Off the Editor’s Desk 5-18-22

Is there a shortage at your house?

Every night on national television we see pictures of empty shelves in our stores especially the empty shelves in the baby food isle. During last week I was in a couple local grocery stores and their shelves seemed well stocked, but I have to admit that I did not check out the baby food isle.

I will say that the price of food has increased as has most other things that we purchase. One thing we can’t survive is a shortage of food. I remember as a young lad, almost every home on our block had a garden in the back yard, producing fresh vegetables. There were also many apple trees in the community and now I wonder what happened to them?

But, the price of gasoline has gone over the four-dollar mark. One day last week I was out of town and ran low on gas in my Suburban and it took almost an entire hundred-dollar bill to fill the tank. President Biden just recently stopped more oil drilling on federal lands and that will make the price at the pump go up even more. I am thinking that maybe I should buy an electric vehicle, and that is what Biden wants me to do.

At our printing office, the price and availability of paper stock is almost unreal. The double size sheet of paper which we use a lot of, and I normally pay just under $30.00 for a thousand sheets is now at $55.00, if you can get it at all. My regular suppliers were out of stock I was told and the paper supply houses that I normally do not buy from are selling only to their regular customers, so that avenue is not open to me.

Last week the president promised to boost U.S. wheat production to combat loss of wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia. He noted that wheat production here is down some 15 percent since 2019.

On May 11, Biden was at a farm in Illinois and promised that he would extend crop insurance for farmers who double crop in a bid to get more wheat to market this year.

According to Robert Romano, from Americans for Limited Government who wrote on May 13. “Already, the global shortfall is 4.5 million tons this year, so far, according to the latest data by the Department of Agriculture. Global production is forecast at 774.8 million tons, 4.5 million lower than in 2021/22.” Because of the war in Ukraine, production is forecast to be some 11.5 million tons lower this year.

“Biden warned that Ukraine cannot move its current winter wheat crop out to markets, consisting of 20 million tons, without which it could trigger starvation in the third world:

“Ukraine says they have 20 million tons of grain in their silos now, 20 million tons. And guess what? If those tons don’t get to market, an awful lot of people in Africa are going to starve to death because they are the sole — sole supplier of a number of African countries.

“The problem is that Russia is blocking Ukraine’s seaports on the Black Sea, preventing the shipping of that grain and further more the war is preventing Ukrainian farmers from planting next years crop and next year’s harvest.

“But will Biden’s plan even work? U.S. wheat production is down 15 percent since 2019, from 1.93 billion bushels in 2019 to 1.64 billion in 2021, according to the DOA. Overall the U.S. produces a little more than half of what it did in 1981.”

I do not have a green thumb, but maybe a garden is in our future.

Thanks for reading! ~Carlton