Opportunity and Hardship

With most store shelves filling up again, the sudden food shortage earlier this year could seem like a bad nightmare. While it was relatively short lived, the panic buying, product limits, and empty meat counters were definitely a reality, and barring another shutdown, will hopefully stay that way for a while.  That’s the kind of news we all want to believe.

While people are happy with the return of “normal” food availability, we would like to challenge you to take this opportunity to start shortage-proofing your food supply.   We’ve seen how quickly things can go south when people begin panicking about food, and unless a large portion of society makes a major change to its food purchasing habits and stops its every-third-day grocery shopping, the peril remains. This may sound far-fetched to many folks, but I say if you need to purchase food every week in order to sufficiently feed your family, you’re unsustainable and will find yourself scrambling for food—which is the basis of human sustenance—when another crisis comes along.

In the mainstream food industry, availability is predicated upon a constant steady demand, not a sudden rush that overwhelms to distribution network. However, if this type of crisis happened once, it will likely happen again. And unless the food industry fragments into a smaller localized venue (which is not likely to happen by its own accord) that can handle sudden demand fluctuations, it will continue to be extremely fragile. This makes long-term food security nearly impossible without a change in consumer buying habits.

Nothing induces stress like inadequacies of necessities.  By the same token, unequaled security and gratitude comes with preparedness for come-what-may. True, it may be nearly impossible to fully prepare for the unknown, but let’s not let that keep us from taking measures to change our habits in order to not be as vulnerable. Fortunately, in the post-Covid-food-crisis, bulk purchasing of food (yes, the old-fashioned home larder) is being revisited by folks who wouldn’t have done so otherwise. And that’s a positive twist to the shortage, as well as affordable option that moves a family a long way toward sustainability.

If you’re interested in bulk food purchasing but find it scary, be assured you’re not alone. Spending several hundred hard-earned dollars on food—plus a freezer that relies on electric power (what if the power goes out for three days?!) when you’ve never done it is daunting. At Freedom Acres, we’re familiar with being outside our comfort zone (our desire for increased sustainability has taken us there many times over the years). We have several years of experience in bulk food purchasing under our hat, and are willing to coach you through the process.

Interestingly, opportunities to advance or better ourselves often come veiled as hardship, and we humans often fail to recognize the opportunity the difficulty presents. Most people are too comfortable with the status quo to plan for the future, and by doing nothing they leave their future to chance. After having survived a crisis, doing nothing to make ourselves more resilient for the next crisis is very unwise. A wise man once said “The future depends on what you do today”. We agree. And that’s the View from the Country. 

Quotes worth Re-quoting ~

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much..” ~ Jim Rohn

“Choose your friends with caution; plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith..” ~ Thomas Monson