The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Hunger and Civility, Virgis Ch 39

Episode Date: March 10, 2024

When hunger sets in, how long will society stay civil? Special Guest: Ellen Kerr

Welcome back to the Changing Earth Podcast with author Sarah F. Hathaway and co-host Chen Gibson. Blending survival fiction and fact to bring you entertaining education that will help you dream, survive, and thrive. And now, here's your hosts, Sarah F. Hathaway and Chen Gibson. Chapter 39. You found her in a hole? Dolores asked, looking over the young, white-haired girl while classical music played in the background. She won't talk. Or maybe she can't, Monroe explained, standing behind her. The major doesn't know what to do with her. Doesn't make sense to hand her over to the refugee system.

How do you know her parents are gone if she won't talk, Dolores wondered, grabbing a cloth napkin, dipping it in water, and gently wiping the girl's face. Just because she can't talk doesn't mean she can't respond, Monroe countered. What's your name, honey? Dolores asked the girl pointedly. The young girl's pale blue eyes looked up and she whispered, Alexis. Pleased with the response, Dolores declared. See, she can talk, Tim. Isn't that right, Alexis? Smiling slightly at Dolores's encouragement, Alexis answered meekly. Yes, ma'am. Do you want to get cleaned up? Dolores asked, softly brushing her greasy white hair behind the girl's ear. Yes, the girl replied.

Tim, you make sure Virgis and his fighters keep taking that iodine. None of you should have been that far south for that long. You know the radiation down there is worse, Dolores scolded. Yes, ma'am, we know. Who would have thought it would rain that much, Monroe defended. Shaking her head in disgust at their stupidity, Dolores replied, You're lucky you found shelter. Looking fondly at Alexis, Dolores added, and this beautiful little girl. Come on, Alexis.

Dolores left into her private back rooms, and Monroe returned to the table in Dolores's downstairs sitting room. Where's the girl? Chappie wondered. Dolores took her to get cleaned up, Monroe answered. Let's go upstairs then, Chappie declared, rising from his chair. The men climbed the wooden stairs and sealed up the secret door at the top. The music thumped loudly and Chappie could feel his stomach growling as he smelt the food cooking at the top. The music thumped loudly and Chappie could feel his stomach growling as he smelt the food cooking in the kitchen. Sitting down at one of the tables, they waited for a woman to come and take their order. Chappie looked at Monroe curiously. Something's been on my mind. What's that? Monroe wondered. I thought they shut that nuclear plant down in Southern

California long ago. How is the radiation so bad, Chappie wondered. They were storing the used nuclear rods there still. The cooling system must have failed and the radiation was released, Monroe explained. Makes sense, he said, thinking about Monroe's answer. I guess. A woman in a tight, dark purple dress approached. Her brown wavy hair flowed over her shoulders where the spaghetti straps held the dress in place. You boys want a drink? Yes, ma'am, and a couple burgers as well, please, Monroe answered. As the waitress walked away, Chappie watched Cole walk by. Don't look now, but it looks like Miss Cassidy is in town. At least Virgis might be in a better

mood, Monroe suggested. Or not, Chappie declared, watching Virgis scowl as Cassidy is in town. At least Virgis might be in a better mood, Monroe suggested. Or not, Chappie declared, watching Virgis scowl as Cassidy approached him. To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from Miss Cassidy Baker, he wondered. He loved seeing her, but it was so complicated that Cole thought it was best to avoid her. I'm not allowed to swing by and visit my favorite baby face, she asked. Her brown eyes sparked mischievously. He looked at her skeptically. You know you're always welcome, but it's been a while. It has. Can we go somewhere to talk? After everything I've heard about your new base, I'm eager to see it, she told him. Come on, Cole stated, rising from his chair and heading out the door. Exiting Dolores's place, they headed into the mercenary base. Sir, Jessup greeted him as he

opened the gate. Good evening, private, Cole said officially, quickly ushering Cassidy in. She looked around, admiring his operational readiness and infrastructure. You've been busy. People want their lives back. All you need is to provide some stability, and the rest falls into line, Cole declared proudly. Cassidy chuckled softly at him, following him into the command building and up the stairs to his office. Very nice office, Major, Cassidy declared, looking around. His office was simple, with a desk and a small bar with liquors. There was a small seating area,

and through another door was his bedroom. Thanks, it's coming along, Cole declared, heading over to pour them drinks. Glad things are going good for you, Cassidy stated as she approached, taking the glass from him. How's your dad, Cole inquired, heading to the chair in the sitting area. He's good, working too hard, Cassidy declared, sitting next to him. Cole looked at her crossly. How is he, really? Cassidy took a long drink. He's been having a hard time with his high blood pressure. Is that why he didn't come himself? Cassidy smiled. No, he didn't want anyone to see him with you. Cole smiled coyly at her. Is that the only reason, he wondered flirtatiously? No, she replied, pausing. I wanted to come. I feel like I owe you a thank you. You took the position.

