If the nation wide S___ Hits the nation wide Fan

[LiveTrap]

There is really no reason for the midwest to starve in a nation wide disaster, with even the smallest amount of preparation by our state and county governments. Farmers produced 12 billion bushels of corn in 2018. Grain bins will once again be bulging full of grain in every little town in the midwest, and a large amount of that grain remains in those bins right up to the next fall harvest. It does not spoil, or get infested with bugs or rodents. Giants in the grain processing industry are in every city where corn fields surround the city. They have enormous capacity to grind grain into edible flour, and most specialize in processing corn, if they have the electricity to do so. Electricity can be provided by a large diesel genset, which could be brought in and hooked up by the National Gaurd. All of these have enormous grain bins on site. I am sure they don't just sit there empty, or they would not have built them. Giants like Pillsbury, Cargill, ADM, Purina, and Budweiser, to name just a few, are within a couple hours drive from me. Caterpillar and Cummins produce gensets that could easily run the grinders at these industries, they fit on any semi-tractor trailer flat bed. Sure, distribution is another problem, but what else would take priority than saving millions of lives? Yes, I know this won't ever be planned. It is a shame, as it really is some bureaucrats job to plan for these things. All the pieces are there to make it work, if it were planned and drilled ahead of time.
So why do I want to save all these people? If most of the population dies, Red China will be moving in within six months. Our armed forces have to eat also, to stay operational. The wise old preppers won't be able to hide more than a year, at best. Then it is off to the internment camp. I don't think most preppers would sign up to join the Communist party.

 

[tmttactical]

Live trap--- What would cause a national emergency? 1) Grid down, so no tractors running, no mills grinding, no power of any kind, in any quantity sufficient to maintain an agricultural economy, nationwide. 2) Economic collapse --- again mass starvation, mass unemployment, mass homeless, mass riots and protest and a huge civil rebellion. Again impossible situation for an agricultural economy. Those are just two reasons why the Midwest could starve. Prep, because the government will be part of the problem and will never be part of the solution.

 

[Maverick]

Farms are smaller today and produce more than we did 75 years ago in part due to the patented seeds a lot of farmers use today and because of technology we can get 2 to 3 crops a year off the same field. without the grid we are set backed 75 years and once we loose the fuel to run the farming equipment we are set back to the turn of the century, we would loose every convenient of modern farming. Producing food for the masses is very complex, labor intensive on very tight schedules on top of that many farmers wouldn't know how to produce crop without these modern technologies. People will starve.

 

[Arcticdude]

Remember, that food and equipment doesn't belong to the government to just divvy out as they see fit. It would have to be stollen first. Many farmers, bin owners and equipment manufacturerers wouldn't appreciate that very much. I could see many crops and grain bins going up in flames if the owners weren't fairly compensated first.

 

[Silent Earth]

Why on earth would China ever want to invade the US of A, it make no sense at all. China is getting all its mineral and other needs from buying up Africa, Chinas wealth comes from selling hundreds of billions of dollars of goods and services to the US. If China tried to move into the US then China would be wiped out economically and find itself in a never ending war. Also if China did attack the US it would then have to deal with NATO and SATO. Grain would also flow to the US from Canada and Europe.

The only issue affecting grain in the midwest US is the fact that most of it is genetically modified to be sterile, meaning the US is reliant on buying fresh see grain every year from the mega corps. The US needs reserve of FERTILE seed stock.

 

[DrHenley]

Why on earth would China ever want to invade the US of A, it make no sense at all.

One word: Lebensraum

 

[Silent Earth]

One word: Lebensraum

They have Siberia much nearer for that

 

[Daniel8]

LiveTrap-

You are in Illinois and it seems that you are trying to convince yourself that everything there is going to be fine. Not a healthy mindset for preparing. I agree with all said above. EMP or dollar collapse would cripple the USA and even the midwest. But that said there are definitely places that will do better than others. I personally wouldn't want to be any where near Chicago or any city similar. Not saying MidWest is necessarily a bad area to be in WHEN shtf. But it wouldn't be my choice. I live in Maine. I make really good money here. But I see the negative things about Maine as well as the positive and it has caused me to seek to relocate at some point. Mostly the issue I have is that its so dam cold here and the soil sucks. There is farming in Maine but it is hard through the winter. I was considering the "redoubt" a long time ago but its really cold there to. Plus their elephant in the living room is wildfires. For me WV/VA in the mountains is my sweet spot. There is springs, forest, pasture, rivers, more cattle/sheep/deer than people and the people that are there are great and it's pretty remote which is key for a large scale collapse. Havn't bought a place yet but have 3 trips boots on the ground looking at property. I'll find it soon hopefully.

This map is helpful when strategizing chaos and civil unrest from the hordes in a grid down or full collapse and where you want to be.

https://modernsurvivalblog.com/wp-c...opulation-more-than-100-thousand-1433x975.jpg

 

[Daniel8]

 

[Daniel8]

I'm outside of the red circle in Maine just on the edge of "Dark Sky" territory.
Where I want to be is pretty much in the area in WV that is outside the red circle. Actually a spot in VA but it's up in the mountains 1 hour in all directions. Word is the secret service have bugouts there. Let me know if your one of them and I'll tell you first what county/counties you secret service are bugging out to according to what I've heard from 3-4 completely different locals when boots on the ground.

