Friday Five for March 1, 2013

Unless averted in the final hours, sequestration set to start today, slashing spending in a lot of different areas of the U.S. government. Some would argue that this is good and needs to happen while other believe it’s draconian and will send the economy into a downward spiral. Whatever you’re thoughts on the matter, it’s clear that this along with many other news items are giving us ample warning to prepare for times of scarcity. Here’s what we found interesting this week in the Friday Five from PreppingToSurvive: Homeland Security orders a citizen to lie, the New Madrid fault is not dormant, America is losing farmers and farmland, is Christian prepper and oxymoron, and Monsanto sues farmers – again!

New Madrid Quake

Seismologists believe that the largest and most powerful earthquake to strike America was not where you might suspect, in California. No, it occurred along the New Madrid fault that runs through Amercia’s heartland. And what’s more, evidence suggests that it’s active every 200-300 years. This week, a subtle reminder of it’s presence struck Trumann, Arkansas with a 3.6 magnitude quake. Even if you don’t live near the fault line, a massive quake would disrupt East-West transportation for years. From KAIT8.com.

Homeland Security Seizes Boat When Owner Refuses to Lie

It was supposed to be a simple process. Buy a boat in Canada and bring it home to the Pacific Northwest. And it would have been except for a simple, easily corrected typographical error that mis-valued the boat in question. When the new owner pointed out the error to Homeland Security, he was told to lie and sign the document anyway. Eventually his boat was confiscated. Yes, a government official with a badge and a gun ordered a citizen to lie and when he didn’t, his property was seized. From Uncrunched.

America is Losing It’s Farms

In the early 1970’s, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz famously warned American farmers to “Get big or get out.” Changes to the U.S. farm policy seemed to reinforce that mantra and a new era of food and food production was ushered in. With it, came the likes of high fructose corn syrup. And his legacy lives on. Last year, America lost almost 12,000 farms and over 3 million fewer acres were planted. From Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Monsanto Sues over 400 Farmers

While European Food Agencies conduct investigations into the safety of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) crops, here in the U.S. Monsanto is aggressively defending it’s patented seeds by dragging farmers into court. The agriculture giant sued over 400 farmers across 27 states in January 2013 alone! According to some reports 86 percent of corn, 88 percent of cotton, and 93 percent of soybeans grown in the U.S. are currently GM strains. From Natural News.

Can Christians be Preppers?

Whether you’d call yourself a Christian or not, you’ve probably heard many of the parables that Jesus shared with his disciples. The Good Samaritan is one that almost everyone is familiar with. You’ve also probably heard of the Golden Rule, too. So if Christians are called to help others and to treat others as they’d like to be treated, can Christians be preppers? Can a Christian follow his faith while at the same time prepare for times of scarcity and eventually turn others away? Chris Ray at Prepared Christian has an interesting article about just that. From Prepared Christian.