That was the title of one week's theme at the Woodpile Report (woodpilereport.com). Ol' Remus never disappoints and that week's offerings were one of his most memorable for me. Unfortunately, he doesn't maintain an archive, so if there's something you like there, you have to save it yourself. I have posted his historical notes below. They are definitely worth bearing in mind.
One of the first memes I ever saw was an image of Stalin. Over the
course of studying for a degree in Russian, I got to learn a bit about
the guy. Nothing positive, to be sure. It's hard to fathom why people
want to bring Communism here. Anyway, the meme portrays a slightly
smiling Stalin with the following message:
"Food is like dark humor. Some people get it."
The Old Testament prophet Moses taught the children of Israel what would
happen if they failed to keep God's commandments and turned instead to
wickedness. Among other things, he prophesied that they would eat their
children (Deuteronomy chapters 28-32). It took some time, but
eventually, his words came to pass. Those who didn't descend into the
depths of depravity were relegated to eating dove dung and donkey heads
to stay alive.
As our society collapses, as China and Russia have stopped exporting fertilizer, as farmers cull herds and reduce planting, as the bird flu pandemic prompts the culling of meat and laying chickens, as inflation curtails family spending, as..., as..., as..., the list goes on. We already have shortages on the shelves. You know it's not going to get better.
Famines last a long time. They aren't over in a week, a month, or even
three. The food needs to last longer than that. Much longer. And
reducing calorie consumption won't work, either. Twelve or fifteen
hundred calories per day is nowhere near enough for anyone over the age
of twelve. It doesn't matter if you "don't have room." Actually,
people do. They may not like it, but there is room. It might be in the
middle of the living room or along the walls of the bedroom or hall.
Those who prepare struggle to prepare everything possible for their own
families. They aren't preparing for others. The welfare state and
idleness, selfishness, and greed are what got us to where we are today.
Subsidizing more of that by giving food to those who don't work for it
and don't appreciate it will only get us more of the same and prolong
the pain. And no, this is not about failing to provide for the
destitute and truly disabled.
Food is one of those weapons that has been employed throughout history
to control people. Prepared people are less susceptible to being
controlled by others. Here are some Ol' Remus' tidbits from history
(from issue 600, which is no longer available online):
As in all war, food would be weaponized in a Civil War II. We don't have to go back to antiquity for examples, more recent events provide a long list, some of which are:
United States
Sherman's "scorched earth" campaign began on November 15th [1864] when he cut the last telegraph wire that linked him to his superiors in the North. He left Atlanta in flames and pointed his army south. No word would be heard from him for the next five weeks. Unbeknownst to his enemy, Sherman's objective was the port of Savannah. His army of 65,000 cut a broad swath as it lumbered towards its destination. Plantations were burned, crops destroyed and stores of food pillaged.
Germany
The War Orders given by the Admiralty on 26 August 1914 were clear enough. All food consigned to Germany through neutral ports was to be captured and all food consigned to Rotterdam was to be presumed consigned to Germany. The British were determined on the starvation policy, whether or not it was lawful.
The average daily diet of 1,000 calories was insufficient to maintain a good standard of health, resulting by 1917 in widespread disorders caused by malnutrition such as scurvy, tuberculosis, and dysentery. In December 1918, the National Health Office in Berlin calculated that 763,000 persons had died as a result of the blockade by that time.
Ukraine
By the fall of 1932 it became apparent that Ukraine’s grain harvest was going to miss Soviet planners’ target by 60 percent. Stalin then ordered what little they had be confiscated as punishment for not meeting quotas. The Ukrainian famine by one estimate claimed the lives of 3.9 million people, about 13 percent of the population. In June of 1933, at the height of the Holodomor, 28,000 men, women and children in Ukraine were dying of starvation each day.
Great Britain
Britain imported 70% of its food; this required 20 million tons of shipping a year. Knowing this would lead the Axis powers into hoping to starve the British population into submission, by cutting off those food supply lines. By the end of 1940, 728,000 tons of food making its way to Britain had been lost, sunk by German submarine activity.
Netherlands
In September 1944, trains in the Netherlands ground to a halt. Dutch railway workers were hoping that a strike could stop the transport of Nazi troops, helping the advancing Allied forces. But the Allied campaign failed, and the Nazis punished the Netherlands by blocking food supplies, plunging much of the country into famine. By the time the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, more than 20,000 people had died of starvation.
Japan
The problem was not just harvests and the cutting off imports, transportation problems developed. Fuel shortages made it increasingly difficult getting food from the countryside into the cities. Food Shortages had begun to appear in some parts of the country even before Pearl Harbor. By 1944 theft of produce still in the fields led police to speak of a new class of "vegetable thieves" and the new crime of "field vandalizing". The average calorie intake per person had by late 1945 declined to far less than deemed necessary even for an individual engaged in light work.
Berlin
Stalin's blockade of Berlin from June 1948 through May 1949 was an attempt to starve West Berlin's two million inhabitants into accepting Soviet rule. The city quickly devolved into near-famine. A largely American airlift rescued it and kept it alive.
The US has historically used food as part of carrot-and-stick diplomacy, or said differently, bribes. During the Second World War, Great Britain and the Soviet Union relied crucially on American food, assuring a measure of their dependency in power negotiations. Germany, and particularly Japan, were nearly US territories after the war, both would have starved without prompt delivery of American food in quantity.
Wars are generally about food. Ancient Rome imported its food and fought epic wars to develop new sources and keep the ones it had. Medieval fiefdoms were agricultural enterprises, raiding their neighbors was common. The westward expansion of America in the nineteenth century was about food and the means to move it, as was Japan's expanding empire in the early twentieth century. Germany explicitly cited food production to justify its aggression in the east. Their rants about fighting Bolshevism was pep rally stuff, Nazism itself was excessively patriotic Marxism.
History and cold calculation suggest food would be a weapon in a Civil War II, one of many, but of prime importance long term. Civil wars have long gestations, go kinetic suddenly and get complicated in a hurry. We have no firm knowledge what would set it off, who would be actively involved or how it would end. But the outlines are repeated well enough to guide our preparations.
Thank you, Mr. Remus.
7 may 2020
