Expecting hard times, more people are growing, stocking up on food

Rod and Lauretta Smith estimate they could survive a year without going to the grocery store.

A large garden on their 5-acre property in south Tulsa produces hundreds of quarts of canned and frozen beans, tomatoes and other vegetables. Chickens provide eggs.

The Smiths are among a small but growing number of people stocking up on food to become more self-reliant in a time marked by natural disasters and economic uncertainty.

“We’re living in what is at best a tenuous economy,” Rod Smith said. “There’s a sense that as a country, things could turn overnight economically…. People are beginning to realize we’ve got to be ready to help not only ourselves, but also our neighbors.”

Lauretta Smith said wherever she goes, she hears people talking about gardening and raising chickens.

“They’re asking us questions about how to garden and how to can,” she said.

Rod Smith, an Assemblies of God pastor on leave from his last church, sees a spiritual element in preparing for tough times.

From BILL SHERMAN / Tulsa World

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Debt Contagion and the Global Economic Collapse – The Corbett Report

World markets experienced dramatic losses and rebounds last week as investors watched economic developments in Greece with growing anxiety. The jitters come after weeks of gathering turmoil in the Eurozone, starting earlier this month when credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Greek debt to CAA1 and indicated a 50% chance that the country would default on its bonds. Just two weeks ago, Standard and Poor responded by downgrading Greek debt to CCC, giving it the lowest credit rating for any country in the world.

One fear is that the contagion of a Greek default would spread throughout the Eurozone, causing borrowing rates for other fragile European economies in Ireland and Portugal to skyrocket. A Portugal default would be a massive hit to the Spanish banking system, which has the largest exposure to Portuguese debt in the Eurozone. Now Moody’s has threatened to downgrade the credit worthiness of some of the largest Italian banks, and has put the Italian public debt on review for downgrade.

The EU and the IMF have scrambled to throw together a second massive bailout for the tiny Greek nation, this one expected to be worth 120 billion Euros, with 12 billion Euros of those funds to be disbursed early next month. The Greek parliament will have to vote this week on whether or not to accept the package, which contains another round of punishing austerity measures as conditions for the funds.

Read more here: http://www.corbettreport.com/sunday-update-20110626/