Food Shortages: Are They Real?

COVID has definitely affected the supply chain from seed to sale.  My personal experience is that food and herbal ingredients are increasingly harder to find and get delivered in a timely manner.  And, the shipping companies are charging more.

Even in my local Kroger’s (King Soopers here in CO.) the shelves are always pretty empty, depending on what you are looking for.  Not that there isn’t food, we just can’t get everything in one trip due to availability.  After multiple trips we can procure what we need.  

My question to everyone; Is this a sign of the times and will it get worse before it gets better?

Just to give you an idea of what the issues are in manufacturing of food products, there are multiple ‘choke’ points limiting our ability to buy food and herbal products.

1. Growing seasons for certain products has been off lately.  For example, oats had a terrible harvest this season.  We largely depend on Canadian oats to supplement our crop. This year the oat crop in Canada was terrible, something like 60% of their crop failed.  You can still get oats but at a much higher price due to supply decreasing while demand remains the same or higher.
2. You have or will be noticing price increases on just about everything you buy including food.  Have you noticed that many of the packaged foods are maybe just a bit more expensive but the weight and size has decreased, less for your money!
3. If anything is sourced overseas you can bet that there will be issues in logistics, further complicated by COVID issues causing labor shortages in the fields, trucking/shipping/ports/distribution.  Many companies source at least some ingredients overseas.  The good news here is many companies, including ours, are beginning to source as many ingredients locally as possible.  More expensive but more dependable.
4. Equipment sourced overseas can take 6 months or longer if you are lucky enough to find availability and at higher and higher prices.
5. Domestic freight is an issue these days.  What used to take a few days can now take weeks if coming from the busiest ports.
6. You also have the news these days focusing on the bad to increase fear. The result, among other things, is hording which leads to further supply issues. Remember toilet paper in 2020? 

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our food and herb production yet in my mind some of the most important issues.  

So are food shortages real?  I would say yes but it depends on the ingredient, some are more plentiful and accessible than others. 

What is the solution? Grow some of your own food if possible and acquire some ‘storeable foods’ if you can, such as our Survive2Thrive 40-Day Supply. The stored foods would cover any gaps in your diet plan. Decrease your consumption of processed foods, you will be better off for this decision. Our bodies want wholesome foods and processed foods are not all that healthy. Vegetables, legumes, and grains supplemented by herbs and proteins are typically the best way to go.