Unaffordable: People with little money will move to cheaper food sources. In the 1980's people used to joke about the elderly eating dog/cat food etc etc. IDK, people will find something to eat, but the shift will be to cheap simple food.
Top ramen and mac n cheese. Maybe some fried spam if it hasn't gone up too much. Frozen peas. Mainly top ramen, that stuff is cheap. Long shelf life too. Although, you'd have to be careful about brand. Some of it (cup o noodles i think) has a light layer of wax as a preservative. Eat enough of it over time, and you might have some GI issues.
If you mention "Rolling pennies for gas broke" to people nowadays, they probably wouldn't get it.
Unavailability: The big costal citys will melt down first, decent people who would never commit a crime will start doing what it takes to feed their children. Robbery, Crime will skyrocket. That will lead to an exodus to surrounding areas... ie: think Grapes of Wrath
In rural Utah, there's more food available. Lots of horse trading with farmers / ranchers.
Yeah pretty much, although i'd apply that to all big cities, not just coastal ones. Desperate people will do desperate things. I think how far things deteriorate depends on the severity of shortages and unavailability. Despite it being mainly a big city issue, it will effect everyone else in the surrounding areas none the less. In terms of resources and crime. People with mouths to feed and any means of travel aren't going to sit there and pick there nose. Either by leaving their home areas for other groccery store or markets at best or "Foraging" at worse, it's going to put a drain on suburban and rural resources.
There will be lots of poaching.
I've put a lot of thought into this one actually. There will definitely be an uptick in poaching on both public and private. How much, depends on how bad prices/availability becomes. If things get real bad, I think a lot of people will turn to poaching. Even people who ordinarily would not.
One scenario that has crossed my mind is.... how do i put this.... being robbed of a kill. Put it this way, lets say a fella who happens to hunt by themselves legally harvests a deer or elk. (There are a lot of guys who hunt solo, not just me). Then a group of armed dudes spot him, move up, and basically say, "Get away from my elk." Not much you can do except get yourself killed. It sounds apocalyptic and far fetched I know, but I can see that plausible under certain circumstances.
If major food shortages becomes a thing, I honestly don't think the deer and elk herds will survive more then 3 to 6 months if poaching ever goes "mainstream". (IE. "Everyone is doing it" )
I saw a few stores are now not putting steaks out on shelves, due to theft. You have to go to the meat counter now and ask for the meat.
My son is in Guatamala City for a couple years, every store along the street has an armed guard with a shotgun. He said he passes 20-30 armed guards standing outside small shops and stores walking around the block. Thats the way its been there for years now. It might get to that point here in the US if the food source really gets compromised.
-DallanC
Venezuala and Argentina might make great case studies. Seems like that's where we might be heading.
EDIT:
Since I'm writing a freaking book. (I type fast, ex IT cubicle dweller),
If I sound like i have little faith in humanity or human nature it's because I do. Some of what I've seen people will do while TDY in SouthCom (aka central / south america) as an Engineer:
- Woman willing to ***** herself out for a pair of jungle boots? Check. (it wasn't me she propositioned, it was a buddy of mine)
- Kids literally knocking other kids out for an MRE handout? Check. (medic had to patch a gash in a kids head)
- Villagers rioting over scrap building materials for their huts and local forces discharging their weapons iinto the air on full auto to disperse them? Check.
Yeah, guess who had to burn all the scrap material at a result in order to keep the peace? Yours truly. I just loved the looks i was getting. Diesal sucks for this purpose btw. MoGas works much better, but amazingly, you don't see much of it outside of a mobile field kitchen.
Desperate people
will do desperate things. I imagine afgan/ Iraq vets will have even better stories to tell.
