Global economic and financial turbulence stalk the world—along with a growing food and energy crisis. Apocalyptic doomsaying is seen in newspapers everywhere. Can you survive whatever perils may come your way? What or who will be your anchor?
by John Ross Schroeder
Phrases like "nine meals from anarchy" are no longer casually dismissed as apocalyptic nonsense. Consider these factors: What if the flow of oil was suddenly and sharply curbed? What if truck and rail transportation was severely hampered by serious fuel shortages and, as a result, food began to disappear from supermarket shelves?
We know that we are in trouble. What we don't know is how bad it may become. Is this merely a temporary economic crisis, however severe, or one that will lead directly to the fulfillment of the major biblical prophecies detailed in the books of Daniel and Revelation?
Author Paul Roberts stated in USA Today: "Global demand [for food] is soaring, yet arable land and water are becoming scarce. Fertilizer costs are rising, and then there are the climate swings. So what's the world to do?" ("Today's Food Crisis Isn't a Blip," May 23, 2008, emphasis added throughout). Very good question!
A darkening world picture
Overall population growth and rising standards of living in countries like China, India and Brazil put growing pressure on precious food supplies. Professor Roberts continued: "Global meat consumption will more than double by 2050...Most of the world's readily farmable acres are already in crops... In fact, the world is actively losing farmland—to erosion, overgrazing and development. Even in the USA, the inexorable spread of suburbs, malls and golf courses costs us nearly 2 acres of farmland for each birth or new immigrant."
True, we have coped in previous crises by employing new technologies, massively increasing irrigation and using powerful new fertilizers to generate higher crop yields. Human beings can be and have been very resourceful. Yet the crisis over natural resources is probably just beginning, and we have yet to see how bad it will become. The threat to our security and well-being certainly appears to be real and deepening.
