6 Ways You Should Prepare for the Supply Chain Crisis

Do we need to prepare for a supply chain crisis? The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported in June that since March of 2020, global food prices have increased an incredible 40%. Here in the US, the inflation is visible everywhere we go, from the gas station to the grocery store. But it’s not just increasing prices we are dealing with. It’s an actual shortage of food and goods, a supply chain crisis brought on by a composite of different factors.

The port of Los Angeles reported as of November 2, that it has 93 vessels waiting outside the port, carrying approximately 540,000 shipping containers. The port has the capacity to unload around 18,000 shipping containers a day, but an average of 29,000 are arriving on a daily basis, 11,000 more containers than the port has the capacity to unload. The supply chain crisis is getting worse.

Europe is dealing with similar supply chain issues. It’s a serious problem.

I’m not telling you all this to cause panic, but rather to encourage you to do what you can to prepare.  It’s getting worse by the day, and we need to get prepared as much as we can! In this article, I’ll be sharing some ways we as gardeners and homesteaders can prepare for the supply chain crisis before it does get worse.

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How to Prepare for the Supply Chain Crisis

1: Grow as much of your own food as possible

2: Stock up on non-perishables

3: Purchase in advance household items you will need soon

4: Begin rationing things you might not be able to replace

5: Prioritize essentials. This means both prioritizing the most important things to stock up on, and avoiding unnecessary expenditures

6: Start building an emergency fund which includes some physical precious metals to protect against inflation

 

#1 Growing your own food

 

Since this is a gardening website, I assume most of my readers are already growing at least a portion of their own food.

When it comes to things you produce yourself, you are mostly immune to supply chain woes, because you aren’t a part of the supply chain.

Growing your own food not only ensures that you have affordable and available food for yourself, but helps others by leaving more on the store shelves for those who can’t grow their own.

One way I am changing up my homesteading this year is my prioritizing the most important things to grow in my garden. For example, broccoli and cauliflower don’t do very well in my soil. I normally grow them anyway and spend a lot of time coaxing them to produce a small head. This year I won’t be growing them at all. Instead, I’ll use my time and space for things that produce better in my soil, such as squash and tomatoes.

I’ll also be increasing my potato patch, since potatoes are one of the most calorie dense foods you can grow. Potatoes are a filling main dish that even have some protein, making them an important part of a survival garden.

Increasing Our Animals’ Productivity

When it comes to farm animals, I’ll be running some numbers over the winter to figure out which animals are the most efficient for our homestead, and decide whether there are any animals that need to go. Maybe I need to trade one type of animal for something else that will be more efficient at producing food for our family. This might be different from previous years, considering rising feed prices.

One thing we need to work on is getting rid of poultry that don’t earn their keep. We don’t like to eat our ducks, and it’s hard to sell male ducks, so that means right now we are feeding six male ducks when a flock our size only needs two. Same with those old laying hens that tend to stay around way past their productive years because we don’t want to cull them.

We are doing our best to use everything on the homestead and not let anything go to waste. Right now we have chicken tractors out on our new garden spot. Rather than making mud in the chicken coop, the chicken manure is fertilizing the soil and the chickens are scratching up the weeds preparing a superb garden spot for us to grow more food.

One way we’ve recently made our homestead more efficient is by putting down landscape fabric in our garden area. This saved us hours of weeding every day this year, which means we have more time to grow more food.

Finally, we are adding garden space to grow more feed for our livestock. In our area, chicken and goat feed have gone up 50% just since early summer. Hay has increased by 100% since last year! When feed is cheap, it makes more sense to dedicate valuable garden space to things we will eat ourselves. But with the recent price increases, it is making a lot more sense to grow our animal feed. Some things we grow for our animals include summer and winter squash, field corn, black oil sunflower seeds, kale, alfalfa and mangel beets. I love growing squash for animals because it is such a low maintenance crop that doesn’t need much weeding or attention.

We have a list of how-to articles for growing more than 100 types of food at home. You can check it out here!

 

#2 Stocking up on non-perishables

 

If you can’t grow it yourself, you can still stock up on it. That way you have it when it becomes unavailable, and you’ve probably paid less for it than you would a few months or a year from now.

I’m talking about non-perishables, like canned goods, baking supplies, beans, rice, grains, oil, sugar, coffee or toiletries. Most of this stuff can be purchased for a cheaper price by buying in bulk.

For years we’ve eaten organic food on a tight budget by shopping in bulk. One month we might get 5 gallons of oil, the next we’ll get 25lbs of beans, the next 25lbs of salt. Given the inflation and supply chain issues we are seeing, I’d recommend stocking up on as much as you can right now. Sell something, forgo eating out for a month, or use your advance child tax credit to increase your pantry. But if you aren’t able to do it all at once, you can still start now by purchasing one bulk item a month and building your pantry more slowly.

We buy healthy bulk foods from Azure Standard every month, and as a customer of 20 years, I can’t recommend the company enough.

Azure Standard is a natural foods co-op delivering fresh, non-GMO and organic foods to most of the US.

Why Use Azure?

Azure is a great way to support smaller companies and farms, while getting healthy food at great prices! I especially love all the allergen-friendly options they offer, such as gluten free flours in bulk.

We find many of our grocery staples at Azure for a far better price than our local grocery store, sometimes half the price or less!

