If you hear of a famine coming, many people choose to go out and go long the Wheat Market, or Pork Bellies Futures.
The Comex is an evil place. And it is only tolerable during times of plenty. (When the USDA actually pays for people to burn their crops)
However, during times of shortages, it just makes the price higher and higher. Go through the roof. And this, usually isn't paid to the farmer, he was selling his wheat early (you need a buyer so you know where to ship all this wheat) as usual. All this extra price is all people trying to make a quick buck, buying and reselling the contract. So, the customer ends up paying sky high prices for food, and the farmer gets a pittance. Exactly what we do not want in a scarcity setting.
The problem with having ultra-rich people
Billy Gatez has been buying up farmland. And way too much of it to be healthy. Billy Gatez and people like him could buy up all the grain. He could buy it all up.
Now, if Billy Gatez actually did that, and left us all to starve, we would know where to go with our pitch forks and torches. However, the Comex allows any such persons to hide behind shell companies and contracts. In fact, there already are conglomerations that do their best to squeeze the farmer, and stick it to the consumer. Groups like KellsLogs and Corporal-Mills. These groups already play the market. Having intermediaries buy the contracts, make the profits on the spread, then sell it to the cereal companies.
Yes, these companies have been making consumers poorer and farmers poorer for decades.
So, when there is not enough food for everyone, there is a possibility that some ultra-rich buys it all up. The method for them, or some nameless trading companies, to buy up all the food is there.
We will see the prices of food go way up on the Comex
Most traders, when i tell them that there is going to be a food shortage, think about buying contracts on the Comex.
If you know which way the market is going to go, you make a bet on that. From our zero-sum game perspective, this is appropriate, the correct thing to do. There are winners and losers, and not betting will always make you the loser.
During times of abundance, this Comex adding to the price of food is tolerable. In a famine, we are betting with people's lives.
And we can't just have the Comex limit this to farmers and mills, because the evil people will just move their trading desk into Heloggs. (if it isn't already there)
What will happen during this coming shortage is that, AFTER the people see the prices spike in wheat, they will scream and shout, the the Comex will put a cap on the price AFTER all the evil people have taken their cut. So, basically, the Comex will make everything worse, as planned.
I wouldn't touch these contracts with a 12 foot pole. It is not appropriate to bet on people's lives. However, we have a system, and it will be used, against us.
The block-chain future
In the future, i know there will be a block-chain that matches silver miners and silver manufacturers. It will replace the Comex because the price gouging, and the not getting your supply due to "failure to deliver" shenanigans will become intolerable.
So the miners and manufacturers will create a block-chain that matches up supply and demand.
I believe it will be limited to people who are actually known suppliers, and known users. Or limited by some other means that keep speculators out of the chain. There will probably be assayers involved to guarantee that no mine is making bogus claims, and the probability of failure to deliver is kept low.
If people still want to bet on the price action, it will be a completely separate casino. And it will be known as a casino.
This block-chain technology will probably be moved into other sectors as they can.
The big problem is that there won't be enough food in the near future as mined out farmland fails and summers get short and rains/hails get hard.
You need to get a green-house, with hail shields. Become as self-sufficient in food as you can.
Stock up on food. Can what you grow.
Go to costco and buy stuff that last a good long time.
Have your friends do the same.
Having a stock pile of food allows you to get through the riots and food delivery issues that will be coming. And just being one less hangry person in the mob is very good.
Of course, this is advice for individuals and small groups who will be eating this food. (buy what you eat)
The more you buy while we have abundance, the more that will be processed and turned into cans.
This is not advice for deep pockets to buy up all the food, and sit on it, expecting to make a killing by selling when prices are high.