The author of The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices
In a rather shocking turn of events, China has instructed its citizens to begin stockpiling food for what it deems to be a difficult winter.
The Economic Daily, controlled by the Chinese Communist party’s Central Committee, urged readers not to be alarmed by the ministry’s advice but also noted that many households had been caught up in Covid lockdowns without adequate supplies of rice and vegetables. (source)
It was back in September 2021 that China ordered the top state-owned energy companies to begin to secure supplies for Winter 2021 at “all costs”. They also urged citizens to stock up on food. (source)
Currently, China is experiencing an energy crisis as they are unable to get enough coal into the country to keep the lights on within many cities. As a result, there is a severe electricity shortage throughout the nation. [source:
And now, as of November 1, China is telling its citizens that they need to stockpile food ahead of Winter 2021.
It all started with a post by the Ministry of Commerce.
This came about from a social media post by China’s Ministry of Commerce. Behind the Great Fire Wall, China has its own series of state-monitored social media platforms, one of which is Weibo. This is in essence a version of Twitter, and it was here that the Ministry of Commerce posted that it was encouraging households to stockpile daily necessities in case of emergencies. [source:] H
In specific, the post stated, “Families are encouraged to store a certain amount of daily necessities to meet the needs of daily life and emergencies.”
In response, it is reported that local supermarkets were flooded with patrons, with one Weibo user posting, “As soon as this news came out, all the old people near me went crazy panic buying in the supermarket.”
In turn, the Chinese newspaper The Economic Daily told readers to not have “too much of an overactive imagination” when it came to interpreting the nation’s instructions to begin stockpiling food for Winter 2021. It went on to state this warning was due to the potential of incoming lockdowns. [source ]
But there really are food shortages in China.
It does appear as if food shortages are affecting even China at the moment, however.
In early October severe cold weather, floods, and a tornado damaged crops throughout Shandong, the largest vegetable growing region throughout China. By the end of that same month, the prices of broccoli, cucumbers, and spinach had doubled. [source]
Such prices caused another Weibo user to say, “I thought I had a hearing problem” when notified about the current Chinese price on tomatoes at the local grocery store.
Local governments were then instructed to purchase vegetables and stockpile them in state-owned freezers as Beijing plans to release vegetable reserves “at an appropriate time” to prevent massive inflationary prices hitting grocery store shelves.
Is there something more insidious than the weather and the pandemic behind this?
Is there possibly something more insidious than bad weather and a virus behind these shortages and warnings? Something big enough to affect us here in the US?
All of these recent happenings, when combined with this Weibo post caused a slurry of speculating to begin within China and the online community as the world wonders whether or not this is China’s attempt to ready its citizens for an invasion of Taiwan.
This comes in the wake of increased Chinese aggression against Taiwan within the past 11 months as China has recently sent its largest number of fighter jets, bombers, and anti-submarine aircraft into Taiwanese air space just a month ago on October 2.
In response, Taiwan mobilized its missile defense systems and scrambled fighter jets of their own to warn away the Chinese fighting aircraft. [source ]
China has also stated of late that “World War III could be triggered at any time” over the nation of Taiwan.
As expected, Taiwan has stated, “If China is going to launch a war against Taiwan we will fight to the end, and that is our commitment.” These words came from Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, who went on to say, “The defense of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that. I’m sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well.” [source ]
In an attempt to calm some of this speculation, Zhu Xiaoliang of the communist Ministry of Commerce told the Chinese people that this was most certainly not due to any imminent threat to the food supply as “all regions have adequate supply of daily necessities, the supply should be completely guaranteed.”
Whatever the reasons may be – whether the Communists have something in mind or the creators of The Great Leap Forward have suddenly decided that they now care about humanity – if China is urging its people to stockpile food for the coming winter, it’s likely a good idea for the rest of the world to pay heed as well.
We should also take heed.
Keep in mind that billions of dollars worth of our own food supply comes from China. If they’re warning their own people about shortages, do you think they’re still going to ship over tons of food to us?
As you can see, the food supply issue is global and not just an American problem. Go here to get our FREE QuickStart Guide to building a 3-layer pantry full of foods your family will love.
Get your food storage in order and study up on the facets of prepping that you’re soft on by using promo code ‘TATE’ to get a discount on The Organic Prepper ebooks and courses. Make sure you have the necessities put away to keep your family warm, fed, and safe this coming winter, and stay frosty, my friends. Focus on shortening your supply chain and building self-reliant skills. We certainly shouldn’t expect our former supply chain to return to its former abundance any time soon.
