Food Prices Are About to Surge… Start Growing NOW

There's been a lot of talk lately about the rising cost of living.and in particular, food prices.But what if this is just the start?What if food prices are about to skyrocket even further?Well, there are signs that this will actually happen, and it's not just inflation, it's much deeper than that.G'day, I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me, and I'm not here to scare you.

But first, what I wanna do is help you understand what might be coming, and the three main reasons why I think food prices are going to go up even further.Let's get into it.Ah, here's one.

Oh, beautiful.Oh, here's another one.

I bet you've never seen a food forest quite as dense as this in someone's backyard.Look, at the moment there's a bit of a perfect storm rumbling in the food system.It's like the earthquake has happened, but the tsunami is yet to hit.And it's this time now that I think is crucial for you to be starting to grow your own food garden.The best thing is, all around the world, just about in every country, right at this moment, we're at a time where just about everyone can grow food.In the Northern Hemisphere, you guys are heading into summer and in the Southern Hemisphere, a lot of us are able to grow food because it's tropical, subtropical climates, even temperate climates here in Australia can still grow food all year round and plenty of it.

So yes, it's not all doom and gloom and this is a prime example.Pumpkins galore.Right now, farmers are dealing with three major pressures all at once.You've got fertilizer shortages, rising diesel prices and supply chain disruptions.And this isn't just theory, it's happening right now.There are already reports of farmers cutting back on planting because the cost of growing food has gone through the roof.

In some cases, fertilizer prices have jumped dramatically in a short period of time.And when that happens, farmers have two choices.They either absorb the cost or they grow less and most farmers don't have the ability to absorb the cost.Now I only use organic fertilizers to grow my crops like this turmeric here.Beautiful.What's interesting is that the suppliers and the retailers and the small businesses that support me as well through affiliatisation, they are telling me that they're seeing a surge in their products getting purchased by the farmers.

Now, generally speaking, most farmers use synthetic fertiliser.And there's reasons for that.I'm not here to say the for and against of organic fertilizer versus inorganic or synthetic fertilizers, because in the short, Farmers need a whole heap of fertilizer to drive their farms and to grow food.And organic stocks just aren't big enough to be able to do that at this point in time.However, like I said, it's very interesting that the stocks of organic fertilizers are starting to get snapped up by the farming community simply because they are finding synthetic fertilizers that are historically always bought are running low.The stocks are getting so low they're looking for further

elsewhere to be able to grow the food that they sell to us at the supermarket.The bottom line is, and I'm sure I don't even have to tell you this, but Less fertilizer means less food because without fertilizer you can't get good crop yields and that means farmers either grow less or they don't grow anything because it's not worth putting the seed in the ground if you know you're not going to get much of a yield and then you're not going to get profit on that crop.So less food means more competition, means prices go up.Then there's diesel.

almost everything in agriculture depends on it.Tractors, irrigation, harvesting, transport, and when diesel prices rise, every step in the food chain becomes more expensive.Because food isn't just grown, it's harvested, transported, stored, and sold, and every one of those steps uses energy.Food is basically energy that you eat.Not just energy for you, but It's made of energy.So when energy prices go up or they're scarce, food prices go up.

Even the good old OJ, your orange juice.And what's that got to do with the price of eggs, you say?Well, chickens are fed on grains.And if the grains go up, i .e.the farmer's cost to grow those grain crops skyrocket, well, so do your eggs.

We are already seeing the effects.Some farmers are planting less, they're skipping crops or they're not planting at all becauseit doesn't make financial sense.And when that happens, supply drops, prices rise, and it flows all the way through to you at the checkout.And yes, there are broader economic pressures as well.You've got inflation, government expenditure way over the top.

In Australia, we've got a new tax on small businesses, there's population growth, drought in some parts of our country, water costs, and they all play a role.But even with all that, rising input costs alone are enough to push the prices up.It's like the metaphor I alluded to before with the earthquake starting the tsunami, and then the tsunami hitting us later down the track.That's what we're seeing here.Instead, the earthquake are these input pressures.And then later, we're going to get hit by a huge salami costing way too much to purchase.

A luxury item for many of us is going to roll straight over the top of us.Now, this isn't about panic.This is about being prepared, because food is one thing you can't go without.It's impossible, isn't it?Like I've always said, if you don't eat, you don't fart, and if you don't fart, you die.But I also say, just grow something.

You don't have to grow everything.And one little piece of herb, like this rosemary, which you can't kill, garlic chives, oregano, parsley, those things are made to survive.They grow in the wild.Cherry tomatoes are another good crop to grow that you don't have to really care for much.And leafy greens.Every little bit you grow is money you don't have to spend.

And you don't have to spend it on fancy growing equipment either, like these raised garden beds.Yeah, they're great.They're easy to grow in.They're practical.They look good.They last a long time.