The best part about Azure is that there are no membership fees, and you get reward points for every item you purchase!

 

Go to the Azure Standard Website

 

What They Sell

• Non-GMO conventional and organic groceries in bulk
• Regular and gluten-free flours
• Fresh, organic produce
• High quality meat and dairy from small farms
• Natural cosmetics, cleaning and baby products
• Herbal products, dried herbs and essential oils
• A wide variety of nutritional supplements
• Non-GMO and organic animal feed, supplements and supplies
• Organic garden supplies, heirloom seeds and vegetable starts

 

 

How it works:

Azure’s own trucks deliver at least monthly to most areas in the US. You place your order online by the deadline for your “drop”. You, and other customers in the area meet the Azure truck at a designated time and place. Your order will be boxed with your name on it. Each “drop” has a volunteer coordinator who makes sure everything runs smoothly.

Azure will also ship non-perishables by UPS at any time if you prefer.

 

Want to learn more or sign up? Visit the Azure Standard website here!

 

#3 Purchasing in advance the things you will need soon

 

If you are going to need it, it probably will never be cheaper than it is right now! And that’s assuming it’s still available in a few months.

Some things we are keeping ahead on include clothes and shoes, especially for the kids, homesteading supplies such as garden hoses, seeds, gloves, animal feed, veterinary supplies and heat lamps. Warm winter clothes, socks and coats are a priority in our cold climate!

 

We live on a budget, so we keep a list of things we are going to be needing in the next year. When we can fit an extra $10, $50 or more into the budget, we go ahead and buy one of those things on our list. Think of it as an investment. After all, chances are the price will go up on the item you just bought!

We prioritize by things that are more important to our lifestyle, things that will likely increase the most in price, and things that are hardest for us to make or improvise. For example, I have fabric on hand and know how to make dresses for my little girls, but underwear for everyone is something I would rather not try to make. So underwear are something I try to buy ahead of time!

 

#4 Rationing things you might not be able to get

 

It might sound strange to talk about rationing nowadays, but if you think about it, it’s something we’re already seeing happen in stores. Take toilet paper, for example, which has often had purchase limits since the great toilet paper shortage of 2020!

During the Great Depression, many families rationed themselves to help themselves stay within their means. A family might ration themselves to 2 cups of sugar per week, for example.

Rationing yourself can help to prepare you mentally for when we do see more of that in the store. Because it is coming soon!

A little rationing can help you save more on your budget now, allowing you to set aside more cash or supplies when the things you need are harder to come by.

 

#5 Prioritizing Essentials

 

When I bring up prioritizing essentials, I’m talking about two different things.

The first is cutting out what isn’t necessary in order to save more resources for a tough time in the future. For example, buying double the peanut butter you need to put the extra in the back of your pantry for the future, versus paying $5 for a latte. Or buying an extra case of soup versus going out to lunch today.

While it might not sound like fun, I think it’s really time to be paying more attention to what is going on around us and prioritize preparing for it. Our supply chain issues are going to get a lot worse, maybe sooner than most of us expect.

Second is prioritizing what’s most important when it comes to stocking up on things you are going to need. Food, water, a heat source, clothing, medicine, books on doing it yourself, seeds and tools to grow your own food…

Make a list of the things you can’t live without and start working your way down that list, purchasing what you can each paycheck. We keep two lists, one for little stuff, and one for bigger purchases over $100.

 

#6 Start building an emergency fund

 

Finally, if you don’t have one already, start building an emergency fund.

Cash is important. But given the inflation we are seeing right now (remember that 40% on food globally?), cash is losing value by the day. It will buy less tomorrow than it does today.

Keeping part of your emergency fund in hard tangible assets such as physical gold and silver is a good way to protect yourself against inflation. Gold and silver have always been money for thousands of years. Unlike the dollar, they can never go to zero.

I’m not talking about a piece of paper that says you own some gold in a vault somewhere. I’m talking about physical metal you can hold in your hand and store in a safe place where you can get to it quickly if you need it.

Did you know that prior to 1965, half dollars, quarters and dimes were made of 90% real silver? Today these coins are worth around 25x the face value of the coins! Now known as “constitutional” or “junk silver”, this is a great way to set aside some precious metals that will hold their value as inflation gets worse, without a huge initial investment.

 

Am I Crazy?

 

I know, preparing for the supply chain crisis is different from the homesteading topics I usually cover. And honestly, it does seem pretty crazy to be talking about all this. But the truth is, this is what is coming. Our supply chain problems are increasing drastically every day. And you don’t have to go to some crazy prepper site to hear about it. It’s in the mainstream media now.

Our money supply in the US has doubled since the start of the pandemic. That means that technically your dollar is already worth half as much as it was a year and a half ago. There is always a lag effect when it comes to inflation, and you don’t see the price increase the same day that the new money is printed. When new money that is created without corresponding goods and services, it causes price inflation for the goods and services already available. That’s because there are suddenly more dollars competing for the same amount of goods and services, driving up the price.

If you grow some of your own food, you are already ahead of this game. And this article was written to encourage you to get even more prepared. Times are going to get a lot harder than what most of us have seen. But as the old saying goes, “those prepared are usually spared”.

While preparing for the supply chain crisis might not specifically be a gardening topic, it does fit in with our self-sufficient theme on this website. I hope as my valued readers you find it informative and motivating!