Do you feel that Chinese food shortages will affect us?
We’re already seeing major supply chain disruptions. Will China’s shortages be another nail in our food supply coffin? What are your thoughts about this turn of events? Let’s discuss it in the comments.
About Aden
Aden Tate has a master’s in public health and is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com, TheFrugalite.com, PewPewTactical.com, SurvivalBlog.com, SHTFBlog.com, ApartmentPrepper.com, HomesteadAndPrepper.com, and PrepperPress.com. Along with being a freelance writer, he also works part-time as a locksmith. Aden has an LLC for his micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has two published books, The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.
I think we’ve got our own set of issues here that is and will continue and possibly increase our own shortages more than this.
What is interesting is that China wants its people to live by helping themselves whereas ours only wants us to become more dependent and would lie about shortages till they die before admitting there is an issue.
This is a complete role reversal on both sides.
All this aside though food is headed towards problematic rather than away from it so preparations should remain focused not only in short term of buying another can of veggies when you shop but longer term in getting your seed, fertilizer(also in short supply) and soil prepared for spring growing now.
Well said Matt in OK
Read an article about how a shipment of GMO seeds got stuck in the bottle neck and did not make it in time for spring planting.
Also, something to consider is with the shipping issues at the yards and ports, exports are not going out too. The US is one of the biggest producer of soybeans. Those soybeans are not getting/exported in a timely fashion to places like China.
Yeah I’d bought my seed early figured this might happen
History repeats, few understand today that it was a lack of raw materials that sparked Japan’s imperialist aggression against it’s neighbors and led to an attack on the U.S. and the second world war. China is at it’s Japan moment, we would do well to pay attention and prepare for war. The Chinese soldier will be as ruthless as the Japanese were, read the Rape of Nanking for reference.
“The Chinese soldier will be as ruthless as the Japanese were”
dunno. the japanese were at the head of 1000 years of samurai dedication to total warfare, but iiuc chinese internal evaluations state their military is full of “wimps, sissies, and little emperors”. given chinese culture and history I believe it. what china does have is numbers – their military efforts usually rely on simply overwhelming an opponent.
we’ll know how they’re doing by the performance of their navy. naval operations in toto simply cannot be conducted without competence and dedication in the ranks – but chinese culture deprecates that.
” it was a lack of raw materials that sparked Japan’s imperialist aggression against it’s neighbors and led to an attack on the U.S. and the second world war. ”
What led to an attack on the US was not their imperialist aggression, it was because the US kept sticking it’s nose into Japan’s. We can hardly be considered one of Japan’s neighbors. The Pacific ocean lies in between.
Xi is a megalomaniac who’s boasted that China will take over the world. Taiwan, likely followed by Japan, are just starting points. The US is treaty bound to protect both, which will drag us into a war whether we like it or not. And I really think that the warning to the peasants to prepare has nothing to do with them becoming more self-reliant, not given the crackdown on independent businesses. More so they’re available as cannon fodder when needed. The few seldom care about the lives of the many, except when it’s convenient to them. That’s true both here and there.
Interesting point about the US importing a great deal of food from China. A quick search tells a different story: that last year, for example, the US exported records amounts of ag products to China. And remember, China owns a number of our major meat producers and a fair amount of farmland here.
I did see today that agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, may be in short supply globally. I haven’t done enough research to confirm or deny but it’s worth looking into. Time to start thinking outside of the normal supply chain, folks.
Heard a Congress Critter on the radio the other day talking about China/Taiwan and the coming war. He is an ex-Special Forces guy and seems to know a few “facts” on this subject. According to him, China will wait until after the Olympics that they are hosting this year and then ” All Hell Will Break Loose! “. FYI, the Soviet Union did the same thing with Afghanistan back in the day.
My take is that the CCP is just getting their people ready for WW3?
WWIII could be on the horizon…I knew it was coming but wow…The things I will miss is heat, possibly enough water, food (?) and my internet, television, gas for the car and other basics. Love my salads and really will miss them…They are easy to make and nutritious too and without them, I will have to be cooking and that isn’t always something I wanna do but I think when things change, we will have to learn to adapt…I don’t wanna seem negative, but the truth is I don’t see a very bright future on planet earth…I hope I am wrong and will see things better soon! Prepare for the worst and hope for the best!
