I never thought we’d reach the point of food shortages and food inflation to this extent in the US. I have always expected these challenges to come at some point, but the circumstances that have caused some shelves to start looking bare are many.

I want to name a few of the trouble spots and expand on them below:

• Lack of workers

• Lack of truck drivers

• Western drought

• Plandemic causing farmworker shortage

• Cold weather crop losses

• Expensive feed because of crop losses

• No-plant 19-2019 wet spring and early fall snow

• Energy shortage causing everything to become expensive

As you can see the problems are not a few, and these are some very serious problems that could take years (or forever!) to overcome.

A recent article by CNN Business outlined some disturbing facts…

New York (CNN Business)If you hoped grocery stores this fall and winter would look like they did in the Before Times, with limitless options stretching out before you in the snack, drink, candy and frozen foods aisles, get ready for some disappointing news.

Many of the country's biggest food makers are telling grocers that they will have limited quantities of a number of their products, including items such as Rice Krispies Treats, Sour Patch Kids, some Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavors, McCormick gourmet spices and Marie Callender's pot pies because of labor, commodity and transportation constraints throttling supply chains, according to emails viewed by CNN and interviews with grocers. Some suppliers are also telling grocers to cancel their promotions of these items and more over the holidays so products won't disappear from store shelves as quickly.

These latest limits mean that stores won't have all things for all customers heading into the holidays, and shoppers may not be able to find some of their favorite products, flavors or niche items. But shoppers will still have plenty of options, including most of these companies' core products, which they are prioritizing over items in less demand — meaning, for instance, that if you're a fan of Ben & Jerry's popular Phish Food, you shouldn't have a problem, but the company's less-well known Cold Brew Caramel Latte might be harder to find.

It seems that value-added products like pot pies, for example, will be limited. Other food shortages include Lunchables, ice cream, packaged produce like hydroponic lettuce, bagged green nad lettuces, etc. are starting to become scarce. Meat is also an area that is seeing some availability challenges.

From Bloomberg….

A U.S. report Wednesday showed beef reserves down 7.7% from a year ago in August. Poultry supplies slumped 20% and pork bellies, which are sliced into bacon, dropped 44% to the lowest levels since 2017.

We have seen many parts of the world including the US experiencing drought, cold weather, and wet weather crop losses. Grains such as wheat, corn, soy, oats have been especially hard hit.

Much of the winter wheat quality is worse than expected. Many commodity grains are grown and used to manufacture many different products. When grains get expensive rampant inflation can occur in the not-so-distant future.

In all sectors, workers are at an all-time low and just plain hard to find. Just about every restaurant or retail store is aggressively advertising for new employees. The Economic Collapse Blog recently wrote:

Vanishing Workforce

Something really strange is going on, and none of the “experts” can explain why it is happening. Right now, there are more jobs available than ever before. In fact, according to one recent measure there were nearly 11 million job openings in the United States during the month of July. There are literally “help wanted” signs all over the place, and so if you want a job you can go get a job. It may not be the job that you want, but the truth is that there are millions upon millions of jobs available. We are in the midst of the greatest labor shortage in U.S. history, and companies are absolutely desperate to hire people. Wages are being raised to unprecedented levels, signing bonuses are often being offered, and some companies have completely waived drug testing requirements. Labor has become one of the hottest commodities in America, and you would think that in such an environment we would see huge numbers of people being hired.

Farmworkers are in very short supply and this issue is causing serious problems. I recently read an article about it on AgDaily.com

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are over 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually, but there is a drastic decline in available workers year after year. Over 73 percent of farm workers are immigrants, mostly from Mexico and South America, and although the H2-A program has been increasing the number of accepted applications, the 250,000 farm workers it allows into the country each year doesn’t do enough to fill the labor needs. Almost 50 percent of immigrant farm workers do not have legal authorization to work; authorized immigrant workers make up about 20 %percent of farm labor, according to the USDA.

The last two years have been especially dry for the west. I the midst of a 20-year drought the last two have caused many issues for farmers as hay is expensive and just plain hard to come by, again fueling beef shortages.

When hay is not growing well and expensive ranchers cull herds, which causes a glut of beef initially but thenresult in beef shortages eventually as it takes years to rebuild herds. This is happening all over the west.

As the drought worsens across the West and ushers in an early fire season, cattle ranchers are among those feeling the pain. Their hay yields are down, leading some to make the hard decision to sell off animals. To avoid the high cost of feed, many ranchers grow hay to nourish their herds through the winter when snow blankets the grass they normally graze.

To sum up, food inflation, food shortages, and worker shortages will be in our headlines for some time to come, are you ready? Subscribe today!