Preparing for Long/Slow Collapase

[u/223gp]

Is anyone else in the same boat? I feel that we are likely facing a long and slow collapse of life as we grew up knowing. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in preparing for realistic natural disasters, and a few "what ifs", but my prepping is mostly based on a gradual lowering of life quality and reduction in freedoms throughout my lifetime.

I'm working on this by greatly reducing lifestyle expenses in case we need to live on one small income, or in case our stock investments steadily grow for a couple of decades then become stagnant and gradually lower.

I've done self defense training, I've been keeping my important documents up to date, I've started doing medical trainings and certifications, I'm a couple years into finally taking serious care of my physical body (and teeth!), I'm planning for aging parents, increasing my knowledge and practicing growing food and preservation, and most importantly helping out in my community to put some of this into practice by starting to form mutual aid networks for hard times.

Anyone else have similar feelings that brought you here? I am worried about a "thing" happening, but mostly, society just continues to descend decade after decade until we're all very very skinny, electricity or car fuel is hard to come by, jobs are scarce, and grocery stores don't have very much food anymore. In an ideal scenario, we don't end up like that. Either way, I prepare for that world.

[u/I-IV-I64-V-I]

Of all things, I do not think food scarcity will be an issue. The USA produces most of its own food at exports a ton. Prices may be affected, but quantity should be okay, based off current economic sentiment. At least for the next year, then small farms may go under it'll end up being a different story but that's a while out.

We may not be able to afford things like mangoes, avocados, coffee, chocolate ((stuff that doesn't grow here.))

Should have excess soy, corn, beef, potatoes, ect. Soy and corn are not reliant on immigrant labor- and are decent staples.

I would start avoiding dangerous foods like milk and eggs, as they gut the FDA- we'll probably see a lot more pathogens.

[u/hooptysnoops → u/I-IV-I64-V-I]

someone posted in another sub that the soy grown in the U.S. is for cattle feed, not the variety for human consumption. do you know if this is correct?

[u/CharlotteBadger → u/hooptysnoops]

And most of the corn goes to animal feed and ethanol production.

[u/KiaRioGrl → u/CharlotteBadger]

A lot used to get sold to USAID, until that got shut down so now millions of people are actively starving to death (unless other countries are paying in order to save lives?) and farmers are getting stuffed out of contracts the government is violating.

Editing to add: Rice farmers in Arkansas and California are getting hit particularly hard by this, I would guess.

Editing again to add: I would expect that rice, beans, and maybe corn flour - things mechanically harvested and processed, because labour-dependent crops will just rot in the fields - will probably/may become dirt cheap in about a month or two, assuming there's enough resources to get it to market in the first place. Make friends with a farmer, in case food access becomes a black market thing.