The last time the number of cattle in the United States was this low was 63 years ago. But back in 1951, there were only about 154 million people living in the United States. Now, there are more than 313 million people living in this nation. The size of the U.S. cattle herd has been shrinkingfor seven years in a row, and we are rapidly heading toward a beef shortage unlike anything that this country has ever experienced before. Of course the primary reason for this is the extreme drought which has been plaguing the western half of the country. As I noted recently, 2013 was the driest year that the state of California has ever experienced, and due to the lack of water ranchers across the western half of the nation have been selling off their cattle to be slaughtered. If you check out the U.S. Drought Monitor, you can see that almost the entire state of California is officially experiencing “D3 Extreme Drought” right now. If this drought does not end, we will eventually be facing a food crisis in the United States that is greater than any of us have ever seen in our entire lifetimes.
According to ABC News, the size of the U.S. cattle herd is already down to less than 88 million animals…
The National Agricultural Statistics Service
reports that the U.S. inventory of cattle and calves totaled 87.7 million animals as of Jan. 1. That was down by about 1.6 million cattle, or 2 percent, compared with this time last year.
The agency says this is the lowest January inventory since 1951.
As I noted above, the number of cattle in this country has been shrinking for seven years in a row. If we still had the same number of people that we did back in 1951, this would not be too much of a problem. Unfortunately, the reality is that we now have more than twice as many people to feed.
And of course this drought is not just causing problem for ranchers. If rain does not start falling, there are rural communities all over California that will soon have no water to drink…
The punishing drought that has swept California is now threatening the state’s drinking water supply.
With no sign of rain, 17 rural communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out within 60 to 120 days. State officials said that the number was likely to rise in the months ahead after the State Water Project, the main municipal water distribution system, announced on Friday that it did not have enough water to supplement the dwindling supplies of local agencies that provide water to an additional 25 million people. It is first time the project has turned off its spigot in its 54-year history.
Are you starting to understand?
This is serious.
Read more by Michael Snyder