The word “crisis” might not mean exactly what you think it means.
Most of the time, the word is used colloquially to tell of a time of difficulty — or experiencing some kind of hardship or negative consequence. And most often, that’s how I use the word myself.
But that’s not exactly what the word means.
The English word crisis is derived from the ancient Greek word κρίσις.
But if you’re like me and you don’t happen to read ancient Greek, the Latinized form of that is krisis.
Dating back all the way from the times of the ancient Greek to today’s modern English, the word crisis has pretty much held the same definition — and that’s not experiencing negative consequences.
A “crisis” is properly a time of decision, or a time of judgment.
It is an axis — a turning point in any state of affairs that connects two or more possible outcomes.
A crisis is not experiencing negative outcomes. It is the turning point at which either negative, neutral, positive, or mixed outcomes are decided.
In a medical sense, a crisis is the turning point in an illness that determines life or death. In other words, being dead isn’t the crisis; dying is the crisis.
I mention all this to better explain what I mean by saying there’s really a global food crisis right now.
If you wanted to use the word properly, the global food crisis isn’t something that’s coming in the future. There is a crisis of food insecurity in America and the rest of the world, right this very moment. In other words, we’re currently at the turning point of global food security which will determine the outcomes.
And from the direction we’re pointing, those outcomes are looking frightening at best.
Global food insecurity in 2022 threatens to level weakened nations and bring the mighty to their knees.
Global Food Catastrophe 2022
There’s no doubt you’ve noticed the price of food increasing at the grocery store. And you may have complained about it.
But chances are you can still afford to eat based on your budget right now.
And chances are you can still find pretty much anything you want to eat at the grocery store.
However, I couldn’t promise either of those will be the case six months from now.
According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, Americans spent an average of 8.6% of their disposable personal income on food, both at home and away, in 2020.
With food prices jumping substantially in 2021, we can expect the average American is spending more than 10% of their income on food right now.
In some metro areas it’s even likely Americans are even spending 15% to 20% of their income on food.
But consider this — food prices jumped substantially during 2021 on labor shortage, supply chain issues, and increasing energy prices.
And there is no relief for any of this going into 2022.
The recent omicron variant now threatens to continue adding to labor shortages and supply chain issues.
Meanwhile there’s no relief in sight for energy prices, especially going into the holiday season.
Moreover, record fertilizer prices will soon add even more to food prices.
It’s crystal clear: Food prices are only heading higher in 2022.
And it’s here where we find ourselves in a crisis.
You see, you might be spending 10% of your income on food right now. And next year that percentage will probably be closer to 20%.
Having to spend 20% of your income on food might already sound bad to the average American. But that’s closer to average for the rest of the world.
In some poorer nations like Nigeria and Kenya, the average worker spent 50% to 60% of their income on food — and that was before COVID.
So what happens if the price of food doubles in those nations?
Well, pretty simple — the average citizen can’t afford to buy food.
And what happens then?
Well, you know the answer…
Civil unrest.
Consider that economic inequality, specifically concerning labor and food prices/shortages, was the primary cause of every major social revolution from the Arab Spring to the French Revolution.
Unfortunately there is little you can do to control food prices. You have more control over the weather.
But you can hedge against rising food prices.
I’ve just finished putting the final touches on a fully detailed, 7,000-word report that tells investors all about a tiny Canadian company that is insanely leveraged to profit as food prices continue to rise in 2022.
This tiny, still unknown company is sitting on one of the world’s most important deposits of what I’ve been calling a “miracle mineral” — one that is absolutely vital to modern agriculture and the food industry and is being explored for cutting-edge lithium battery and hydrogen fuel cell technology.