You've been relaying valuable information, and we, she paused again. I really appreciate it. When the day comes that our country stabilizes, we have to be able to reclaim freedom for all, he told her coldly. Cassidy laughed at him. The adoption program may

end that dream. How will people return to freedom after they become second-class citizens? We've done it before, Cole insisted. Anyway, the adoption program didn't make them second-class. The FEMA camps did that. Now it will be made official, permanent, Cassidy countered passionately. Now it will be made official, permanent, Cassidy countered passionately. There has to be an order, Cassidy. We can recover, then restore, Cole exclaimed calmly. We'll agree to disagree about that. We can never return to what we were.

The question is, where will we go, Cassidy asked, looking curiously at him for answers. That is the million-dollar question. But curiously at him for answers. That is the million dollar question. But I know one thing for sure. Desperate people don't care who they hurt to feed their families. That problem has to be our primary focus, Cole responded dryly. Cassidy looked at him intently, standing up to pour another drink. When did you drink the Kool-Aid? She asked as she watched the caramel

color liquid fill the glass. When people I tried to help robbed us during the middle of the night, turning a whole community into refugees, Cole snapped, putting his empty glass on the table. Cassidy came over and filled his glass while she countered. The feds did that, Virgis, when they decided Arizona was non-essential and shifted the resources that should have gone there elsewhere. My dad was there in the courtroom trying to fight. They knew the wave was coming and they did nothing. No one even told you. They were doing national triage, Cole answered flatly. That's bullshit, Cassidy snapped. They've shifted all the resources towards the Capitol in Kansas. They're going to make sure they survive. We'll

be able to change it again, Cassidy. For now, we have to do what we have to do to maintain order, Cole assured her. Cassidy shook her head at him, knowing he would come up with a cold response to whatever she had to say. She looked at him and said blunt would come up with a cold response to whatever she had to say. She looked at him and said bluntly, I need more fighters, Virgis. Cole's eyes narrowed before he rolled them at her. I knew you were here after something. Thank you indeed. She reached over, grabbing his hand. Oh, stop. You know I'm sincere. I just need fighters as well. And how do you suppose we facilitate that without anyone knowing or getting hurt, he wondered. I was hoping that's where your expertise would be applicable, she told him coyly.

He looked at her and smiled. My expertise, huh? You know you're lucky you're so darn cute. expertise, huh? You know you're lucky you're so darn cute. I think you had me wrapped around your finger from the moment you said, my name is Miss Cassidy Baker. Her cheeks blushed a bright red as she countered. Don't change the subject, Cole. And don't get me wrong. I like you. And we've had some good times. But the years have been hard. And this is going to be a long fight. I just don't feel the timing is right to be sharing those kinds of feelings. I get it. I don't want to change what we have any more than you do. You keep being cute, fighting your fight, and I'll see what I can do about getting you some extra hands, he told her, standing up and gently brushing her hair behind her ear. Thanks for understanding, Virgis. You're the best, she praised him, pulling him to his feet

and kissing him on the cheek. He laughed, putting an arm around her and hugging her into himself. Why do I feel like such a sucker then? She kissed him passionately. You're just lonely. Come on, we can fix that. Then you'll be gone and I'll be lonely again, Cole countered. That's a problem for tomorrow, she told him, leading him into his room. Are you prepared to be the family doctor in a disaster or emergency? This is the Intrepid Commander, and I'm holding The Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W. Forgy, MD. In this great book, you'll learn how to prepare for medical care off the grid. You'll learn about assessment and stabilization. You'll even deal with things like bioterrorism response,

radiation, and how to build the off-grid medical kit at home. Look, 2020 taught us a lot about the limitations of our medical infrastructure in America. Get the Prepper's Medical Handbook today at Amazon.com. Again, that's the Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W. Forgy. You're listening to pbn your path back to stability hello and welcome back to the changing earth podcast this is episode number 437, season 15, episode 39. Hey, Chin, what's up? Hey, Chin's up, y'all. So, oh, and joining us today, we have Ellen with us. Hi, Ellen, how you doing?

Hey, good day, y'all. So I wanted to do a little public service announcement this morning because a friend of mine I was telling you guys made me realize, like, how many shows I have put together and how long you guys have been out there listening. And I just really, really appreciate the opportunity to bring really great information to you each week and spend time and do the podcast. So thank you listeners for being here because I really appreciate you guys. Both of my guests today, my co-hosts and my guests are both because of my podcast as well. So I guess that's just like living testimony right there so thank you guys appreciate it come with me yeah come with me on my journey it's so great yeah first time ellen is coming out she's like hey i'd love to meet you there's there's a hotel where's the closest hotel

i'm like hotel dude i live way far away from a hotel man so uh had extra room come on oh no you were sleeping in the loft even right i just had the loft yeah it was in the um yeah yeah the house yeah yeah the cabin i was like oh i got a bed man so okay i would i would have been happy with a couch yeah so um very cool it just was a nice little reminder for me of how special the journey's been so i want to thank everyone all right um audio drama the uh episode 13 is live. Sounding great. James, I've really loved his performance this year. I'm going to give out my little Emmys at the end of the year maybe.

