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It’s time for a seed bank

To the Editor,

There was an interesting story recently from The Associated Press, “Social Security, Medicare stir new worries.”

The cutbacks that will come in the years of the middle of the 21st century have me pointing back to my June 23, 2016, pitch for victory gardens. This is a course of action for those younger than 50.

A seed library where those folks who will have little or no retirement income can grow fresh produce on small plots of land. Mostly, my way of thinking tends to fall on deaf ears.

Here is the problem: In the work force today, 90 percent of all wage workers have no pension. This is the Federal Reserve talking. and it is even higher in the private sector. Two out of three workers in today’s work force contribute nothing to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, either, because they do not have access to a plan or cannot spare the cash.

When I presented my idea for a food seed library, I was speaking to a group of people who were living off highly funded pensions and Social Security checks that those who are under 50 will not receive.

Robert Kennedy often spoke about Albert Camus, who in “The Plague” wrote “there have been as many plagues as wars in history.”

So, it’s not the 1 percent whose food source will be at risk, but those living paycheck to paycheck. What happens to the poor when the government fails to meet the needs of the under-served? No relief check?

The coming food crisis is the greatest threat to social stability, as I have written many times in the past, and the TNT show “The Last Ship” has helped to spread the idea of food seed banks.

The inner-city will see chaos and rioting, burning and looting. The politicians will inact martial law. The food supply chain will not be broken for those who have money to buy it.

It’s like trying to explain 1945 Germany to all those smiling faces who greeted Hitler to Austria in 1938 — in seven years, much can change. In Berlin in 1945, the Russians required an open-door policy. They went in the homes and raped the German families. Every scandal in Washington, D.C., is about U.S. citizens being sold out to a foreign country.

Throughout history, humankind’s biggest kills have been infectious diseases. Monkey pox is looming on the horizon, or, perhaps, the flu. Weakened by a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, the working poor will be prime targets.

A food seed bank should be started today. Life is for the living? You listened to the wrong people. That war has been over for a long time.

Michael Traubert

Wellsburg

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