Sprouts are very easy to grow and nutritious, too. Think I will also try raising lettuce this winter. I have some led grow lights which are cheap to buy and run. Even in a tiny apartment it is possible to raise some of your own food, and save money for other things that you’ll need.
dunno. “Families are encouraged to store a certain amount of daily necessities to meet the needs of daily life and emergencies” is not much of a war-warning.
Dunno. I guess we missed”regime that doesn’t mind starving 350 million people day” at school. Telling them to do so is a major fucking tell. But you “dunno”, so there’s that.
I do think this is something that should be taken heed of. There’s no doubt that things are escalating with China. I live close to a Marine base, and have heard that the civilians that work there have gotten wind of warnings coming in to the base about preparations for escalations with China.
I’m not concerned personally about food from China as I have been working hard on localizing my food supply as much as possible. Stocking up on what doesn’t grow locally. But I do have concerns regarding the medicine components and computer chip components we rely on from there.
I’m prepared as much as I can with limited resources for these lacks, but am also aware that my 2007 vehicle has lots of chips, among other things a more severe shortage could cause multiple backbone industries here.
It seems to me that all of these stores with empty shelves are in CITIES and BIG TOWNS, MEDIUM SIZE TOWN everywhere…However, in SMALLER towns (like mine) or in stores in more rural areas I am NOT finding that problem…Even my 1 door WALMART (which is NOT a super Walmart) has pretty much ALL that we need…I was just there this week and the aisle are just jam packed with al kinds of food. I found just about everything I needed in that one store. Remember Walmart does NOT depend on China for everything. Some clothes and parts and things, yes, but mostly they have their own place out in Bentonville, Arkansas (home of Walmart) and they are making many many things right there…I see their drivers are PAID and they are driving their trucks all over this country and hauling in the goods…Our Walmart is busy, they are even hiring help. Help for stocking b/c WM just shipped in 3 truckloads last weekend to this store and it all has to be unpacked and put on the shelves for their local customers…This is NOT a high tourist spot. There were people here for the turning of the leaves but most are gone and now it’s local shopping…We have enough so far. Now in the future that can change but for now we are good, thankfully !!!
Plus we have farmers markets here every weekend. We did but now on the 15th they will close down for the winter, but otherwise the farmers are in town selling fresh everything from their own places…We have another place and they deal with NOTHING but home grown, home made foods, even CANNING goods where people make chili or spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce and other things that are actually canned like pickles and such! SO I do feel that your food issues and empty shelve stores are in the CITIES and larger population areas…That is one reason WHY I don’t live in one…In my town people are thinking buy local, stay local. We don’t shop at the big warehouses and the closest city to me is about 1 hour and 1.5 hours away from me (I like that)…
We are in rural west Michigan, nearest “big” city is an hour away. Our local Walmart is only staying stocked with what they are getting because they are being ultra careful with their shipping requests. Focusing on food and other necessities. Even with that supply ebbs and flows. You will see a type of food almost empty on one day and then later in the week it is better supplied. Some items are running at half the brands with the ones in stock only filling about half the space they used to.
A different regional chain store(that buys a lot of things regionally as well) is finally running into the same shipping difficulties. An employee, when she saw us looking at the almost empty toilet paper shelves, said they are trying to get more shipped in but it doesn’t always come when they ask for it.
So no one is actually out of anything for more than a week but troubling signs are there.
The Chinese government also recently told all of the coal mines in China to mine extra coal to create a reserve.
I pray the tawainese military have a plan in place as the red commies invade there territory they invade main land China and blow all there dams that will send these dumb [REDACTED] back to the Stone Age for two hundred years, because once they blow there weakened dams it will utterly destroy there entire infrastructure including there military infrastructure killing over 600 million people immediately, so I pray they blow there dams first then there entire electric grid
It seems that it might be better to grow your own food than to rely on commercial supply lines. Where I live, the weather is referred to as ‘Eternal Springtime’, and the growing season is year-round. I just closed on 65 acres in the hills about 20 minutes from the nearest town, and I’m about to buy an adjoining 53 acres. Colombia is more relaxed than the US, and I imagine, Canada, in many ways, and there is a community in the making. I have architectural plans for houses that comply with the precepts of Feng Shui and the Golden Proportion.
http://www.carolinerefuge.com
“Colombia is more relaxed than the US”
you expect that to continue if the grid goes down? personally I’d rather be home than in a foreign country if things are going bad.
