"When People Get Extremely Desperate And Extremely Hungry,
They Will Literally Eat Just About Anything"
by Michael Snyder
"If your family was on the verge of starving to death, to what extremes would you be willing to go in order to get food? Some of the things that I am going to share with you in this article may make you cringe. But you need to understand what people are willing to do when they get extremely desperate and extremely hungry, because the global food crisis that has already begun is going to greatly intensify in the years ahead. Hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry every single night, and children are literally dropping dead from starvation on the other side of the globe right now. Unfortunately, most people in the western world don’t even realize that this is going on because the corporate media rarely reports on it. War, pestilence, natural disasters, bizarre weather patterns and historic crop failures are creating a “perfect storm” for global food production. It is being projected that later this year things will get really bad in some of the poorest areas of the planet, and the long-term outlook is even worse.
When people get hungry enough, they will literally eat just about anything. On Monday, I was stunned to learn that a team of archaeologists has discovered that settlers at Jamestown in the 17th Century actually resorted to eating dogs in a desperate attempt to survive…"The first English settlers to arrive in North America ate dogs to survive an extreme period of starvation, according to a gruesome new study.
Researchers at the University of Iowa discovered the remains of 16 indigenous dogs at an archaeological site in Jamestown, Virginia, that strongly suggest the 17th Century settlers ate at least six canines. Their remains showed hallmark signs that the colonists had skinned the animals, dismembered their limbs and removed the flesh from their bones between 1609 and 1617 AD, the team said."
For many of you, this level of savagery may be difficult to grasp. Sadly, it appears that what the archaeologists found is backed up by written testimony from one of the original settlers of the colony…"By the spring of 1610, only about 60 of the original colonists were still alive and George Percy – one of the original settlers – authored an account of what occurred in the wake of the starvation period.
"Now all of us at James Town, beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger which no man truly describe but he which has tasted the bitterness thereof. Then having fed upon horses and other beasts as long as they lasted, we were glad to make shift with vermin as dogs, cats, rats, and mice,’ Percy wrote in excerpts of his account called ‘Starving Time,’ archived by the National Humanities Center."
What would you do if you were in their shoes? This is one of the reasons why I am encouraging my readers to store up food while they still can. I never want any of you to be in a position where you are faced with such choices.
A global food crisis is already here. More than a billion people in Africa already do not have enough food to eat on a regular basis, and 30 percent of the children on the entire continent suffer from stunted growth. In East Africa, some of those that are starving “are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells”…"The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) says that in Darfur, Sudan there are reports of children dying of malnutrition. “The situation is dire. People are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells. If assistance doesn’t reach them soon, we risk witnessing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan,” said Michael Dunford, WFP East Africa director."
In other areas of Sudan, people on the brink of starvation are literally eating dirt…"There is so little food in some areas of Sudan that people are taking extreme measures to survive. In the Al Lait refugee camp, they are eating dirt." Yes, you read that correctly. So I don’t want anyone out there trying to tell me that the global food crisis isn’t serious.
One 41-year-old man in Sudan says that his wife and children are so hungry that they have been rolling dirt into a ball and swallowing it with water…"Akok, 41, reached Al Lait in December, but has no work and can’t feed the family. At times, they go two or three days without eating. When that happens, Akok said, he watches helplessly as his wife and children dig holes in the ground with a stick, slide their hands in and grab some soil. Then they roll the soil into a ball, put it in their mouths and swallow it with water. “I keep telling them not to do it, but it’s hunger,” he said. “There is nothing I can do.” What would you do if you and your family were in a similar position?
In West Africa and Central Africa, it is being projected that approximately 55 million hungry people “will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months”…"Soaring prices have helped fuel a food crisis in West and Central Africa, where nearly 55 million people will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months, U.N. humanitarian agencies warned Friday. The number facing hunger during the June-August lean season has quadrupled over the last five years, they said, noting that economic challenges such as double-digit inflation and stagnating local production had become major drivers of the crisis, beyond recurrent conflicts in the region.
In areas south of there, widespread crop failures caused by drought have created a tremendous nightmare…"Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi each declared national disasters as crops failed in a region where 70 percent of smallholder farmers rely on rainfed agriculture for their livelihood. Food prices have risen up to 82 percent in some drought-affected areas, while water scarcity has also impacted livestock and destroyed farmland. According to a United Nations report, more than 18 million people are now in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, with food insecurity levels set to increase dramatically during the regular lean season that typically starts in October. This year, the lean season could begin as early as July as provisions are depleted." North Africa is doing fine for now, but most of the rest of the continent is in enormous trouble.
The good news is that we aren’t facing widespread starvation here in the western world. But 42 million Americans are on food stamps, and 1 out of every 7 children is living in poverty. So our problems are growing too.
Unfortunately, the long-term trends that are driving the global food crisis are only going to intensify in the years ahead, and eventually there will be very serious food shortages here in the United States. What will you do when that day finally arrives? We have already reached a point where fast food is considered to be a “luxury” and the prices of many popular food items have more than doubled. Our world is simply not producing enough food for everyone, and global supplies of food are going to get tighter and tighter during the very difficult days that are in front of us."
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