YIKES... hungry mob ? :) Belly.. you better provide some good labor for my newly installed hyper security system mate ...

but I'm planting a good hedge.. hopefully no one will SEE my tucker supplies.

Chickens are pretty easy to look after though..and can provide both eggs and meat.. I can have trout in my dam also.. as long as I fight off the Herons.

hereeeee chook chook... (hides the big knife in the hand)

BUGSY.. this might come as a surprise, but you don't need to call Gibo a loony.. it doesn't help anyone.

and they call 'ME' arrogant :) SHEEEEESH...

You're a loony too Boazy, if that helps.

Growing rice and running chickens on a block of 'suburban land' indeed. Oh, and protecting all by a hedge so nobody will notice. Yeah you're completely sane.

So, what are your thoughts on a 'national silo system'? Apart from neither of you understanding how much it would cost, it's insane.

loonyloonyloonyloony

Bugsy/Belly.
Farmers can only produce if theres fuel.
They cant plant or harvest if there is any impediment to the flow of diesel.
High prices are becoming an impediment. Conflicts in certain parts of the world part of the cause. Conflicts are going to increase.
Many farmers are already going out of business because of high prices on diesel.
Its in the papers quite often...on ABC radio news the other day. One third of farmers in recent times have left the farm to move to the cities.
Country towns need, even today, to prepare for the fuel droughts of the future and for the food shortages.
If you go to the bigger rural cities theres very little fuel storage capacity and the only food storage is in whatever grain silos and supermarkets there are.
To date there has been no specific national silo system to cope with disasters.
Did you know that for years and years China has been storing grain underground in vast areas to survive nuclear conflict? America does the same. Theres a chalk mine in the southern states somewhere where bulldozers dig out huge rooms out of the chalk to be filled with cooler rooms for beef and dairy products, then the bulldozers simply move on and carve out another room to be filled with beef and dairy products.
Canberra does nothing (known) for the commoners...ho hum to the people of the lucky country.
Theres a story around the transport industry that a few years ago Brisbane was almost out of flour and truck loads of flour had to be quietly trucked up from southern states so there was bread for the people of the city.
I dont know if the story is accurate but if it is then the supply of goods throughout Australia is very delicate.
You young guys do the right thing.
I believe it is a citizens duty to have several weeks food in their cupboards so as to relieve the pressure on emergency supply groups if disaster actually occurs. You country councils too. Look after your people.

Gibo, methinks that you city slickers don't have a clue, as to
what is going on in your own country.

We already have a silo storage system. The one in Western Australia
alone, holds 15 million tonnes of grain. Then most farms have their
own farm storage on top of that. My personal one, on my small
place, holds aroud 250 tonnes of grain. How much frigging more
storage do you want?

Gibo, I am well aware of China's strategic grain reserve. You may not be aware of the cost such an activity entails. Maintaining the quality of the grain itself is becoming increasingly difficult for them. It needs to be turned over. It also requires the government to buy and maintain the system, as it does not make money- for a communist government this is less of a problem. They also have a lot of people.

You would have us bankrupted within a month with your citizens army, your national silo system (ie strategic reserves), your call for a constant defence footing awaiting invasion from the north from a phantom menace. And you have the gall to call our governments incompetent?

I guess that's what comes from being a loony.

Bugsy, please! Calling people names is no way to conduct a healthy debate or cast an honest opinion. There's way too many insults thrown around on this forum, which is why I tend to browse and not comment these days.

Gibo, I'm a little curious to know why you give a darn about starving to death in the first place? At the end of all life, there is death. The best we can hope for is that we die peacefully in our sleep, but be it old age related or being hit by a bus and dying in agony, death will surely visit you. Starvation is simply another way nature takes it's course. But, back to business.

Yes, some farmers are going broke, but those who choose to remain on the land, even though they can no longer produce for the markets, have one advantage. They (usually) come form a farming background and have learned to 'make do.' They don't like to throw stuff away, but fix it instead (think tie wire). 30 years ago, all the farms I visited had a veggie plot out back. Farmers I know today still have those little plots, veggies lovingly grown by a whole new generation who learned the art from their parents. Those will continue even when the farmer can't produce for the general markets. They have the knowhow, so won't starve and that's what we have to do, just as Cuba did when Russia left them without viable oil supplies.

While you have the time to learn how to live without supermarkets, do so and ASAP. The age of peak oil is very close. And BD, I do hope your little plot is a long way from the city, but even if not, at least you've done the right thing if you want to have the chance of a long life. To all of you I say.... Live long and simply!
Aime.