I am in Canada and I am sticking here for now. If I already had a property established and knew some locals and language and culture I would an expat type community abroad, possibly a more temperate area in Mexico. But I feel safer staying where I am in familiar situations. There can be lots of unforeseen things in anouther country. And the foreigner will likely stand out too.
The current resident in the White House and those actually in charge would be willing to had China the keys to country if they were guaranteed all their share of the spoils and the power that would go with them. If there is to be a war it will because the elites need a distraction that will hopefully unite the various sides and keep them from actually storming the place gates. My guess is that China takes Taiwan and we walk away faster than we exited Afghanistan. The world knows how weak this country’s leadership is at this time and that leadership is more in line with the CCP than the founding principles of this country.
I live in a small township in the mountains of NC with a population of around 1,500 spread over a large area. We have two gas stations/convenience stores and a Dollar General. The two largest towns in this rural county have populations of around 3,700 & 4,400 are a 30-40 minute drive away. There is a Super Walmart, two Food Lions, an Aldis and a small IGA market. There are bare and open shelves in all of them, but you can still find most products even if not the exact brands you want just be prepared to pay 25-35% more for them than you would have paid 6 months ago. The shortages however seem to be getting worse.
Though I doubt that there will be a war especially on the scale of WWIII I still see a long dark cold winter ahead. The OSHA mandate that all companies with 100 or more employees must get vaccinated or get weekly tests goes into effect January 4th which will create more job loss. Even in this rural area many businesses already cannot find people to work. Major cities that have pushed mandates cannot man fire or police stations to the staff necessary to get the job done, the new mandates will make the problem worse. Already crippled supply chains will suffer even more so expect to see more shelves.
By this weekend we will have increased our sealed 5 gallon buckets with Mylar bags to over 50 filled with various grains, beans, rice, flours, sugars, pasta and cereals. One of the nearby food Lions has both pork loins and boneless chicken on sale for $1.79 per pound so we will rearrange our 4 freezers and vacuum seal and tuck away as much as we can fit in and fill our daughter’s freezer as well. Our pantry and deep pantry are filled with canned and dry goods for more immediate use. And of course we have sealed buckets of dehydrated meats, vegetable, fruits as well as dinner entrees.
Today I picked up 21 (19 hens, 2 roosters) new Black Australorp chicks at the Post Office that we ordered a short while back. We already have 16 Golden Comets for egg production but decided to add another coop with dual purpose birds for meat and more eggs. What eggs they do not want to sit on we will gather and share. In a couple weeks we will visit a dairy goat farm and see about adding bred goats. We have at least two years worth of garden seeds stored away and probably closer to three. We keep three garden areas tilled up so if fuel supplies get short we won’t have to try and break ground to plant from scratch. We ordered an additional four 20 liter Jerry cans with gaskets and spouts to store more fuel.
If the times get hard and lean we want to be able to ride them out as best we can. We heat with wood and have three years supply cut with at least a year and half all split and well seasoned. Everyone should continue to prepare to the best of their ability. Spending extra now if you can store it away or freeze it when things go on sale is an investment. In another couple months when prices rise another 20-30% what you have put away will be worth more than money just sitting in the bank. Buy what you will use and then use it and practice FIFO rotating stock as you add to it. May God have mercy on us all…
The USA produces more than enough food for the country, and then exports some. It’s unlikely that food shortages in China get to affect the USA. If there are food shortages in the USA, it will be because of local problems, not because of anything going on in China.
“It’s unlikely that food shortages in China get to affect the USA”
sure it would. the us prints up trilions of dollars to buy chinese manufactured goods, the chinese then use those trillions of dollars to outbid competitors and buy american ag products.
some chinese company bought smithyfield (?) farms pork production. all of it. goes to china now, can’t even get one here anymore.
Smithfield was bought in 2013 for 4.7 billion. they have a large plant here in Smithfield, NC, but you can still find a lot of their bacon, pork lions, hams and other pork products in the stores here even today. I myself have avoided purchasing any of their products once the sale was made public.
Don’t forget that China owns American pork processing companies. You mentioned that “billions of dollars of our food comes from China.” Meh. Far more of our food is shipped there.
I mean, I can buy my soy sauce at Kroger. I’d be more concerned about some meat shortages here because the ChiComs want that pork.