Because this is just good stuff. He did a great job. So that one's live. Episode 14 is live for subscribers over at the members area. That one is commercial free. So if you'd like to get access a week early, you can go over there and become a subscribing member. I do have the whole playlist up on YouTube now.

So please head over to YouTube. I'm at Changing Earth Series. Give a like, give a subscribe, and you can follow all the podcasts on YouTube now, which I think is a pretty cool little feature that YouTube did. Also, they do play in the background. So if you like to listen while you're doing other stuff, it's a really nice player. It plays in the background and you can just keep it going whenever you're cleaning or working or doing whatever you do. Next on the list, gardening season.

I've been kicking my butt. My friend Carrie's like, did you get your garden in yet? You know, it's coming early here in Texas this year. Like, oh, man. So this week it's on. Southerners, get on that. Northerners. I would like to think you guys still have a little bit longer to go,

but it's been pretty warm up there this year. So my dad said like Michigan was in the 70s this week. So crazy times. And then Prepper Camp 2024. I heard there's still spots available in Tent City right now. I don't know about the rest of the campground, but I think there's still spots available in Tent City. I heard somebody just the other day said they got one. So get your tickets.

Don't forget a place to stay. And you guys will be here for proper camp well we'll be there can't wait right it's gonna be fun bombing in the van both of my cars are going just don't make that good coxswain we made last time

that was wild oh no no no no no no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, we went a little overboard last year, so it was like, woo, pump those brakes. Oh, you need to bring out some of the good Australian rum. Yes, that's always on the cards. Yes, as long as we don't drink it all before we get there. drink it all before we get there.

Alrighty, so this week we heard Virgis chapter 39. Last week he found Alexis in the radiation zone. Had a really cool show with Dave Jones, so if you missed that one, head on back, check that out. Dave, always just a wealth of knowledge, plus we had the little bonus

where he gave us some wonderful information on how to identify a fake police officer which was really cool as well so yeah last week's episode definitely worth going back and checking out if you missed it uh but this week virgis's team they go back to reno cassidy shows up a little little fun time for virgis always an argument always a mixed bag of tricks with that girl I'd say and so today I wanted to talk about how long realistically society would stay civil once the food supply starts severely dwindling i would argue that it is right now like with the rate of inflation and everything everybody's more strapped if you're not wow you're living in a cool bubble

wish it was one i was living in oh yeah the little carts you know little tiny cart at the grocery store. $130. Like, six items, you know. How's it looking over there in Australia, Ellen? Bought a box of cookies, like at the deli. You know, like the pre-done cookies. And there were 10 instead of 12 in the box.

Those clear plastic boxes. Yep. There was 10 instead of 12 we went to barbecue the other night it was $19 a plate oh I know yeah

so how's it looking here it's pretty dim we were just I've been really focused on it the last, since I've been off work the last six weeks and because we've been a bit strapped for cash for a bit um and yeah it's like i just noticed things jumping like a dollar right a week yeah just a whole dollar a packet of a packet a big packet of chips the chips uh um like potato chips that i like

they've gone up to like eight dollars a bag where they were like four dollars like last year um that that's what we've been noticing um the thing that really um at the moment is that there's a co2 shortage in australia um so all the cup drinks have not been available like so it's still heaps of coke and pepsi but all the cheaper ones um have not been available and i drink a lot of soda water um i haven't been able to get any crazy yeah so there's a co2 shortage um which is affecting the carbonated drinks i thought australia was making plenty of co2 ha ha ha yeah it's just capturing it crazy yeah and what else like i haven't heard of that shortage yet that is that's pretty that's pretty

unique and not just people food animal food as well so um my german chef dasher he's his food's gone up five dollars a bag yeah that's one thing we noticed as well brock came home he's like the bag of dog foods up to like 60 bucks a bag and we're not buying like we don't i mean i there was a time when i bought him the really good food that was expensive but i haven't been able to afford that for a while you know so i'm not buying them like the bottom of the barrel stuff but still that was crazy used to be just 40 bucks or you know 38 dollars somewhere in there yeah and and with that um the cat food cat food's going up um that's the the the cat litter that's going up five dollars a bag uh yeah just random things that i've just noticed it's like hang on a minute what what yeah like now i'm spending half of my money on just buying them food and litter

yeah crazy yep um you just yeah just like that and there's been holes in the shelves not not as bad as it was it was in covid but um there's just been holes in certain things. The pasta is starting to dwindle a little bit. What else? What else have I noticed? I think that any kind of fluctuation is going to hit way harder when you have only a handful of companies that have now taken over everything. And so if their company, so to speak, falls short,

you're going to see that instantly, as opposed to when we had a lot of competition in the game, then somebody else could step up and fill that gap when there was a problem. So they've done a fair bit of a bit of background searching and stuff like that because we've got two major supermarket chains in australia woolworths and coles then you've got audi and the small independent ones stuff like that audi is sort of taking a little bit of competition away but the drivers for everything um is woolworths andals. And they have just – both those companies had billion-dollar profits last year in the financial year, but our food is going up.

