Where to Find Trustworthy News Sources About US Food Shortages
January 27, 2025 10:45 AM Subscribe
A semi-close friend is on hyper alert about probable food shortages in the US, to the point that they're sending me and our other friends daily alerts about what to stock up on and where farm workers are being deported from. This friend is getting a portion of what they deem "insider intel" from edengreen.com. Is this site a reputable source of info on the topic? If not, who is?
Response by poster: I will not thread sit, just want to say I agree 1000% and am trying to figure out how to push back on any resources they send if I know they're BS.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 11:14 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
posted by The Adventure Begins at 11:14 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Eden Green looks like a hydroponics outfit that is interested in selling produce to businesses in place of their current supply chains, so while the process may be great they do have a vested interest in people worrying. They don't have anything on their site about the sort of material your friend is sending you so I'm not totally sure of the connection.
posted by Bryant at 11:39 AM on January 27 [11 favorites]
posted by Bryant at 11:39 AM on January 27 [11 favorites]
If I wanted to know that the food market was up to I would follow the commodities market. These are the rough inputs for the food supply and a great deal of energy and attention is paid to this system. FRED, from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank is the definitive monthly source for this data, and here is the data for fresh egg prices/supply.
From there your friend can call into the rabbit hole of futures markets and spot pricing and the whole bit. There is a whole media ecosystem for information about commodity prices.
posted by zenon at 11:49 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
From there your friend can call into the rabbit hole of futures markets and spot pricing and the whole bit. There is a whole media ecosystem for information about commodity prices.
posted by zenon at 11:49 AM on January 27 [3 favorites]
I use Ground News. And even without subscription you can search and read 5 articles daily. I tried searching for "US Food Shortage", and the only thing that came up was the "egg shortage". So, sounds like a non-issue to me. YMMV.
posted by kschang at 11:56 AM on January 27 [4 favorites]
posted by kschang at 11:56 AM on January 27 [4 favorites]
Like Bryant, I went to their website and it does seem in their interest to be pushing a narrative of future scarcity (though I also don't see anything alarmist on their website). The closest thing I can find is this article of their's called "Agricultural Labor Crisis: Solutions, Innovation, & Reform," and on a quick skim it seems in line with other media I've consumed on the topic - John Oliver had a similar segment on farm labor on Last Week Tonight in 2023. So in short, the resource seems fine, but your friend is likely catastrophizing if their conclusion from this is to become a prepper.
posted by coffeecat at 1:02 PM on January 27
posted by coffeecat at 1:02 PM on January 27
I'm a big proponent of supporting local food systems (and I think it's a hell of a lot more useful than doomscrolling). If your friend is in an area with CSAs, a farmer's market with actual farmers, and/or a decent cooperative extension office, they can use those paths to get connected with actual humans doing actual work on food, which will give them a source of genuinely insider information.
Purchasing from CSAs provides food at a more stable price while contributing to local food resilience. Cooperative extensions usually offer classes on food and ag -- from backyard chickens to homesteading to preserving food -- that can reduce your household's food costs, increase your sense of agency around your food supply, and connect you with others doing similar work. Farmer's markets vary in quality, but if you have one in your area that includes local farmers, you can meet them, buy their food, support your local food system, and learn more about the issues impacting your area.
There are indeed a lot of problems with our industrialized, monoculture, exploitative food system. These problems have existed for a while (though they're being intensified now). There are people all over the nation -- and the world -- who have been pushing back against these systems for a good long time. Connecting with them may help your friend feel less worried and more useful.
posted by ourobouros at 1:28 PM on January 27 [10 favorites]
Purchasing from CSAs provides food at a more stable price while contributing to local food resilience. Cooperative extensions usually offer classes on food and ag -- from backyard chickens to homesteading to preserving food -- that can reduce your household's food costs, increase your sense of agency around your food supply, and connect you with others doing similar work. Farmer's markets vary in quality, but if you have one in your area that includes local farmers, you can meet them, buy their food, support your local food system, and learn more about the issues impacting your area.
There are indeed a lot of problems with our industrialized, monoculture, exploitative food system. These problems have existed for a while (though they're being intensified now). There are people all over the nation -- and the world -- who have been pushing back against these systems for a good long time. Connecting with them may help your friend feel less worried and more useful.
posted by ourobouros at 1:28 PM on January 27 [10 favorites]
Around the official pandemic, I joined r/supplychain, r/supplychainlogistics, r/logistics, r/business, and various finance subs to get a feel for news — because people do post articles from their trade sites/pubs plus mainstream news sources — and insider talk. Had already joined politics and environment subs (and healthcare ones, which offered a nod to medication shortages).
