Fact check

Last night I could not fall asleep. Too much energy from the sun and vitamin C pills or is it the planes that fly over almost every 45 minutes. The more I listened to it the more it irritated me. I like peace and quiet and that's why I live far away from my fellow men.

After less than six hours of sleep, I was awake again. Once awake, I can't fall asleep again but I decided to stay in bed even though I never feel comfortable. My back, shoulders and feet, especially my toes, always hurt. Very briefly I checked my e-mail and had a look at Telegram before I started looking on the internet for the answers to the questions that were on my mind. True or false?

What about the grain shortage?

How can there be a grain shortage if there is no harvest this year?

How can one already know that 20 per cent of the Ukrainian harvest will fail or at least be lost?

Do we have anything to do with Ukraine when it comes to our grain supply?

Can 20% not be absorbed, for example, by stopping the production of all those breakfast cereals and producing fewer biscuits?

Wouldn't the average citizen benefit more from a kilo of flour instead of a specific product for which flour is used and part of the population doesn't even eat it?

How much is actually wasted, just thrown away to give a higher price?

What does it turn out to be? We, the Netherlands, do not buy any grain (wheat) in Ukraine. We grow our own grain. Although the quality is less, you can and do bake bread from it. Our grain is partly mixed with what is bought in France and probably also in Germany.

Our wheat is also excellent for making biscuits and this means that even if we cannot make that 'great' bread anymore we can still eat biscuits.

The Netherlands (and also Belgium and probably more European countries with the exception of Spain) do not suffer at all from a failed harvest in the Ukraine or Russia.

Do we import anything from Ukraine? Apparently, some of our corn, but this is apparently also imported from Poland. Presumably, we can do without this maize and it is part of our animal feed just like our own grain.

Chickens do not need to eat corn. Just like humans (and other animals), it is difficult and often impossible to digest. Corn does not add much to the health of the chicken, only the egg yolk will become more yellow. Not really anything that can't be lived with.

We also find grains in other feeds intended for: dogs, cats, pigs, cows (?), rats and you name it. Is it necessary? The animal could do with a little less and a more single-minded diet, just like humans. The Dutchman is famous for eating potatoes but also for eating rye bread with bacon (or cheese) and we can still eat rye bread. I think it is delicious. This bread keeps for a very long time and is much healthier than the bread that the supermarket provides and in which we, my children and I, regularly threaten to suffocate (I therefore no longer eat it).

Anyone who bakes bread themselves knows by now that delicious (or is it honest?) bread can also be baked without wheat flour. Not only wheat flour but also maize flour, rice flour, barley, rye, millet, oats and all kinds of seeds, kernels and potatoes can be used for this purpose. So it is not the case that we have to starve to death or pay a high price because there is a war. What we need to bake bread grows in our own country and does not even have to be transported.

By the way, it is interesting to note that there is no packet of flour in the shops (there hasn't been for months) but there are baking mixes. Those ready-made fast-food things with which you can bake bread, biscuits, cakes, muffins and pancakes, among other things. You wonder how that is possible. Well, I have found the answer. One of the biggest millers (factory presumably not the artisan mills that still run and where you can buy what you need instead of the supermarket) is Koopmans and Koopmans is also the brand that sells all those baking mixes. Coincidence? I do not think so. Koopmans only grinds what is sown and harvested in the Netherlands. That's why all those improvers are added to the box mixes. You can then still bake something good using flour of lower quality.

By the way, my last baking mix smelled a bit chemical. I still have one left but I'm not too keen on baking it at the moment. Maybe I'll add cocoa so I won't smell and taste that chemical taste so much.

Who is actually buying from Ukraine or Russia?

China in any case, but I do not think China is going to buy grain from France or Germany. China is more likely to go to Russia. Those who think that Russia is suffering under EU restrictions are wrong. For every European country that stops buying, there is another buyer. While Europeans are forced to cut back (including the Europeans), China is getting bigger and bigger (China is the laughing stock and doesn't blame them).

