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Why Food Shortages Will Hit America Hard
Consumers don’t understand how food gets to their table
A failing supply chain will cause food shortages regardless of where the crops are grown. Most people envision America’s rolling farmland filled with crops and think food won’t be a problem. We tend to ignore that a few steps are required to turn milk into cheese and get it to our table.
Almost every article about supply disruptions and food shortages will have a reader posting a comment that US consumers should be fine because the nation provides so much of what the world eats.
America’s food production is not safe from supply disruptions.
A net exporter is a term to designate nations that produce an excess of a particular good which is exported to other countries. The US food exports have little to do with what Americans eat unless your diet consists of sitting in the middle of a wheat field chewing on a stalk.
These readers imply that the US won’t experience food shortages because we grow so much. The commenters simply do not understand how the supply chain works.
Americans are as vulnerable to shortages as someone in another country eating imported wheat products from the drought-stricken Western US.
As more products are removed from the store shelves, the greater the demand will be on other food staples.
Whether or not you agree with outsourcing, manufacturing is a global endeavor. And it can’t be changed overnight. Even if the US returned to its industrial roots, it would not solve the problem. We would simply have more companies struggling to stay afloat.
Manufacturing any product requires inputs from other nations — computers from China, chemicals from Thailand, spices from Guatemala, or copper from Armenia. Countries specialize and then ship their exports. Everything produced starts out as raw materials. Does your product have a battery? You’re going to be dealing with China. That smartphone…
