Planned Global Food Shortage; How To Grow Food in Your Backyard

Alex Newman Explains UN Agenda 2030 Behind Farming Restrictions

By Ella Kietlinska and Joshua Philipp
July 20, 2022 Updated: July 20, 2022

The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development informs government policies to restrict farming and transform the food systems in different parts of the world, said Alex Newman, an award-winning international journalist who has covered this issue for over a decade.

The 2030 Agenda is a plan of action devised by the United Nations (U.N.) to achieve 17 sustainable development goals (SDG). The goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted by all UN member states in 2015.

Then-Secretary General of the U.N. Ban Ki-moon called the 2030 Agenda “the global declaration of interdependence,” (pdf) Newman said in a recent interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.

“In my opinion, [it] was a direct swipe at our Declaration of Independence … So instead of being independent nations, we will all be now interdependent.”

The 2030 Agenda “covers every element of human life, every element of the economy,” including global wealth redistribution not only within the nations but also among the nations, Newman commented. The Agenda “specifically says that we need to change the way that we consume and produce goods,” he added.

Goal number two on the 2030 Agenda deals specifically with food, Newman said.

In September 2021, the U.N. held the Food Systems Summit, which emphasized the need “to leverage the power of food systems” for the purpose of achieving all 17 sustainable development goals by 2030, according to a U.N. statement.

“Everyone, everywhere, must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food,” the statement said.

20 Facts About The Emerging Global Food Shortage That Should Chill You To The Core

Taking Over Farmland

The sustainable development agenda emerged in the 1970s when the United Nations tried to define it at a conference in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976. Newman said.

The conference, which was the first U.N. Conference on Human Settlements known as Habitat I, adopted the Vancouver Declaration (pdf), a report that provided recommendations for U.N. member states.

Newman quoted an excerpt from this report: “Land cannot be treated as an ordinary asset controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social injustice.”

Newman said that, in his view, the U.N. ultimately wants to get rid of private land ownership. “We see this all over the world. This is not just happening in the Netherlands.”

He thinks that a war is taking place against farmers and ranchers, especially those who are independent or those who are not part of the system. “They want to remove small farmers, even medium farmers, from their land, and they want to bring it all under the control of these—I think there’s no other term to describe it—fascistic public-private partnerships.”

Newman noted some examples to illustrate his opinion: The Chinese regime forces peasants to move to megacities, farmers are killed in South Africa, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States proposed a new rule that could bankrupt small and medium farmers.

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U.S. farmer Roger Murphy puts fertilizer in the ground near Dwight, Ill., on April 23, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

In March 2022, the SEC proposed a regulation that “would mandate publicly traded companies to report on their carbon emissions and other climate-related information,” as well as report similar information from any companies with which they do business, according to an SEC statement.

As a consequence, all companies in the business supply chain of a publicly traded entity would have to report their carbon emission and climate-related data.

U.S. Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) led 30 lawmakers to urge SEC to repeal its proposal, calling it a “regulatory overreach.”

”Imposing regulatory overreach on farmers and ranchers falls outside of the SEC’s congressionally provided authority,” the senators said in a statement. “This substantial reporting requirement would significantly burden small, family-owned farms.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation said in a statement that the proposed rule could create “substantial costs” for farmers because they do not have teams of compliance officers or attorneys like large corporations. Moreover, it may push out of business small and medium-sized farmers and force food-processing companies to look for agricultural raw products outside of the United States, the statement asserted.

Centralizing Food Supply

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People shop in a supermarket as inflation affects consumer prices in New York on June 10, 2022. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

“If you control the food supply, you control everything,” Newman said.

“One of the things that the communists loved to do is create scarcity and create dependents. As long as you have independent people who are able to take care of themselves, there really is no need for the government to run your life and to control everything that you do,” Newman said.

“Americans are good examples,” Newman continued. “As long as the food production is widely diffused, and it’s in the hands of independent producers, it becomes very difficult to get people to bend to your will.”

The whole idea of using food as a weapon has been a hallmark of communist regimes for 100 years, Newman explained. “It’s also been a hallmark of the very same people who are openly promoting the U.N. Agenda 2030, the sustainable development goals, and even the World Economic Forum.”

Those who contrived “the controlled demolition of our food supply … want to completely restructure it,” in order to gain total centralized control of that because it gives them absolute power over everybody under their jurisdiction, Newman said.

For example, the Chinese regime and the mega-corporations formed a public-private partnership to centralize control of the food supply, Newman said.

It’s similar to what occurred in Nazi Germany, where on paper private companies own the business and ostensibly manage their businesses, but, ultimately, the private companies will be taking their orders from the government, Newman explained.