Mostly useless in the end because I’m not and will (probably) never be a prepper. Even preppers can only hold out for so long, unless they’re billionaires. But, yeah those would be decent sources, I’d say, to get a view on things.
I also just subscribed to Apple News (which I like quite a bit) and try to use my library for access to various news sources (although I despise the print-mimicking platform they use, sucks for links obviously).
posted by cotton dress sock at 11:09 PM on January 27
Mostly useless in the end because I’m not and will (probably) never be a prepper. Even preppers can only hold out for so long, unless they’re billionaires. But, yeah those would be decent sources, I’d say, to get a view on things.
I also just subscribed to Apple News (which I like quite a bit) and try to use my library for access to various news sources (although I despise the print-mimicking platform they use, sucks for links obviously).
posted by cotton dress sock at 11:09 PM on January 27
Best answer: FYI, here is a collection of Eden Green's ideas about & suggestions for food shortages/food crisis.
It seems like they have a possibly good solution to some issues in the food supply, and they are pointing to some problems that are real, or potentially real to some degree. But I would definitely emphasize strongly to your friend that a company like this has an absolutely vested interested in making people feel anxious about these issues in order to drive their business. Those are the kinds of feelings that make people act, and Eden Green wants to cultivate them in people.
For business reasons.
Your friend is likely not even a potential client of any of Eden Green's services yet has allowed themselves to be ensnared in a net of PR-created feelings.
Friend is allowing themselves to be manipulated by a corporation for their own purposes. That is always a huge red flag.
Also, I had a sneaking suspicion that there might be some religious motivation behind this. (I grew up in Utah where food storage and such is a HUGE business thanks to the Mormon Church continually harping on the issue of food security and possible future disasters of all types. This, similarly, is a real issue that corporations are only all too happy to prey on and turn into cold hard cash.)
So a bit of googling turned up THIS co-founder of Eden Green.
This guy is, among other things, a huge supporter of the sex trafficking nuttery.
This is absolutely a precisely parallel issue to the food-panic issue, because sex trafficking is certainly a real issue that happens to real people. And who supports that? Nobody. Who wants to stop it? Everybody.
Yet somehow they weave that stuff into a giant conspiracy theory where only a select few white-hat heroes are really out there stopping sex trafficking while everyone else is somehow standing around with the hands in their pockets.
Similarly, they build up all kinds of hype around the issue and present themselves as the solution - when in fact their solution is astonishingly useless and counterproductive.
Also, this sex trafficking thing has been built up into something of a right-wing shibboleth. RW radio hosts and such will spend hours jawboning about it, and it really has a big effect on people who listen to this stuff.
Media about disinformation/conspiracy theories RE: sex trafficking. A more informal discussion that might be helpful. The Sound of Freedom movie was "based on" Tim Ballard's supposed exploits and was used to drum up support for the issue in general, and Ballard's sex trafficking organization in particular. Unfortunately it was more a fantasy about what Tim Ballard wishes he was and did. And the organization he's been involved in has wasted a lot of money and time but done, as a one-word sum-up, nothing at all productive. But just google Tim Ballard & "Sound of Freedom" and you'll see how people can easily be sucked into this information vacuum. Basic facts about Tim Ballard here. A 2.5 hr takedown of Ballard if you really want to get into the weeds. TL;DR: The guy is a sleazy scumball con artist who perpetrates things at least as awful as he is claiming to cure (while also making actual sex trafficking worse rather than better).
(Note correspondence again with the very worst side of right-wing Mormon conspiracy thinking - not a coincidence.)
I don't happen to know if the food supply chain stuff is a similar right-wing-media hobby horse, but that - and not specific topics like food - might well be the root cause of friend's misinformation problems.
(To its credit, Eden Green seems like at least a somewhat reasonable and viable solution to some of the issues they raise, as well as a lot of others that are less alarming and anxiety-producing but of more practical importance. Whereas the John Waynes of the sex trafficking world are literally making the problem worse while solving nothing . . . )
In sum, I don't know how you turn this into anything that is convincing to your friend, but between the food crisis and sex trafficking crisis business there seems to be a common thread of people preying on people's anxieties for profit. There may also be a connection via right-wing media, or perhaps a specific radio host or other media figure.