And we're like – even the government now is starting to say, hang on a minute, we need more competition in Australia because they are just taking yeah just reaping yeah absolutely so we majority shop from audi now um which is not supporting australian business because they're german owned but they're they're like a same amount of my trolley size from or car to call them over there, from Audi will be double the price at Woolworths. That's what we shop at

for the grocery store. We go to Aldi's now. It's really much better pricing than the normal grocery stores here in town. Interesting. It's like a half hour drive for me to get to the Aldi's here

But it used to be for us Well, everything's a half an hour now But when I went to Charleston It was, you know, a drive It was like 40 minutes to get to Aldi's So we never really shopped there But now it's just as close as any other grocery store And it's good pricing

Interesting And they don't really fluctuate too much Is what I've seen with their prices It's just as close as any other grocery store, and it's good pricing. Interesting. And they don't really fluctuate too much is what I've seen with their prices. So it's not like a dollar jump. It could be like a 20-cent jump with products. Yeah. Yeah, I'm lucky enough. I've got an Audi within a five-minute drive. So that really leaves me like going, okay, so then we've already got, we've already seen the situation.

It's probably not going to improve itself anytime soon. So how long, when do things start cracking, right, is what I'm always kind of curious about. So I found this cool article, Five Steps to Famine by the World Food Program. So you know that's going to be good. And it was interesting, though. So like step one was food security. Everybody's got, you know, access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food meets their dietary needs. They really base this off of 2,100 calories per day. Like, can the majority of people eat over 2,100 calories per day?

So less than 5% are malnourished and people have stable income. So that, you know, is a good portion of the first world, right? 2,100 calories per day. You can rack that up in two handfuls of crap chips or something. You know what I mean? Right, right. Is it good calories or is it just crap? This is safe, sufficient, nutritious. You've got all access to

all the food groups right so you're able to get nutritious food think about how much of like this inner cities though are like those food dead zones so i'd be really interested to see you know um less than five percent of people are malnourished in the, in these countries. So, and people have stable income. So I would, I don't know.

I, I'm, I'd be interested to see numbers of what it actually looks like. Cause I would think that would actually gather up a good portion of countries. Yeah, definitely more and more. Yeah. I mean, like, countries falling short on that. Yeah.

Yeah. Right? You're saying it here. Right. That's what I'm saying. Like, you go down to, you know, downtown San Francisco, inner city Chicago. I would throw Detroit in there. They've been doing a good job of trying to bring back like local foods and stuff like that to provide that nutrition level. So that's interesting. Okay. So number two, food insecurity. So this is phase two.

Trouble meeting needs have to make significant changes to meet non-food needs. So this is like flooding hit, you know, natural disaster type event, or we have social unrest, you know, social unrest, warring nations, that kind of thing. Unsustainable incomes, 5% to 10% of those people are malnourished, only 2,100 calories a day. So they're just barely meeting these needs, but most people, 90% of them are able to meet those needs every day. are able to meet those needs every day. It's interesting to, like you said, the 2100 calories can just be gathered up so easily. So that's a pretty low, low mark, I would say, but that's what they're going off of. Okay, and then you have three acute food insecurity. So most people can only meet their needs by selling essential possessions.

Others using up essential resources to support a very limited diet. So this is like food has gotten so expensive, you know, we can't afford to pay to buy it without starting to sell some of our possessions, that kind of thing. Limited food choices, extreme lengths to get required calories, 10 to 15 people, 15% are malnourished. So this is, they experienced some serious income interruptions. So I definitely wouldn't put the U.S. in that category at this time. I would say most everybody could get at least access to something, right? We haven't experienced, like, massive flooding, but there's definitely areas that are like this in Africa and whatnot.

And so then we go on to the humanitarian emergency, people facing extreme food shortages, hunger-related deaths increased rapidly, irreversible loss of income, 15 to 30% malnourished, access to three or fewer food groups. So this is where you know you're starting to limit out, I only have access to rice and this other thing. That's what we live off of. Taking in less than 2,100 calories a day. And then famine is number five, complete lack of access to food and basic needs. Two in 10,000 people die of starvation or disease. 30% plus are malnourished. total income loss, only have access to one or two food groups, extreme calorie shortages, 20% of families face extreme shortages. So at what level there do people get really, really pissed off, you know, before they're

going to die of not being able to eat enough? before they're going to die of not being able to eat enough. So there are stories from Roman times about emperors that would, you know, purposefully detain the food supply to make people more malleable. Right. But that can be the ultimate blow up in your face as well. So what are your thoughts? What level do you think?