In the United States, the ESG metrics are used to “hijack control of the business sector, of the individual companies, and put them at the service of the goals of what I call the predator class—the people behind the World Economic Forum, behind the United Nations,” Newman said. (ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance criteria that are used to evaluate companies on how compliant they are with sustainability.)

The food supply centralization is just one component of their agenda, but it is a very critical one, which along with energy and other things, allows them to control humanity, he added.

World Economic Forum Involvement

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Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab delivers remarks at the Congress center during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 23, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

In January 2021, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the government of the Netherlands launched a new initiative called Food Innovation Hub, according to a WEF statement. The Hub, joined by several public and private sector partners, is a key platform that will use technology and innovations for food systems transformation, the statement said.

The Food Innovation Hub secured “multiyear funding “ from the Netherlands’ government and established its Global Coordinating Secretariat that would coordinate the efforts of the regional food hubs as well as align with global food processes and initiatives such as the UN Food Systems Summit, the statement read.

The global food Secretariat would be located in Wageningen, Netherlands, at the heart of the Dutch agrifood ecosystem, and would direct the development of global, regional Food Innovation Hubs, according to the “Invest in Holland” website.

“The work of these regional hubs is already underway, with more than 20 organizations leading the initiative across Africa, ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], Colombia, and India, and the European hub,” the website said.

Ramon Laguarta, CEO of PepsiCo, said in the WEF statement: “Food is one of the main levers we can pull to improve environmental and societal health. With the right investment, innovation, and robust collaboration, agriculture could become the world’s first sector to become carbon negative. … Unlocking this potential will take ambitious multi-stakeholder, pre-competitive collaborations to transform the food system—exactly what these Hubs are designed to cultivate.”

Among the solutions advocated by the WEF to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions is replacing livestock-derived foods with alternative forms of protein, such as insects, and lab-cultured proteins, according to a 2019 white paper (pdf) commissioned by the WEF.

In response to this recommendation, several indoor agriculture start-ups have emerged, including Ÿnsect, “the first fully automated vertical insect farm in the world, able to produce 100,000 tons of insect products a year,” a WEF report said.

In March, France-based Ÿnsect acquired Jord Producers, a U.S. mealworm manufacturer, to expand its operations in the United States by entering the American chicken feed market, said a company statement.

How People Can Stop Food Takeover

Epoch Times Photo
Customers browse among the farm stands at Sun City Farmers’ Market in Sun City, Ariz., on April 7, 2022. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

If people want to prevent food supply from being used as a tool to control them, they need to find alternative sources of food locally, Newman said. “You need to have a relationship with the local farmers in your community, get to the local farmers market, deal with the local farmers, come up with some agreement,” such as getting delivery of fresh, seasonal produce from the local farms for 100 bucks a week, he said.

“We need to really start providing an alternative economic structure, because if we let them get control of the entire food supply, I guarantee you, it will be used as a weapon to take your freedom, to get you to do things you otherwise wouldn’t want to do, to undermine the sovereignty of your nation, whether you’re in the United States or another country, and ultimately to dispossess people of their private land and of their freedom.”

“If you have agricultural land, do not sell out to these people. They’re trying to bribe the farmers to leave their land.”

Ella Kietlinska

Ella Kietlinska is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. and world politics.
Joshua Philipp

Dutch Farmers Update Global Freedom Movement
Cargo ships full of goods are stuck outside California harbors as far as the eye can see.

How to Grow 4,400 Pounds of Food a Year in the Backyard

Growing food at home undergoes resurgence as inflation, supply chain worries increase
By Charlotte Cuthbertson
July 20, 2022 Updated: July 20, 2022

A vegan family of four, without any gardening experience, can grow all of their own food for a year using 1/20th of an acre.

That’s 4,400 pounds of food per year, grown in six garden beds using the “predictable” and formulaic Mittleider gardening system, said Lucinda Bailey, co-founder of seed bank company Texas Ready.

“I’ve taught 40 different methods at community college level and this is the only system that I could say, ‘If I do a half hour of this kind of labor, I put in this many dollars, I will get 70 pounds at the end of the season,’” Bailey told The Epoch Times.

“In a down economy, we’ve got to produce the calories for our family. It’s a change in lifestyle—it really is—to get people to be able to grow all their groceries in their backyard, but it’s entirely possible.”

Bailey said an 8-year-old girl recently produced 4,325 pounds of food in her first year of trying the Mittleider system, which is known for high yields and the ability to thrive in any soil condition and wide climate variations.

“It’s not a difficult system. She followed the checklist,” Bailey said.

In the past, Bailey would tell gardening novices to grab some seedlings from Home Depot or Lowes and “just keep them alive for 90 days” in the first year. In the second year, start growing from seed and in year three, learn how to save your own seeds, she said.

Now, due to socio-political stressors, she’s encouraging people to get started right away and learn it all at once.

