Steven Collins
March 18, 2008
My previous blog at this site addressed both the shrinking wheat stockpiles around the globe and the severe die-off of the honeybees which are essential to pollinate many of the crops on which mankind is dependent for food. An alert reader (from Norway) sent me a news link which I have provided below as it reveals that the global wheat shortage may become considerably worse this year.
The link reports on a side-effect caused by the first-ever Category 5 hurricane to hit the Persian Gulf region. Hurricane Gonu struck in July, 2007 and the obvious immediate fears were for loss of life and damage to critical oil-industry infrastructures in that region. However, a worse consequence may be in the making. The link reports that Hurricane Gonu “blew a wheat fungus out of Africa and toward the Asian breadbasket” located in Iran, Pakistan and India. The consequences of the fungus spreading to a large wheat-producing region are so severe that scientists are even considering urging wheat growers to not plant crops to retard the spread of the fungus. Wheat varieties resistant to the fungus “may not be ready for five years” so this development can only further reduce the world’s wheat supplies and increase the price of wheat on the world markets. A second link below from a news source in India confirms that wheat supplies in India are becoming scarce and expensive.
Revelation 6:5-6 prophesied that food shortages would be present in the latter days just prior to the end of our age. Wheat is specifically mentioned as one of the grains which will become scarce. Indeed, the language of Revelation 6:5-6 indicates that wheat (and other foodstuffs) will be in short supply and rationed by high prices in the latter days. Anyone watching world commodity markets has noticed that this prophecy is starting to be fulfilled for many types of foodstuffs. In Isaiah 41:21-26, God declares to everyone that his ability to fulfill future prophecies is a proof of his reality and sovereignty. Because the effects of the very unusual Hurricane Gonu serve to fulfill Revelation 6:5-6, perhaps it was not an accidental event. We should all also be watching carefully the extent of the honeybee die-off in the coming growing season in North America.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/wheat-disease=47031207
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/02/17/stories/2003021701150700.htm