I think just with the current situation, people are angry, but they're not to the point that they're angry that they'll, I mean, yeah, it's like it seems like it's getting closer and closer to the edge. Mm-hmm. getting closer and closer to the edge we're gonna blow over it blow up and and start um really um protesting stuff like that there is there is uh more reliance on food banks and stuff like that right now yeah huge call for it huge call for it just in here as well um people can't i haven't been able to afford to fill up their cars with with gas um and not be able to get to work and all that all this stuff um so i think

it's i think it's like number three at the acute level when it's like yeah you know you can only meet your food needs by sacrificing other essential resources to do that yeah giving up people are giving up their pets right that's stuff yeah like it's it's i'd say you know second level third level yeah because once you get to five i think you're you're it's like too late pretty much you're like almost it's almost like it's too far gone once you get to the famine level so yeah i mean that's we're talking uh great depression stuff like that okay um so what do people do when food runs out besides get really really angry you you called it right off the bat chin number one is eat lower quality food

so you buy the the cheap stuff the like you're gonna feed your dogs the cheap food instead of the expensive food because that's all you can afford to feed them, you know? Afford, yeah. Yeah. So when you start making those kind of decisions, you know that things are legit. It's interesting to study history on food as well because a lot of the competition to make national brands and then worldwide brands also drove the prices of food way down because there was so much competition for a time. And so while that was all happening, people got used to a much smaller percentage of their income actually going to food because of the time that we were experiencing. So you have to wonder if that's

coming into play at all either, but how much of that is being artificially manipulated because you only have the few companies left doing it. So they can artificially manipulate it to be whatever they want it to be rather than you have all that competition in the market. And then the private public partnerships, you know, that the government start to have with these companies, then it really limits out competition. So it's an interesting space of history to be in,

like most of our lives these days. I mean, I like to think of it this way, when it gets too expensive to make your own bread and it's cheaper to buy a mass-produced one, that's the point now. Yes. You know, yeast, your flour and all that sort of stuff.

To buy all that, you can just go get a dollar loaf of bread off the shelf, which has got heaps of sugar in it, all that sort of stuff, stuff well that's uh we have a pizza company i'm not gonna call them out but we have a pizza company here in the u.s and they're like oh you can get two pizzas two things of twisty breadsticks and a thing of coke all for 20 bucks right and it's like that is just it's a one topping pizza right so you've got bread bread bread bread and cheese and meat and then bread and cheese and something else right so basically it's just a box of bread for dinner yeah i'm like who's living off that take your family out what you know three a family of three or four let's see what that runs you oh yeah it was sit down well that's what i said even for barbecue the other night i mean when we first moved here it was twelve dollars a plate now

four years later you know it's $20 a plate. Just because their costs have increased so significantly. Everything, you know, everything that they use. Was it good, though? Oh, it was freaking bomb, dude. It melted your mouth. It was so good. Yeah.

Just easier. Fewer and farther, you know. Nice job, then. Oh, but Brisket Love. Didn't I take you? I thought we took you up there to brisket love oh we didn't go oh man okay well next trip all right so then you nailed the next one number two turn to neighbors friends family turn to community um just you know but if the community's struggling they can't help so right now we're able to still do that um that's also like the number one preparedness person fear right is when things start running out then they're like oh well you still got some why don't you share

well you had the opportunity to get ready as well you know yeah so uh but that is actually yeah like second step of what people do turn to their neighbors friends family can you you know can you help me of course of course you know number three we talked about this one too of the hunting foraging for wild foods but this is unreliable source and it's often energy intensive, right? So, you could go walk all day and you don't get anything. And so, that was just wasted calories.

That's location. I mean, you're not going to go hunting in Central Park, so. Fair enough. For, like, pigeons? I mean, here, I can snag a deer whenever I want, but when I was in Charleston,

I couldn't really shoot something out the townhouse window. Right. Yeah, and like people go, you know, you can forage your greens too, but yeah. Yeah, I've got a pond just down at the back of my my house i've already counted how

many ducks are there right yeah and then uh yeah we've got a because you can't you well you can but you it's really restricted you can't shoot native animals here like kangaroos and stuff like that. But if it came like that, I'm like looking around my neighborhood going, yep, I know where that big mob of kangaroos are. And I also know some nice-looking steers down the road and all that sort of stuff. It's like, yep, I've worked it out. The kangaroos are just slowly diminished one by one.

The ducks will be gone in the first week. Well, and that's that, like the hunting statistic is interesting. Oh, this might have been in the green room we were talking about that, that more people are hunting now than ever before to help supplement. So even just as, you know, like we say, we turn up the water, right? The slow boil. So you start depleting all those natural resources before like the major event even hits. That's going to leave you more screwed for later on, right? Yeah. Okay. So number four on the list kind of goes along with this. Harvest immature crops.

So people will actually pull their food earlier instead of letting it go to, like, full fruition. And so it lowers the overall amount that they're harvesting out of their crops, and it reduces the nutritional value of their crops because they didn't let it go all the way to fruition. So I thought that was pretty interesting and then it diminishes if it able to re-sow and get those seeds and re-sow that to be able to have a continuous crop right right that could be livestock too i mean you might harvest livestock uh before it's fully grown so you're not getting as much meat right and that could have been like uh that one could have produced a couple times before you slaughtered it you know so that could

also hurt with future um yeah future animals so yeah i didn't really think about that one but you totally would if you were hungry and you knew your potatoes were just about there, you were going to pull them so you can eat, you know? Okay, and then eating seeds. So people start eating their seeds, which I talk about a lot. You can eat sprouts. They're great protein and all that, but you don't get the full harvest from that.