Your friend seems to be something of an - intended or unintended - victim of this.
posted by flug at 2:50 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
It seems like they have a possibly good solution to some issues in the food supply, and they are pointing to some problems that are real, or potentially real to some degree. But I would definitely emphasize strongly to your friend that a company like this has an absolutely vested interested in making people feel anxious about these issues in order to drive their business. Those are the kinds of feelings that make people act, and Eden Green wants to cultivate them in people.
For business reasons.
Your friend is likely not even a potential client of any of Eden Green's services yet has allowed themselves to be ensnared in a net of PR-created feelings.
Friend is allowing themselves to be manipulated by a corporation for their own purposes. That is always a huge red flag.
Also, I had a sneaking suspicion that there might be some religious motivation behind this. (I grew up in Utah where food storage and such is a HUGE business thanks to the Mormon Church continually harping on the issue of food security and possible future disasters of all types. This, similarly, is a real issue that corporations are only all too happy to prey on and turn into cold hard cash.)
So a bit of googling turned up THIS co-founder of Eden Green.
This guy is, among other things, a huge supporter of the sex trafficking nuttery.
This is absolutely a precisely parallel issue to the food-panic issue, because sex trafficking is certainly a real issue that happens to real people. And who supports that? Nobody. Who wants to stop it? Everybody.
Yet somehow they weave that stuff into a giant conspiracy theory where only a select few white-hat heroes are really out there stopping sex trafficking while everyone else is somehow standing around with the hands in their pockets.
Similarly, they build up all kinds of hype around the issue and present themselves as the solution - when in fact their solution is astonishingly useless and counterproductive.
Also, this sex trafficking thing has been built up into something of a right-wing shibboleth. RW radio hosts and such will spend hours jawboning about it, and it really has a big effect on people who listen to this stuff.
Media about disinformation/conspiracy theories RE: sex trafficking. A more informal discussion that might be helpful. The Sound of Freedom movie was "based on" Tim Ballard's supposed exploits and was used to drum up support for the issue in general, and Ballard's sex trafficking organization in particular. Unfortunately it was more a fantasy about what Tim Ballard wishes he was and did. And the organization he's been involved in has wasted a lot of money and time but done, as a one-word sum-up, nothing at all productive. But just google Tim Ballard & "Sound of Freedom" and you'll see how people can easily be sucked into this information vacuum. Basic facts about Tim Ballard here. A 2.5 hr takedown of Ballard if you really want to get into the weeds. TL;DR: The guy is a sleazy scumball con artist who perpetrates things at least as awful as he is claiming to cure (while also making actual sex trafficking worse rather than better).
(Note correspondence again with the very worst side of right-wing Mormon conspiracy thinking - not a coincidence.)
I don't happen to know if the food supply chain stuff is a similar right-wing-media hobby horse, but that - and not specific topics like food - might well be the root cause of friend's misinformation problems.
(To its credit, Eden Green seems like at least a somewhat reasonable and viable solution to some of the issues they raise, as well as a lot of others that are less alarming and anxiety-producing but of more practical importance. Whereas the John Waynes of the sex trafficking world are literally making the problem worse while solving nothing . . . )
In sum, I don't know how you turn this into anything that is convincing to your friend, but between the food crisis and sex trafficking crisis business there seems to be a common thread of people preying on people's anxieties for profit. There may also be a connection via right-wing media, or perhaps a specific radio host or other media figure.
Your friend seems to be something of an - intended or unintended - victim of this.
posted by flug at 2:50 PM on January 28 [3 favorites]
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I'm not trying to be dismissive, but I learned very acutely from 2016-2020 that paying attention in a "hypervigilant, always on" way did not in fact solve any problems or improve my mental health. Personally, I have a healthy supply of rice, beans, spices, frozen meats, canned/pickled things. I don't see how paying attention to if citrus isn't being picked or we're maybe going to do tariffs on some country that imports X thing that would spoil in my pantry within 2 weeks would help.
I'd say the real danger is prices spiking astronomically on some things, but like... I have the non-perishable things already. Go to your local Asian grocery store and you can get a really nice 50lb bag of rice for pretty cheap.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 11:00 AM on January 27 [20 favorites]