Agriculture and future hunger.

Economists predict that unless there is an unusually large wheat harvest this year, world wheat prices will experience “wild price swings” over the next year. According to Keith Collins, former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “The stage is set for very serious disruptions, should weather disasters happen… It seems clear to me that the chance of a more widespread global food crisis has increased.”

The U.S. currently controls “55% of the world trade in corn, as well as 44% of the soybean trade, 41% of the trade in cotton and 28% of the wheat.” Also, because of global and economic demands on corn, by the time of the fall 2011 corn harvest the U.S. is expected to have only enough corn reserves to feed the nation for 18 days—a supply deficit seen only once since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. In addition, “many economists worry about what would happen to food prices if a long-overdue drought were to hit the Midwest’s corn-and-soybean-growing states this summer.”

Even though global production has increased in recent years, the global demand for food is outpacing food production! A major natural disaster could result in a world hunger not seen before (The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2011).

Bible prophecies warn that “famines and pestilences” will be one of the signs of the end of the age (Luke 21:11), and that end-time scarcities would see a quart of wheat selling for a day’s wage (Revelation 6:6). Finally, God warned that the Israelite-descended nations would experience starvation due to their disobedience (Leviticus 26:19-20). The stage is being set for these devastating events.