 

[LiveTrap]

Respectfully disagree with some statements here. And I do mean respectfully. I still intend on doing some prepping, as budget allows, and not relying on government to save me, because we all know government is exceptionally incompetent. Just saying, what a shame to let half or maybe 90% of the population starve to death when the grain bins are full of food. I'm not talking about producing any grain here, it is already in the bin. These large companies that I speak of have enormous grain bins on site. They may be, but are not likely to be empty. Companies do not invest in infastructure like that and not use it. So all that is needed is sufficient power to run that small part of the plant that grinds grain, and the conveyer to get it to the grinder. I'm not talking about a ten year solution, I'm talking about a six month solution, to get people by until the power is back on again, or the civil war calms down, or the pandemic peaks and declines. You can make one hell of a lot of corn mush with a couple million bushels of corn. Why would these large companies participate in such an endeavor? If everyone dies, there is no company, because there are no customers.

 

[LiveTrap]

As far as China invading when most Americans are dead, of course they will. There will be no one here to stop them. If they don't move in, someone else will. Mexico will come up from the south and claim Texas and New Mexico at the least. Rich soil, manufacturing and housing mostly still intact, millions of acres of forest to harvest. Coal, oil, and natural gas reserves in the ground. Some one will move in.
By the way, it is a myth that corn, soybeans, and other grains grown from hybrids are sterile. Monsanto will sue you if you plant the corn that you grow with seed corn or soybeans bought from them, because they have a patent on the genetics.
Daniel8, thanks for the interesting map. I like my small city, and all that it has to offer. I'm not willing to move to the boondocks because of the threat of a disaster. I judge the risk at less than 1 in 10 that anything of huge magnitude will happen in my area. That is, however, enough of a threat for me to by up some rice and a firearm or two, and to put a plan together.

 

[Silent Earth]

As far as China invading when most Americans are dead, of course they will. There will be no one here to stop them. If they don't move in, someone else will. Mexico will come up from the south and claim Texas and New Mexico at the least. Rich soil, manufacturing and housing mostly still intact, millions of acres of forest to harvest. Coal, oil, and natural gas reserves in the ground. Some one will move in.
By the way, it is a myth that corn, soybeans, and other grains grown from hybrids are sterile. Monsanto will sue you if you plant the corn that you grow with seed corn or soybeans bought from them, because they have a patent on the genetics.
Daniel8, thanks for the interesting map. I like my small city, and all that it has to offer. I'm not willing to move to the boondocks because of the threat of a disaster. I judge the risk at less than 1 in 10 that anything of huge magnitude will happen in my area. That is, however, enough of a threat for me to by up some rice and a firearm or two, and to put a plan together.

No sorry I disagree if the US went into economic meltdown in the worst case scenario they would simply invade Canada for its grain and Central / southern America for its oil, meats, fruits, Veg etc. And Canada, Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Commonwealth nations probably plus France have a vested interest in a strong safe America so they are more likely to ensure NO ONE goes into a struggling US

 

[Daniel8]

In the case of a grid down scenario from EMP or Solar Flare the grid isn't coming back on in 6 months sorry.

All that said I see this common on forums that someone will randomly pop up and start saying things that don't make sense to the vast majority of those on the forum. I think the word for them is "trolls". Not sure what the purpose is for these people. What a waste of time.

 

[bigpaul]

In the case of a grid down scenario from EMP or Solar Flare the grid isn't coming back on in 6 months sorry.

All that said I see this common on forums that someone will randomly pop up and start saying things that don't make sense to the vast majority of those on the forum. I think the word for them is "trolls". Not sure what the purpose is for these people. What a waste of time.

the grid probably wont come back on after 6 months, if its off that long it will stay off.

 

[Silent Earth]

In the case of a grid down scenario from EMP or Solar Flare the grid isn't coming back on in 6 months sorry.

All that said I see this common on forums that someone will randomly pop up and start saying things that don't make sense to the vast majority of those on the forum. I think the word for them is "trolls". Not sure what the purpose is for these people. What a waste of time.

EMP and Solar flares can only destroy unprotected systems over a limited area, EMP devices based upon both power and altitude, Flare depending on multiple natural issues. Both can be weak or highly destructive, both can be localised or both can be widespread, I'm not honestly away of either being globally capable.

 

[Daniel8]

Right... The whole earth wouldn't loose there grids if the US got hit. But there are two rouge regimes that would love to do it specifically to the US.
NK and Iran. And both probably possess the ability to do so or are very close to it.
Keep prepping! That is unless you are surrounded by grain bins and think that is really a solution.
Just kidding. Well half kidding.
On a side note I will give the OP congrats for opening his eyes to one of the most abundant resources in the country. And those grain bins will be important for the mid west when shtf. But not an end all solution. And you'd better have some power/force multipliers and plans in place cause i'm sure gangs will rise up and figure that out quick. Then the grain bins will be targets that you will have to heavily protect.

 

[Proud Prepper]

If we do get hit by an EMP bomb, I hope it's 300 miles up. I dont want California and the east coast to be left out.