Plus you don't have seed stack to plant for next year. Yeah. Gotta have lots of seeds. seeds more seeds needed they've gotten expensive too yeah i just um because we're going in the winter now um i'll get everything at the start of winter and then it prepares me for the for going in the spring yeah just like restock my seed supply because I have two years back, so it's always rotating, right? Yeah. It's getting more and more expensive. eBay for me,

people just randomly selling seeds on eBay. People got their own little businesses and they collect their seeds and it's like, oh, my stuff is from eBay. Yeah, Garden Girl says start saving seeds from what you can yeah i've been doing a lot of those experiments i'm like oh okay let's let this one go so we can

seed it out absolutely okay eating whatever is available even if it isn't food so in one country they have mud cookies and this is literally dirt mixed with salt fat and water and they eat these mud cookies like when they don't have enough food they eat mud cookies which is crazy and then one lady was talking about you know um when they're when they don't have any food around and whatnot, they're eating old hides and skins. I've heard of that because the Donner Party, learning those stories and things where they were boiling leather to eat that. So it makes sense. I put that in my book as well. So yeah.

How would you like some mud cookies? Sounds delicious. in my book as well um so yeah how'd you like some mud cookies sounds delicious doesn't it yeah be very gritty yeah so um okay limiting portion sizes at mealtime honestly we've already started doing that yeah i have to do that anyway i have to lose weight so i'm already doing it fair enough but like because you can't or there's less right when you buy something there's less of it now oh 100 yeah everything's like packages right the stakes packages. The steak sizes, for example, they're like virtually half. So when you're talking about livestock, the steak and even the chicken, the chicken is

smaller than what it used to be. Just chicken pieces like chicken wings, fillets, all that sort of stuff. It's all smaller than what it used to be. Interesting. Like less in the package? Or physically smaller? Just physically smaller.

Huh. So they're pumping out more chickens. And they don't have to grow them as long. So they don't have to feed them as long. Yeah. The early harvest. The chicken breast size is literally halved

in the last... You can still find chicken pieces that are quite large stuff, but the majority of the stuff that you get in supermarkets, it's smaller than it used to be. Honestly, I quit eating a lot of

store-bought chicken a while ago because there was this really rubberiness that I started noticing in chicken. And if you don't soak it or whatever first, and I think that it's because they're not leaving them to hang long enough before they're frozen. I think it's rigor mortis honestly because i did that i killed the chicken ate it straight away and it was rubbery as all get-go and that's because we didn't allow time for it to relax and let the rigor mortis go away yeah you have to let him sit in the kitchen in the fridge for a couple of days yeah a couple days right so i don't know like the only thing

that's the only way i've been able to naturally produce what i'm experiencing a lot of times when i buy chicken or i make sure i buy a whole chicken um something with the bone on because the breasts just seem like they were just so rubbery it was just disgusting i don't know what was going on with it so we quit eating a lot of chicken because of that and switched over to just eating a lot more pork honestly we do like pork stir fries and stuff yeah but pork is has remained pretty stable here in australia so we've been eating a um a fair bit of pork as well um but the chicken even chicken wings used to be the cheapest apart from the the giblets and all

that stuff the chicken wings used to be the cheapest part of the chicken you could get it for five dollars not even that though three dollars a kilo now they're eight dollars a kilo for chicken wings everybody loves those chicken wings. Yeah. Fried chicken wings. And then for chicken breast, it's like $16 a kilo, $17 a kilo for chicken breast. And yeah, as you said, it's cheaper to just get the whole chicken. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I've been doing. I mean, and then I can feed parts of my dogs and all that stuff. Okay, number eight on the list, skipping meals altogether.

So going, you know, day without food altogether. Women are actually more likely to do this. They'll skip full days. This can really lead to health issues. It can have serious consequences in children, leading to malnutrition and stunting, and then also vitamin deficiencies and stuff like that. So, um, that's bad when people start skipping meals altogether. Number nine. Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Just with that. I I've heard, I've had differing,

I've done differing research in that. Um, well, if you're doing planned fasting, that's different than i don't have enough food to actually eat today right yeah yeah yeah if you're doing planned fasting you're much more nutritious meals when you're eating right yeah if you're the mom that's skipping a meal because she's trying to make sure the whole family had enough to eat, then they're probably not having good nutrition to start. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because I'm skipping

breakfast. All right. An intrepid commander just joined us in the chat room. I don't know what that strange accent was. Is that Ellen? Selling livestock. So, Chin, you were talking about this one. So, if people just start

selling their livestock so they can get immediate benefit to buy all their different foods and whatnot, then... And it costs, because it costs so much for feed. I mean, if whatever you're raising can't forage for its own meal, and you have to go buy feed, the feed is ridiculous. Well, that's one reason why I love raising my own chickens. Because you can do meal farms, you can do lentil growing and things like that.