Kikkomen soy sauce is made in Wisconsin. Sure, the company started in Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the soy sauce bought in Japan also comes from Wisconsin.
China has had bad harvests for the past two years, they are buying up as much food as they can on the world market which is driving up prices world wide.
A magician does something flashy with his right hand, distracting people from his left hand as it prepares the next trick. So the same way, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) flashes Taiwan before the world, but what are their real goals?
For years I’ve watched the CCP as it prepares for war. But they revealed that their real goal is not the take over of Taiwan, it is, to use a Nazi term, Lebensraum. Taiwan is a small, mountainous island, it can’t provide the Lebensraum that the CCP desires. Even if they add to that Japan and the Philippines, that’s still not enough Lebensraum. What they want is a land with bounteous fields that even though it has the third largest population of the world’s countries, it is a major food exporter. But it would help if that country loses a large portion of its population before the invasion.
The CCP planned for that invasion to happen no sooner than 2026. But in the last couple of years China has had such disastrous harvests that they can’t feed their population. So how soon will come their invasion?
The CCP and their allies in Moscow don’t believe in MAD, so they think that with the use of Nuclear weapons, they can win. So their plan is to start the attack with nuclear weapons—missiles, bombs—in a surprise attack that will leave the target reeling. They will then follow up with their troops, as boots on the ground are needed to secure the victory.
So which country fits the description of their real target? Plan accordingly.
I think an EMP is likely, to avoid destroying the infrastructure and not contaminate the water and soil with fall-out.
Many of us are well prepared for food shortages.. but what worries me is that the liberal side of our nation isn’t. They will take to the streets to rob us of our careful preparation. At least six weeks must pass before these liberals starve and fall by the wayside because they trusted the *biden evil.
China kicked off a MAJOR internet censoring of anything connecting this civilian “announcement” and their pending war with Taiwan >>> the trolls are pounding like never before – expect action on this article !!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the heads up! They almost always harass us when we write about China.
It is embarrassing to write this but I don’t know the first single thing about gardening. I also rent a place where I wouldn’t be able to have a garden but maybe some containers? Can anyone recommend any good books or resources for my situation?
I have used all different sizes of nursery pots in my container garden. I started out with the rectangular pots you can get at Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc. They work just fine for growing small plants, such as “bush” green beans and some of the herbs. In the spring, those same stores will have small plants already growing that you can transfer to your larger pot at home if you aren’t sure you want to plant seeds.
I would recommend looking at your climate & how much sun your containers will get in the location you have for them. I live in Texas so the summer heat is extreme here. If a package of seeds says the plant will need “full sun” then I know, for my location, it will do better getting sun in the morning but shade in the afternoon.
I have also found that weeding is way easier in a container garden.
Where I live, I can have a winter garden. Since I have some larger pots (7 gallon to 20 gallon), I have potatoes, carrots, snow peas, spinach, lettuce, collard greens, onions & mustard greens growing in them. I’ve never tried potatoes in pots before but they are looking happy so it’s worth a try. A lot of people grow indoors as well.
Also, with those large pots, it would cost me a fortune to fill them with store-bought potting soil. Instead, I fill & pack them down with fallen oak leaves (lots of trees around here) and then mix the soil into the top layer of leaves. Leaves make great compost.
I just searched both Amazon & Walmart for container garden books. There were several choices so I bet you’ll find one. Growing is always an experiment. Have fun. 🙂
Don’t be embarrassed! Everybody is learning new things. When you stop learning you stop living! Here’s a great place to start. There are tons of articles (many from this website) and some book recommendations too.
I live in a city rental myself and grew lots of greens and tomatoes this summer. I’m currently working on sprouting and growing some microgreens indoors. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And WELCOME ????
Have you considered sprouting? It can be done indoors year round even without out lots of sunlight. you can get a sprouter system but really a mason jar with the special lid words well for under $10. No weeding and such and you can get in a few day to weeks. Herb in a window sill is anouther great starter option you can do with little space in winter. for spring find some planter boxes and hanging baskets you can put on a small balcony. Really anything you can grow will help and it doesn’t have to be hard or complicated or space consuming…
One of the books I like is Square Foot Gardening. His soil mixture worked well for me (1/3 by volume peat moss, vermiculite and compost, adding more compost as you remove plants).
Plants that I had in his mixture did really well in very wet summers.
Knowing home much of a plant you can put in a square foot can be translated to pots and containers.