Food, and some Interesting Facts, by Karla Stover

 

Check out all my books here:  https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/

And by the same author:

Parlor Girls

Wynters Way

Murder: When One Isn't Enough

A Line to Murder

    Julie Andrews may have liked "Rain Drops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens," and I do too, but if push came to shove, I probably like food better. And If and when it comes, to avoid global starvation, I'd have to go to France, the only European Country that is self-sufficient. At least, that's what I read on google, but google can be confusing. Consider this: regarding "Food waste produced annually in selected countries worldwide 2020, China and India produce more household food waste than any other country." versus this: "The United States discards more food than any other country in the world."  

    Huh?

    But what if I don't want to go to France? Well, there's always the cheese caves in Missouri. The cheese story has been created by several presidents but the gist is this: In the 1970s, America had a dairy products shortage. To alleviate the crisis and encourage production, President Jimmy Carter poured money into the dairy industry. The two billion dollars provided pushed the industry into overproduction. Struggling dairy farmers were motivated to produce as much as they could, knowing that the government would buy whatever went unsold. But then, with all the dairy products on its hands, the government scrambled for a solution to the problem it had created. The answer was convert the dairy to cheese, which was okay for a while. Then, in 1981, the Secretary of Agriculture told the country that the government owned 60 million, five-pound blocks of cheese which was starting to get moldy. Thus was born TEFAP, the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program which gave cheese to food banks to be doled out. However, issues with dairy products seems to be a never-ending problem.  Demand has declined, the number of lactose-intolerant people is growing but neither government subsidies nor production are waning. And, as a result, in 2016 farmers dumped 43 million gallons of milk into fields, animal feed, and anaerobic lagoons also known as manure lagoons, in other words, places where waste can be treated. And, now, cheese having become a totem of American culture, both Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z referenced it in songs.          

    But we are not alone. India and Norway are stockpiling wheat, and government involvement ( dare I say interference? ) created what became known as The Butter Mountain in the European Union. It joined beef mountains, grain mountains, milk lakes and wine lakes. 

    Here's something funny from Wikipedia: note the dates.

    Bloomberg News, New York, NY Retrieved 28 December 2017. "Europe's Butter Mountain Has Melted Away " 

    and

    The New York Times, Castle, Stephen (2 February 2009 ) Retrieved 28 December 2017.  "EU's butter mountain is back.     

    In 2021, Canada, surprised the world when it made a withdrawal from its strategic maple syrup reserve, which many people didn't even know existed, in order to stabilize prices.

    In 2019, China, thanks to African swine fever, auctioned off 10,000 metric tons of its pork reserves to help offset the damage done.

    In a series of former mine tunnels deep below the surface of Central Russia the government has a top-secret cache ( though how top-secret the cache is seems questionable since I found out about it on google )  of cereals, sugar, canned meat, and other food staples, all managed by Rosreserve, an agency which manages all of Russia's federally-mandated reserves.

    There are reserves other than food all over the world: animal DNA, rubber bullets, vaccines, cotton, there is even a library of ice. Like helium, raisins, and opinions about reserves, some stockpiles seem to come and go. I just hope the cheese holds out.