And actually use a pretty small space to be able to keep them fed. So that's going to be my focus of expansion here on this property, right? Because, you know, just space-wise it works. But yeah, sell too many of them. You don't have long-term food. You don't have long-term income. don't have long-term income uh traveling breaking up the family or moving away so migrant labor situations you know can't you got to go find work where you can so you can feed the family um they're traveling long distances for to forage or some countries that's an excuse for marrying off uh their young daughters so they have less mouths to feed uh-huh that was one of the things um oh this i guess i should note this is all coming from

concernusa.org so um but i thought i had some great tips in here and then um migrate the whole family so we have lots of refugees on the move right now um and a lot of them are food reasons if you knew like oh my gosh if i could just go live over there we're gonna be well fed we're gonna be able to raise our family and happiness and whatnot or i'm gonna stay here where we're gonna starve, you know, by all means, pick up and go. And then my last little bit was on like, okay, so when does it reach a tipping point that we have war because people are hungry, right? So ironically enough, war drives hunger and hunger drives war. So it's a vicious circle, right? You go to war and that can create severe supply shortages like we're having right now because of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

I won't give any opinions on how I feel about it, but the simple fact is that we are having food supply disruptions because of that conflict, which is going to cause people in other areas to go hungry because their supply chains have now been cut. They estimate that more people died of hunger during World War II than in the actual battles because of the conflict and people not being able to get resources that they had previously. Yeah, I mean, England brought in the ration, the war ration thing during World War II. People were living off a little ration per day. And victory gardens and all that sort of stuff resulted from that.

Correct. Yeah. Which is ironic now that they're like, oh, it's not green to grow your own food. What? Yeah. Okay. Many contributors to war, but hunger is often the one that breaks that straw. That people are like, no, we're done. We're going to war.

We want to eat. You know, whether that gets the job done or not, I don't know. But when people are hungry, your brain just isn't working correctly. Food riots result from, you know, remove the food, you got food riots. And then poor governance often leads to food shortages, which causes people to question their faith in their leadership and can also and often cause rebellion against leadership. So it was interesting, you know, without reflecting on our current world that like back in the day, the Caesars were like, yeah, we're going to cause food shortages to get control over people,

which often backfired on them pretty severely. So interesting that humans would be so eager to repeat the past. Because they don't learn from it. Right? Yeah. It's just not a good way to go. People hungry and dying is not usually a good thing. And if people aren't, they don't have the, and now I'm just trying to learn, you know, preserving and all that sort of stuff.

All that knowledge is gone because this whole generation has relied on just going to the supermarket to get their stuff. And now, like having to learn how to can and stuff stuff all that again i'm learning it from scratch and we had the conversation too about the bread right when you can when you can buy the bread cheaper than you can make the bread then that doesn't make sense well it's the same way like for example peas right it takes so much work and everything to make that can of peas that you go and buy at the store for well now it's like i don't know a buck 25 35 but it used to be like 99 cents you know yeah so it just didn't make any sense to do it yourself when you could go and just buy it so much cheaper except for the fact of you know what's in that food and it's more nutritionally sound

well most people wouldn't even know how to chill a pea so it takes so many i just like huge bag of peas right and i the worst talking about a kick in the guts i'm like okay i'm never gonna yell at my kids for eating the peas in the garden again we only grow those for eating while we're gardening now just brice and amount to Yeah, exactly. That's the best part. Alrighty. Any last thoughts before we jump into the changing earth news? Don't like where it's headed, but we shall see. It's just more reason to understand we need to be prepared.

Like they're talking about putting vaccinations of food. That's a whole nother conversation, but that they can actually do it. So just another reason to think about having yourself prepared, your community prepared, knowing how to grow, you know, a basic crop that can feed you. And then some other goodies that you like to graze on when you're outside,

you know, and just more of a reason to get into it and stay with it. Because if you don't practice now, you certainly don't want to be learning when your life depends on that, you know, little bit that you can actually produce for yourself. So stay on it, folks. Stay on it. I need my own encouragement.

Gotta get my garden in. All right, here we go with the Change in Earth News. All right, Change in Earth News. So we had a huge plasma eruption off of our sun this morning. Not that it's going to hit the earth, but it was beautiful to see. It was really cool. And if it was aimed at earth, it would be big problems for us. But the Lord has protected us again.

It was on the incoming limb. So if you get to go, go check out Suspicious Observers. You get to see it there. And it's really cool. It just lit up the chronograph. So if you've never seen it go check it out it's fun to watch okay on the 4th of march march already this year seems like it's flying by i'm just gonna say we're gonna be at prepper camp before you know it um march 4th we had 443 earthquakes

that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.4 in the indian ocean in indonesia there was a um 6.7 south of australia they downgraded that to a 5.4 it was out in the ocean by the macri islands or no 5.8 did you hear about that no I didn't didn't hear about that yeah it lit up because it's over by the not to and all that stuff am I yeah so that that one happened just south of you um La Cumbra volcano in Ecuador had a volcanic eruption on the 4th there was some really bad flooding in Pakistan, triggering landslides. 30 people unfortunately lost their lives in that storm. It also kicked up a very rare tornado. It hit Jehulam. It did some massive damage over there. And there was record-setting winds that took out power in Las Vegas. On the 5th of March, there was 458

earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was that 5.8 in the Macquarie Islands, just south of Australia. In Utah, thousands of tumbleweeds invaded this little town, and people couldn't even open up their door because there was so many tumbleweeds that had blown in so that's always fun to see those things are a mess to deal with on march 6th there was 436 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.1 in the aru sea by indonesia there was a 5.4 earthquake in China. Atlanta, Georgia had massive flooding causing road closures. Northwestern Brazil is still dealing with a lot of flooding over there.