“I just think people ought to begin growing their own food because I don’t think there’s any good answers on the market,” Bailey said.

“It takes about three months to even get something that you’re really going to be able to chow down on. You don’t throw the seeds in and tomorrow you have salad—that isn’t how it works. It could take 60, 90 days before you’re really having that hearty soup.”

Epoch Times Photo
Vegetable garden beds using the Mittleider growing system. (Courtesy of Texas Ready)

In 2020, government-imposed lockdowns kept people at home and many turned to growing their own food—either as a hobby or as a way to combat concerns about the food supply chain.

Once the country opened up, soaring food prices and rising inflation added to food security concerns and again, more people turned to home gardening.

“We’ve really seen—as far as it relates to the food supply chain, and particularly more recently, the cost of food within the supermarket—people wanting to take more control over that,” said Bill Hageman, owner of Peaceful Valley, the largest independent U.S. retailer of organic food production and gardening supplies.

“To be able to grow food within your own home and not have to go through retail chains and other distributors, that’s going to have a more pronounced impact going forward.”

The demographic of who is growing food at home has also shifted dramatically in recent years, said Hageman.

“For our segment within organic gardening, if you look back three or four years, the top demographic would more likely be someone who’s either retired or semi-retired,” he said, citing trends from the company’s online nursery groworganic.com.

“The No. 1 demographic within our website right now is the 22 to 35 [age group]. And it’s split half between male and female. It’s individuals that are craving knowledge that probably didn’t grow up in an environment where they were exposed to their own food production.”

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A woman tends a microfarm home garden in Los Angeles on May 23, 2021. (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)

Community gardens are springing up in more places and gardeners are documenting their successes and failures on social media, as well as sharing information on how to solve common issues.

“Where it would have been something that was individualized before, I think people are very proud of their accomplishments and it helps keep them motivated through the hard times when you lose some crop, or you’ve got a pest that you were able to control,” Hageman said.

Hageman has seen a migration in shipping patterns over the past three years from traditional city centers and suburban areas on the West Coast near Los Angeles or San Francisco to areas such as Sacramento, Spokane, and outside of Boise.

“It’s not just a West Coast phenomenon. We’ve seen a lot of people leaving Miami and New York City and moving to suburbs in Atlanta or Nashville,” he said.

Growing enough food to cut out reliance on the supermarket can seem daunting, but experts encourage people to just get started.

Hageman encourages people to “just get their hands dirty.”

“Spend a little bit of time online educating yourself on what resources you would need to be successful,” he said. “It’s really easy to get discouraged. Growing from seed is not always the easiest thing [and] there are certain varieties that will grow easier than others.”

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Vegetable seedlings growing in pots ready to be planted in the garden. (Getty Images)

Knowing which USDA hardiness zone you’re in can help avoid failures, Hageman said.

He suggests for first-time and casual gardeners to try starting seeds in a tray and then gardening in a raised bed or containers.

“There’s a pretty low barrier to entry around that,” he said. If you’re growing into the ground, “you really need to understand what’s in your soil.”

Additionally, more and more solutions are hitting the market for people living in urban areas and small spaces.

“Because of the growth of gardening overall, there’s been a lot of new products that have come out over the last two years or so that’ll help homeowners in cities,” Hageman said. People can now “easily” grow tomatoes in containers on a patio or fire escape, he said.

“Within the home, too, I’d say growing herbs, growing spices, growing things in your windowsill. That’s also an attractive way to start.”

Epoch Times Photo
For those new to gardening, or living in small spaces, a windowsill garden is a good start. (Getty Images)

Matthew Elsey, merchant of fertilizers and seeds for The Home Depot said the mega-chain has seen an increase in people growing food over the past few years.

“One of the best ways to grow vegetable plants and herb plants in your own yard is in a raised garden bed. Elevated garden beds make it easier to control the soil and protect against pests,” he told The Epoch Times via email.

Elsey said the stores’ top-selling seedlings are tomatoes and hot peppers.

Heirloom Versus Hybrid Seeds

Seeds can be categorized into two general formats—hybrid and open pollinated.

Open-pollinated seeds are the most stable and those that have been around for at least 25 generations can be labeled as “heirloom,” Bailey said.

“The heirloom then is going to be the most stable of the stable. And that’s what you want in a down economy where you have to make sure that you’re feeding your family. There’s no room for mess up.”

To explain a hybrid seed, Bailey likened it to the designer dog labradoodle in the animal world—an intentional breed between a labrador and a poodle.

“But let’s say next year, the dogs get out” and mate, she said.

“You’re not getting labs, you’re not getting poodles, and you’re sure as heck not getting labradoodles. You’re getting mutts. Well that’s exactly what happens in the garden.”

