Preparing for a possible food crisis.

Recently, I was given an article from Bloomberg News regarding a meeting of the G-20 Farm Ministers who met in Paris for two days in late June. This group of global bureaucrats have agreed to set up a crop database and limit export bans to tackle what French President Nicolas Sarkozy calls the “plague” of rising food prices.

This G-20 agreement includes a call for international market regulation, increased agriculture production and the development of a proposal for emergency food reserves. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that food for humanitarian purposes would be exempt from the export bans.

In the past year, Russia and Ukraine curbed exports after drought decimated crops in those nations, adding to record global food prices. According to the World Bank, record food prices have put 44 million more people into poverty since June, 2010. Nations are projected to spend a record $1.29 trillion on food imports this year, 21 percent more than in 2010.

Sarkozy remarked in a speech to the farm ministers that volatility in food prices is a “plague” that can plunge entire populations into famine and poverty. The last time food prices surged, from 2007 to 2009, more than 60 food riots were reported worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department.

So how does this affect you and your family? Clearly, food supplies are becoming a critical issue worldwide, and the situation is certain to get worse.

Who Is In Control?
First of all, we know that God is in control; there is nothing under the sun that has caught Him off-guard. He has a plan. His word states clearly in Jeremiah 29:11, “I have good plans for you, plans to give you a hope and a future, plans never to harm you; these are my plans says the Lord.”

With that said, the starting place for all of us should be on our knees, asking God for knowledge and wisdom. That is Step One.

Knowledge of current affairs gives one the power to make educated decisions such as where to live, where to work, where to attend fellowship with other believers, what to store, and how to prepare for daily and even yearly events. You can pray for God’s wisdom in these areas of life and He will give you direction.

Step Two: Take responsibility for the needs of your family. Obviously, food is critically important for survival. That should be an important priority in planning for your family’s needs in these increasingly uncertain times.

America imports 63% of our foods; and since these G20 industrialized countries want to ban exports and control the food supply, we will need to find alternative ways to feed our families. Obviously, grocery stores will be unable to supply food to us on a timely and regular basis if they can’t get the food. The average food warehouses have an average of 7-10 days of food supply, and of course, the grocery stores have even less than that.