If you think about it for a moment, you must come to the conclusion that something is not right.

According to the television broadcaster MAX, the countries that buy grain from Ukraine are: China, Indonesia, Turkey and Spain

China, Indonesia and Turkey will get their grain via Russia. To what extent they all buy wheat remains to be seen. The first two countries definitely eat more rice and Turkey also has other grains on the menu list of their more than excellent cuisine. I suspect that Spain is interested in yet another cereal (maize perhaps?) and it will source whatever it needs from its neighbours. If this is France, then there is indeed a little less grain available for the other (EU?) countries, but a handy baker can surely bake a good loaf from a little less grain. We have many different types of bread and the use of wheat flour could well be reduced. It is not for nothing that so many people have developed gluten intolerance.

If everyone eats one less loaf of bread per week and instead of wheat bread, eats rye bread, gluten-free, fruit, vegetables, oatmeal or a bowl of rice, then we can all eat and be healthier too. You can also just skip a meal. If you don't eat breakfast, you are certainly not unhealthier and you won't drop dead. Considering that sports cause a lot of injuries and there was not much of this during the lockdowns, many injected top athletes now suffer from heart disease, and eating less is the only remedy to stay healthy.

Can we do without the Ukrainian harvest?

The answer is: yes.

Should we pay more for our bread or other grain products? The answer is no when it comes to what is produced domestically. Nothing has changed at all, with the exception of perhaps the electricity bill that has become sky high. I have a solution for this too. We are going to use our environmentally unfriendly wind turbines for ourselves instead of giving the generated electricity to Bill Gates almost for free. Data centers in the Netherlands are not important at the moment. Does Bill think so? Then he should pay the high costs for this instead of the citizen doing this, after all, he has enough money.

Is there currently a shortage of grain?

The answer is: no.

What is used now is last year's harvest and who knows, maybe even older. There is no lack. Not on grain, not on other food. As with the oil crisis and the pandemic, governments are anticipating what may be coming.

This morning I read a nice example.

Football is played and Ajax (a football club) wins 2-0 after 10 minutes. Then the match is stopped and the victory is celebrated. The victory will you say? Indeed, the victory. It is calculated that if the match is stopped now Ajax has won big (think about this if you don't understand. Playing time x two goals is...).

This is how the statistics for the past two years have been made. This is exactly how the number of hospital admissions, the number of deaths during the planned epidemic have been calculated and the lack of grain is now being calculated. Logical or?

Of course there will be a lack of grain, as well as a lack of gasoline, a lack of oil, a lack of sugar, a lack of clothing, footwear and so on. Not because it is not there at all, but because the intention is that we all stop buying and are not allowed to own anything anymore. That's why prices have to go up, the economy is destroyed, the middle class disappear and preferably a large percentage of humanity.

Lack of health care, healthy food, causing more diseases, epidemics (the Biolabs in Ukraine are not a fable), more stress, more injections, more control is all good for it. Anyone who thinks he can get away with it, is not a suitable candidate as a guinea pig, will be disappointed, with a few exceptions.

Exceptions like that 1 percent elite who own the food supply for the mob and would rather throw everything away than feed humanity. The lie of a lack creates fear and is the way to force people to live according to certain guidelines. Everybody? I don't think so myself. After all, there will always be people who do not participate in the community. This used to be the case, it is the case today and will be no different in the future.

Is it possible to grow crops without incurring high costs?

I think so and Fukuoka Masanobu has now proven (the third generation farms in an environmentally friendly way and therefore as little labour-intensive and cheap as possible) that it is possible. The organic product is on the rise, although it is rarely grown without the use of pesticides and the like. Perhaps now is the right time to stand on your own two feet and grow your own crops. This should also be possible with few resources. Fortunately, there are still fruits and vegetables whose seeds are still fertile and you can also grow something to eat from your kitchen scrap.

#kittywu #thoughts #fact-check #facts