Bailey said hybrids generally produce great food the first year, but beyond that, one of several poor outcomes are likely, including sterile seeds or “you plant a cucumber but you get a gourd” or “you plant a tomato and it reverts up the genetic chain.”

Neither heirloom nor organic seeds are genetically modified (GMO), but organic seeds can be hybrid, she said.

“Just because it’s organic, it just means it was grown in pretty dirt. It doesn’t mean that the genetics are what we want them to do,” she said.

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A person holds seeds during a school lesson on planting a vegetable garden. (DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)

Texas Ready sells seed banks for different-sized families, from the 10,000-seed “Piggy Bank” for two adults, through to the 200,000-seed “The Treasury” for 30-plus adults. The kits include at least 70 different varieties of produce that, used together with the Mittleider system, are geared to provide the annual caloric and nutritional requirement for the group. All of her seeds will grow in the continental United States, she said.

“Our seed banks are based on nutrition,” Bailey said. “So we have two or three things of every vitamin or supplement that is needed.”

Hageman sells organic seeds—sourced locally where possible—as well as plants such as fruit and nut trees. “It’s a higher quality product. We focus on health benefit overall, we focus on nutrition,” he said. The website is packed with gardening products and tips, including how to deal with pests organically.

Seed and Fertilizer Shortages

Seed sales are a litmus test of wider economic and political changes.

Kurt Nauck, co-founder of Texas Ready, said when Barack Obama was president, sales continued to climb. He called Obama “salesman of the year” for several years. The company was selling three or four seed banks a day. However, when President Donald Trump took office, seed sales dropped so low (to two banks per month) that Nauck and Bailey decided in February 2020 to put the company on ice.

Then the pandemic hit and government lockdowns followed. The governor of Michigan banned sales of seeds and gardening supplies from the big box stores that she had allowed to remain open in the state.

“Since that time, we have remained extremely busy,” Nauck said.

“Our customer, I would say, is 95 percent-plus individuals who are pretty new to gardening. That’s always been the case [and] that really hasn’t changed.”

However, Nauck said, the customer base is much broader than before and even farmers are calling to find seeds to plant acres of food. “We didn’t used to have farmers calling us,” he said.

Epoch Times Photo
A boy harvests some large carrots with his mother in their home garden. (Getty Images)

Bailey said she has recently had difficulty sourcing some seeds due to more crop failures and other factors.

“I had never seen that quantity of crop failure. One or two a year, breeds that don’t produce, that makes some sense to me. But 10 or 15 varieties, that makes no sense to me,” she said.

Hageman said he doesn’t foresee a seed shortage to have a “massive impact” on the home gardener.

“I’d say that as it relates to specialty or unique seeds, what we’ve observed is that the price is going up more than the availability is going down,” he said.

Fertilizers are growing in price and potentially getting more scarce. Bailey suggests stocking up now on what’s needed to guarantee success with the Mittleider system—nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, as well as Epsom salts and trace elements. “I could store five years worth for a family of four under a single card table,” she said.

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An array of vegetable and herb seed packets on display. (Getty Images)

Storing and Saving Seeds

USDA-certified seeds that are stored at around 40 degrees F will last about five years with a germination rate of about 85 percent, Bailey said.

“Seeds are living organisms, so you certainly don’t want to vacuum pack or suck all the oxygen out—there has to be a slight amount of oxygen transfer.”

Beyond the first year’s crop, gardeners should start learning how to save their best seeds for next season—a whole science in itself.

“We believe the old ways were best. Everybody in America at one point knew how to save seeds because that was how they were going to feed their families,” Bailey said.

“There are 17 major seed-saving families. By that I mean, watermelon, cucumbers, squash—those are all done exactly the same way. These aren’t difficult things, but they’re things that you would never guess to do.”

She recommends the book “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth as a how-to guide.

“If just a few of us could get good at saving seeds, and we have in our hearts to benefit our neighbors and train them to do it, this thing can go exponential and there is food for everybody. There is no need for food shortages, hunger—nothing like that,” she said.

Charlotte Cuthbertson

SENIOR REPORTER
Charlotte Cuthbertson is a senior reporter with The Epoch Times who primarily covers border security and the opioid crisis.


 The Law of One Search Results for ‘famine’

65.8 Questioner: Are you saying then that this possible condition of war would be much more greatly spread across the surface of the globe than anything we have experienced in the past and therefore touch a larger percentage of the population in this form of catalyst?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct. There are those now experimenting with one of the major weapons of this scenario, that is the so-called psychotronic group of devices which are being experimentally used to cause such alterations in wind and weather as will result in eventual famine. If this program is not countered and proves experimentally satisfactory, the methods in this scenario would be made public. There would then be what those whom you call Russians hope to be a bloodless invasion of their personnel in this and every land deemed valuable. However, the peoples of your culture have little propensity for bloodless surrender.

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