The labor shortage i completely understand.
Vax mandates, retiring Boomers, women unable to get affordable childcare, and social safety net $$$ allowing lazy people to not work are the primary items driving the labor shortage, but you'll notice even that doesn't have a single exclusive cause.
TLDR answer is there is no one thing that can be blamed for the shortages and supply chain issues. If you want to fully understand it you probably should skim the thread. 38 pages isn't bad for Kiwi Farms.
Since this IS the most-asked question in the thread I will go over a few of the points you'd get from a full read.
The supply chain crumbling largely started with everything being shut down for COVID. It's difficult to spool back up on manufacturing, and lots of places shuttered or took longer to get back to production. Most of the world's goods used to made in China, and China is unable to produce a lot of the materials they need to make those goods themselves.
Currently China can't keep the factories open because they can't keep the lights on, but there's also the issue a lot of other Kiwis have talked about where raw materials are sourced in one country, then shipped around the world for processing into goods. Did you know most of China's livestock feed comes (came?) from California, for instance? It was a big deal a few years ago because alfalfa is such a water intensive crop that it was considered 'exporting water to China' while California was in a water shortage.
Finally, the primary global business model since the 80s has been to keep as little stock as possible to eek out a few more pennies, so the very way the supply chain has been structured is also now working against it.
I strongly encourage any other Kiwis who aren't tired of talking about the underpinnings of what's going on to chime in as well.
Some people ITT seem interested in taking up food gardening, but knowing KF demographics, may not have a lot of space and/or are unsure of where to start. Would anyone be interested in a long-ass garden post? I'd be happy to sperg and provide resources, but a quality post will take some time so I'd want to gauge interest first. Like if interested (or negrate if you're an urbanite bugman addicted to doordash).
Here's how I'm gonna split this baby.
Long rants about gardening go to
The Gardening Thread.
Intensive explanations of how to prep goes to the
General Prepper Sperging Thread.
Both of these will be linked in the OP as well so everyone can find them easily. They'll be at the bottom.
If you have quick-and-dirty advice on prepping or gardening or whatever like "The higher the sugar content in your preservatives the longer they stay good" or "You can keep chicken eggs that haven't been washed for up to six months unrefrigerated by coating them in mineral oil" then it can stay in this thread. I'm not sending people elsewhere to post a single fucking sentence.
Book recommendations stay here too. I'm checking for titles I don't have and want to pick up.
It's not that I think you're incorrect. I'm more curious why I haven't seen anything of the sort. I'll stop by the Brenham HEB today and see how things stand. It's between Austin and Houston, but I don't think it's right to call Brenham a "major city."
I was at a little podunk grocery store in a 1k person town much closer to my home Sunday, and there weren't empty shelves or suspiciously wide spaces.
I'm curious what HEB you were at that's desolated, but I understand if you don't want to tell us where to stalk you.
I'll do anything for love, but I won't tell people on Kiwi Farms where I live. lol.
How about this; I travel around a lot. I've seen a few cleaned out gas stations on the roads between Austin and Lampasas, as well as between Austin and Houston. Hell, I actually entered a couple of small gas stations in Houston proper that had some bare shelf space. I wish I could make better recommendations on how to find places with empty shelves, but all I can do is relate my tale of two gas stations.
If I go towards one major road I pass a Texaco. If I go the other main route I use, then I pass a Shell.
The Texaco constantly rotates out employees, primarily hispanic, and that's where I got some of my empty shelf pics. They're nice people and it's a decent place, but nobody there really cares about whether the shelves get filled. It's not any of the employees' livelihood, if you know what I'm saying. Sure, they show up, clock in, work, clock out, and get paid, but none of the Texaco crew are invested in what happens to it.
Contrast with the Shell station. It's run by, I swear to God, the real life incarnation of Apu from the Simpsons. Great guy. Will talk to each customer that comes in, remembers everyone, and will even offer to get you special orders if you give him some time. It's like, him and maybe two other workers (I suspect they're family) and they've been there for years. These people CARE about this Shell station, and honestly, if I was a delivery driver and both of these gas stations contacted me, I would deliver to Apu because he gets to know everyone personally and is a nice guy.
Some of the difference may just be what stores you go to and who owns them as much as where they are. I do hope this helps even though I rather appreciate the irony of having two disparate experiences in the same state. God bless Texas.
Absolutely correct. Fresh eggs, (meaning eggs that haven’t had the bloom washed off of them like the egg farms in the US do before shipping them to grocery stores), can last up to 30 days sitting out on the countertop in the kitchen, and a LOT longer than that in waterglass. Hadnt heard about wood ash but I’ll look into that, thanks.
Fresh eggs with the antimicrobial bloom still on them can be kept for up to 6 months by rubbing them in mineral oil to bolster the bloom coating.
Here is an article for everyone who isn't Lorne and doesn't know cool chicken facts. You're welcome to read it too, Lorne, but it doesn't sound like you need it.
I've got a copy of a book from the mid 1600's called "Instruction and Hints for Young Officers" and it mentions it as well in relation to setting up over winter camps and how it's also suited for transporting eggs while on campaign if you are able to keep them in sealed casks along with layers of fresh clean straw.
Really interesting read as it covers a few other food preservation methods and foods like Pocket Soup.
Pleeeaaasssse get the author. I need desperately to know if this is the book by General Wolfe because I found one for a price that doesn't make my eyes water.
They can run all the hours they want but that backlog is still massive and the workers will start to tell their bosses to go fuck themselves.
This has gotten entirely too long and autistic, but you and the other guy who said something similar are both 1000% correct. The government is going to attempt to treat these civilian dock workers like they're military personnel, who can be worked all but 4 hours a day (Daddy Gov is legally required to give you 4 hours of sleep, but they don't have to be consecutive) and given 3 MREs and they'll suck it up and work like dogs because the alternative is go to the brig.
There's no jailing civilians. They're allowed to quit. Daddy G is going to be reminded of this in the most painful way possible if the Biden Admin. tries to turn the (usually unionized) dock workers into their field niggers.
