Hurricane Winds Bring Possibility of Wide-scale Famine!

Throughout most of the world's soybean-producing areas, in country after country, the yield of soybean fields has already been reduced—by as much as 80 percent—because of the dreaded soybean rust disease. Spread by winds, the fungus is death to soybean farming as we know it today.

In 2004, hurricane Ivan slammed into the Gulf coast of Alabama and Florida after picking up rust spores as it sideswiped South America. States from Florida to Louisiana have become infected with this vicious plant disease which is capable of over-wintering in wild plants, including the pervasive kudzu vine found throughout the South.

Now this year's storms are expanding the range of soybean rust ever closer to the heart of the great farming regions of the Midwest—the last places left on earth where soybeans can be grown abundantly without costly applications of fungicides (only partially effective against this fungus). Experts think it is only a matter of time—maybe even next year—when America's once great fields are devastated.

In addition, the closing of the port of New Orleans has hit at a critical time for corn growers throughout much of the heartland. American prosperity has been built in part by cheap transportation for our abundant farm commodities. Corn is time sensitive and must be shipped at the end of the growing season. There exist no viable alternatives to the great river systems, which provide cheap transportation to the port of New Orleans. A prolonged shutdown of one or two months may force some growers into bankruptcy, reducing the acreage planted next year.

In addition to these woes, a new strain of wheat rust, which, like soybean rust, is borne by winds from country to country, has shown up in East Africa. No known variety of wheat can withstand it. Experts say it is headed this way. Suddenly all three major crops: soybean, corn, and wheat—the backbone of our agricultural abundance and our export economy—are in danger.

In this time of wars, earthquakes and tsunamis, it is clear that Jesus Christ had it right when, speaking of the time just before His return, He said: "And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places" (Matthew 24:7).

The same God inspired these warnings for the peoples of America and the English-speaking world: "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out" (Deuteronomy 28:15-19).

Notice especially verse 20: "The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me." Even the confusion among our leaders which accompanied the New Orleans flood disaster was prophesied to be part of our end-time punishment for national sins!

Continue to watch God's warning message on the Tomorrow's World program, in the pages of our booklets and magazines and on our web sites. Now is the time to consider our relationship to God.

Carl Ponder