Odd thing happened today at my farm

[Tumbulu]

A perfectly intelligent systems engineer came out and bought hundreds of pounds of that Sonora wheat crop (that you all helped grow) to take over to a farm a hundred miles away. That part is not strange. I remain thrilled to have sold it to someone who will replant it.

The strange part is that he hinted that he was doing this to prepare for some big collapse of the government/society next week.

Now I do not listen to any of the shows like coast to coast, or read any of the doomsday press things, so I am not at all familiar with current "the civilized world is collapsing" theories, but this fellow seemed relatively normal if not pretty darn intelligent.

Is this something going around, a current collapse theory? This has a "year 2000 all computers will fail" feel to it.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Ah, that's news to me.

Let me know if you learn more, please.

[Tumbulu]

6. Thanks

I will if I hear anything more.

[hermetic]

2. I looked

over at my fave CT site where they are always posting articles about that sort of thing and I see nothing new there. There are always little groups popping up who claim to have foreseen the end so perhaps he just fell in with one of those. One can be intelligent yet still become fearful when looking at the overall state of things. Planting wheat is not a bad idea whatever the reason. At least he's not building an underground bunker. Or maybe he is.....

[Tumbulu]

5. Thanks

Yes, it never hurts to plant wheat, especially this one.

No talk of bunkers, but he was pretty closed mouthed.

[NJCher]

3. nuthin' but a tough winter

I listen to some of the programs you describe, although I am personally not a doomsday-type person. One does catch this sort of thing, though, when perusing the variety of sources on topics of this nature.

My favorite and who I think is the most reliable predictor is Evelyn Paglini and she says we're in for a very tough, difficult winter. She predicted this before all the storms we've had so far.


Cher

[Tumbulu]

4. Thanks, super dry so far

But perhaps torrential rains are on their way.

[murielm99]

7. Interesting.

I do have to relate to you, if I have not done so before, an experience I had in a county north of here.

We don't farm our own land any more, we have someone do it for us. But we try to stay in tune with ag trends.

A few years ago, when everything in the world economy nearly collapsed (pre-bailout), wealthy types of people, like hedge-fund managers and investors from Chicago to Wall Street, came to that county. They tried to bully and pressure several fifth-generation daily farmers with whom I have some acquaintance. They wanted to buy their farms. In some cases, price was no object.

They were looking for something real and substantial in case their paper wealth evaporated overnight.

[Tumbulu]

8. So, maybe this person fears great finacial insecurity

that could be it....how interesting that this happened.

I know of one ag realtor and he says that Ag land prices have remained steady and high because of people taking their moneey out of markets and into ag land.

[murielm99]

10. Prices have been better than ever for the last few years, too.

We are actually making some money. More people are becoming farmers. A few years ago, all the young people were leaving the farms. The average age of a farmer was fifty. The good prices are making more ordinary people buy and operate family farms.

I am told that ethanol has a lot to do with the good prices for corn. But we have had some weather disasters as well. That drives the price up, for those lucky enough not to be hit by disaster. We still need the farm bill, and government support, especially those of us who are family farmers. We need the crop insurance, which is also part of that stalled bill. We hate it that they have tied cuts in food stamps into the deal. Stupid republicans! Farmers don't want to see poor people starve. Most of us are very generous.

[SheilaT]

9. Stuff like this has been going on

pretty much as long as I can remember.

As bad as the Great Recession has been, likewise the Great Depression, and any other economic downturn that's happened, we have not had the kind of governmental or societal collapse the the disaster predictors are so convinced is going to happen any day now.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

11. Hundred years since 1914?

The Jehovah's Witnesses originally thought 1914 would be the start of God's Kingdom on Earth:

The book taught that God's dealings with humanity were divided dispensationally, each ending with a "harvest," that Christ had returned as an invisible spirit being in 1874[25] inaugurating the "harvest of the Gospel age," and that 1914 would mark the end of a 2520-year period called "the Gentile Times,"[26] at which time world society would be replaced by the full establishment of God's kingdom on earth.

1914 was of course the start of WWI, and at this point that year is more or less by consensus recognized as the start of the slaughter that didn't end until 1945, the break between the wars being thought of these days (as predicted by a few prescient folks in 1918, Keynes among them) as a mere truce.
So maybe someone out there is figuring the 100 year anniversary is going to be the start of another round of not-so-good stuff.