of food becoming the most common Christmas present.

Why is this and is there a basis in reality? Mr. Celente goes by key indicators, such as fertilizer usage and the issuance of crop insurance to farmers. These show the direction we are headed in many issues. When you look at this, he may be right. The levels of fertilizer purchased by farmers this year is currently running at way less than half of what was purchased this same time last year. The same goes with crop insurance issued to farmers, to guard against loss in case of crop failure. This is foreboding in several ways. It shows that farmers cannot get financing to plant and insure their crops, and it shows that less than half the gross agricultural output has been planted by US farmers. Add to this higher prices of the new economy due to shipping costs, it leaves us with the beginnings of a possible food shortage. How bad it will be remains to be seen, but if history is any indicator and Mr. Celente is right again, we may be in trouble.

What I do not understand of the whole issue is why are the news agencies not covering this?