Approximately 100,000 people have been affected by that flooding. 12,000 people have been displaced by it. Bolivia is also being affected by that same flooding series that's going on there. And on Turkey, they were hit by a tornado. Basically, everything just disappeared in two minutes. It was a severe storm and really scary to watch. On March 7th of 2024, there was 431 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.7 in the North Pacific Ocean near Costa Rica. And then on the 8th, there was 382 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 6.0 in the Philippines. So if you guys are watching the pattern, we didn't have a very big solar week last week. It was still pretty chill this week,

minus the event that happened today. So we're not seeing the uptick of earthquake activity. Oman was struck by a series of flash floods. The EU put February 2024 as their hottest year in rec or hottest february on record was 2024 so you know that the climate advocates were all up over that one march 9th of 2024 there was 397 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.5 in the South Pacific ocean near Fiji. There was a 3.5 earthquake in Northern California. And then that 3.6,

uh, in Sydney, Australia. And you said it was, uh, up North Northwestern, uh, West.

Okay. In the mountain. In the mountain. So yeah, the blue mountains sort of, it's like, and Sydney is sort of like, it's called the Great Divining Range. It divides the eastern sea border

from the basically central areas of Queensland. So not as unusual to have events up there? Well, it is unusual because we very rarely get earthquakes, but it wasn't actually in Sydney. Got you. Okay. Charleston, South Carolina, they had a flooding event over there. That was because of their high tides, lots rain coming down so they saw some vehicles homes and businesses flooded Brantley County Georgia dozens of home destroyed by a possible tornado event just

yesterday it usually takes them a couple of days to confirm that it was a touchdown of a tornado but they got a lot of damaged homes over there. Um, March 10th, that's today of 2024. There's 382 earthquakes that are 2.0 or bigger so far. Biggest of which so far is a 5.2 in the Salomon Sea by Papua New Guinea. There was a pretty good flooding event in New Jersey that was causing road closures. And then, um, Indonesia, man, you know, I was telling Brock today, if you want to live someplace where like you, you, um, experience a wide variety of natural disasters on a weekly basis, I think Indonesia definitely takes the cake. Um, Western Sumatra had another flooding event landslides it killed 19 people at least there was still

seven missing I've seen those numbers pushed up now as far as like 30 so prayers to everybody over there that's that's be you know in the middle of that event there was also a major flooding event in Dubai today as far as volcanoes there are 27 volcanoes actively erupting on our planet right now. That's up one from last week. There's 19 showing minor activity that's holding steady and our unrest number has gone down by one. I think it just pushed up into the erupting level. As far as U.S. wildfires, we have 15 new fires, 17 current fires for a total of 1,436,000 acres on fire. 20 of those fires are contained. Texas is still topping the list at number one with three fires burning, two new fires, 1,237,000 acres on fire with three of those fires contained. We did get a good rain event over

here in northwestern Texas so hopefully they got some of that up in the panhandle. Oklahoma is number two on the list. They're in the same fire event that Texas is. They have one new fire or I'm sorry one fire seven new for a total of 119,000 acres. Six of those fires are contained. So they're doing a good job of getting containment under wraps. And then Nebraska still coming in third place, only one fire burning total of 69,810 acres. And that fire is not contained at this time. Alrighty guys. Alrighty, guys. Well, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for listening to the show.

Remember to go over to my YouTube channel. Give a like and subscribe. I'd really appreciate it. But I appreciate you guys coming on every week. Coming to listen. I'm tickled silly. I just kind of had a revelation today. Of like wow. It's been a long time.

So a lot of episodes. My sons can go back. And like see my whole life. If they wanted to. It's crazy. Well. It just kind of hit me today. Alrighty. Well thank you for coming ellen always a pleasure can't wait to have you back here uh in the states because i have so many new toys for you to play

with when you get here oh i can't wait right it'll be so good. I'm going to enjoy my time. Yes. Yeah. Because goodness knows it's too precious. All right. Until next time, remember, dream. Survive. Bye.

Thank you for joining Sarah and Chen for this episode of the Changing Earth podcast. Don't forget to pick up your copy of Day After Disaster, Without Land, The Walls of Freedom, Battle for the South, Dark Days in Denver, and The Endless Night at www.authorSaraFHathaway.com. If you love the Changing Earth series and podcast, become a supporter while you're there.