Empty Stomachs, NOT the Desire for “Democratic Rule,” Drive Revolutions

Empty stomachs drive revolutions, and that’s the hard, fast and sad truth of it.  People will tolerate oppressive governments, natural disasters, wars, and disease, AS LONG AS THEY HAVE FOOD AND A REASONABLE MEANS OF PROCURING IT.  Once prices rise so high people can’t afford to purchase food, or when foodstuffs are scarce, or simply aren’t available anymore, look out - the sticks, stones, pipes, knives and guns are brought out en masse, and long-standing governments are toppled overnight.

I do not pretend to know if the world’s food shortage is staged, contrived, or planned as many suggest.  Is it the result of manipulation by some shadow government, a banking cartel or agribusiness?  Who knows?  What I DO know is this:  I, personally, am paying more for groceries EVERY WEEK, as are my neighbors and friends, and 44,000,000 Americans are currently receiving food stamps because they can’t afford to feed their families. 44,000,000 Americans – I can’t even get my head around that.  What that tells me is that if food stamps were ever suddenly unavailable, and 44,000,000 Americans were hungry, the Great American “unrest” would make the protests in Tunisia and Egypt look like garden parties on the King’s Estate.     

And for those of us that are still holding true to the notion that “it could NEVER happen in America,” (which I frequently drift in and out of myself), it’s time we all think again.  It CAN and WILL happen here, and probably sooner than later.  

I’m not about fear, however.  I’m about education and empowerment.  Pick up a copy of Gardening and Food Storage, With an Introduction to Medicinal Herbs from my website, http://www.preservationpublications.com/, or purchase a book on the same subject from someone else – just make sure you have the information and seeds you need to help keep your family fed and START PLANTING THIS SPRING!  Anything you grow will be that much less that will be missed if suddenly unavailable, and will be that much more available to people that haven’t had the foresight to prepare.  In prosperity or hunger, we are all in this together whether we like it or not. 

So, for our families, our neighbors, our friends and our communities… Preservation.