hotel 46 said:
read a nice bit on somewhere yesterday on eroi or such. about how inefficient the mining is today and the energy consumed to produce a oz of silver or ton of food etc. the farmer with his horse and plw used to be 98% efficient and today they are 1.8% efficient with the costs of energy input,bigger fields bigger tractors, more fertiliser and further transport costs. peak silver in most us states was very early in the century. only two states produce more silver per annum than they did 70 years ago. however if compared to the tonnes mined it swings the scale to the 1.8% again. they also say how they believed fuel has peaked and we are paddling, the new wells not as good as the old finds and old ones running dry. with this coming fall of the banks and countries many of the mines will be mothballed, starting them again reduces their efficiency. silver is now in peak production as in oz's mined but will start on a downward slope. oil, food the lot will go south, we need to be one step ahead of the pack, onda gudship ss
I read this too and posted a link to the article on SS. It does look at peak silver, but really, it is peak everything. I grew up on a property and my folks are still farming there and there is absolutely no way we could farm the way we do without diesel powered equipment. Even if the Oil prices rise to extreme levels where it may be $10/L, grain prices will have to rise to match it. At some point though, it will be cheaper to 'go backwards' with animals, but I do not know if I can honestly fathom that. For one, the average 'farm' would be a lot smaller in size, and would employ a lot more people than the current family run ordeal.
All commodity prices are linked and they are what represents wealth. We accumulate savings to buy commodities. Be that oil, food, textiles, houses, cars wood etc. It is the final end product on which our savings are spent, there is nothing to purchase that is not a commodity. They are the raw ingredient for everything we see, feel, taste, EVERYTHING. Gold and silver, while money, are also commodities of a sense in that they are physical and limited, unlike fiat currency. This is why Precious metals are the true money not fiat and not any form of bitcoins or other digitial currency. They are a nice novelty, but gold and silver are tied to commodity prices. Energy to extract said commodity goes up? Your precious metals rise to match it as they also represent stored energy. Oil now costs $500/bbl to produce? You can bet you will not be able to mine gold for $1000/oz.
If things get real bad I would be stacking seeds. Potato, Wheat, rice, corn, sugercane, strawberries (MAN I LOVE STRAWBERRIES). That is being self sufficient and prepared. Not having a months worth of food. You have to learn how to grow your own and not rely on a supermarket being back up in a months time.
/rant