They're easy on your back.But here, I'm growing pumpkin in my lawn.

And that's what you can do too.In fact, when I first started gardening, Over 25 years ago, I started straight into the ground.It was only a meter by a meter square in a courtyard that didn't even get a lot of sun.And we grew a heap of food in that small space.

And that was partly what gave the idea that if you could grow so much in such a small area, well, expand it a little bit and you can grow tenfold.Look at that.I've got to make some room, but like I said before, you can grow pretty much anywhere in the world at the moment.unless it's snowing if it's snowing okay you've got me but pretty much everywhere else is the right time to start planting food and food that can grow pretty fast.Here in Australia, most of the country has a mild cool season.So at the moment, leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, onions, and herbs are the right things to start growing.

But of course, that's not all, there's plenty of other things.For those of you in the Northern hemisphere, you're heading into summer, which means that it's the prime growing season for tomatoes, zucchini, beans, pumpkins, and corn.Basically, you've got no excuses, unless you like buying things from the supermarket.And here's the big one, especially right now, start making your own fertilizer.It's not hard to do.I made 30 liters of this fish fertilizer just from fish scraps and waste.

mashed up and thrown in some water, left to ferment for a couple of months.

And now I've got plenty of this concentrated fertilizer to be able to use on our plants for free.But you can make fertilizer way easier than using fish.

You can use the plants themselves.And I know a lot of people talk about comfrey, like this.This is comfrey.

and it's supposed to be one of the best plants you can use in your garden to make a liquid tea fertilizer like this here.

There's not a lot left, but simply all you do is you can shred it up or you can throw it in just like that.and you leave it sit in water for a couple of weeks, and that will turn into a slurry of fermented and broken down plant matter, comfrey in this case, and then you can water that down and use it as a fertilizer on your other plants.But it gets even easier than that.You don't have to use comfrey.You can use all of these crops.You can use just about any plant matter at all and break it down the same way and you'll still get great nutrients out of it for your garden.

You can't get any simpler than that.You can grow green manure crops and then dig them back into the ground.You can use chicken or other animal manure.Go find some if you have to.Plenty of places give it away and you can use that in the garden to feed your plants for free.or bury your organic waste like kitchen scraps directly into the garden.

I've been banging on about burying things in your garden for nearly two decades.It doesn't just feed your plants, it feeds your microbes and your soil biome and it makes your soil alive and that creates a symbiotic relationship with the plants that you plant in there, makes your soil healthy because you'reworms and bacteria all feeding on that nutrition that you've buried into your garden.And of course you can compost your waste and your excess plant materials into a wonderful black gold.Basically turn your scraps or waste into plant food.

Like I always say, don't waste your waste, your plants are hungry.That sounded better in my head.And here's another really important message I want to get across and that is make the most out of this growing window and don't just grow a little bit here and there, grow as much as you can and preserve it.whatever way you can there are plenty of ways to preserve food and it's one of the reasons why I've let this grow like such a jungle and especially have left the pumpkins go crazy because when you're in a glut and you've got a crop that's growing really well you might as well maximize it because you don't know next season you might not hardly get any pumpkins for whatever the weather, seasonal changes, pests or something comes through and destroys your crop so especially now when we know that food prices are likely going to rise, we should be making the most out of the growing season and collecting and preserving as much food as possible.This is your opportunity.Freeze it, dry it, bottle it, store it, because what you grow today can help feed you months down the track and take the pressure off the grocery bill.

Think of it like building your own little food buffer or like a food bank for yourself, like your veggie account, so to speak, where you put your food away like savings in a bank account.Now, I'm not Nostradamus, so I'm not going to say that we're going to head into a massivefood crisis, but the numbers are there.Food prices are going up and also the signs are there that they're going to go up even further and faster.I might be wrong, but food growing isn't hard to do.I would say if you're just remotely thinking about it, get into it now because now is the right time.

Even when times improve, and they will, you might just prefer to grow as much of your own food as possible, not just to save costs, but for all those other benefits growing food at home offers.Let me know yourself, are you growing more food at home or are you thinking about it?Is that why you're watching this video?Is it your first time watching me on YouTube and it's because of this food crisis?Let me tell you, if you're a beginner in food gardening, I've got your back.Watch heaps of my videos and you'll see how easy it is because if I can grow food, anyone can.

But let me know in the comments section below, what is your reason?Are you Thinking food prices are too expensive?Are you trying to grow for health as well as the rising costs?Are you trying to head the rising cost of living off at the pass?You know what they say about starting, the best time to start was yesterday, the second best time is today.is now.

So get into it and get growing and you'll be much better for it.Well I hope you enjoyed this video, if you did make sure you give it a big green growing thumbs up, cost of living skyrocketing thumbs up, share the video around and subscribe if you haven't already.Thanks for watching, bye for now, cheers.