21 June 2022
Food, Fire, and the Future: Reflections on a Growing Crisis
I received a message from my friend Jerry Sule in Green Bay, Wisconsin — a video posted by Ultra Dante. It showed yet another food processing plant going up in flames, this time again in Wisconsin. “Another one,” the post read. We’re now nearing the 100-mark for such incidents since 2021.
Another coincidence? Or something far more deliberate and sinister?
Jerry’s video triggered more than just curiosity — it stirred a memory. Years ago, I worked in a meatpacking house in Green Bay, and later in Milwaukee after I was dismissed from the Green Bay Meats and Cold Storage. It was a painful episode in my life, yet one of many that shaped me. The smell of blood and cold steel still lingers somewhere deep inside my recollections. So this latest fire brought more than news — it brought me back to my own past.
And now, I ask: why? Why would anyone—or any group—target food production facilities in this day and age?
If it’s true that almost 100 such plants have been razed since 2021, some of them major players in the industry, this isn’t just unfortunate — it’s a national emergency. If it’s a coincidence, fine, we sleep better at night. But if it’s intentional… then we’re looking at sabotage, and we may be on the cusp of something catastrophic.
Are we sleepwalking toward a Soylent Green scenario?
In the 1973 dystopian film Soylent Green, food shortages drive society to the brink. The titular food, promoted as a miraculous solution to hunger, is, in the end, revealed to be made from human remains. A grotesque metaphor, yes. But metaphor often dances very close to reality.
What Soylent Green really warns us about isn’t cannibalism. It’s complacency.
Today, food prices are skyrocketing in my country. Yet people go on as if this will somehow self-correct. As if the invisible hand of the market will steer us back from the cliff.
I’ve long been an advocate for food sustainability, for local farming, for land stewardship. In Malaysia, vast swathes of agricultural land have been sacrificed for palm oil plantations. Profitable for a few, but unsustainable for the many. We import too much of our food now. Fruit, vegetables, even rice. Chickens, beef, goats — the rearing of livestock is becoming a lost tradition, as today’s youth are more drawn to air-conditioned offices than to muddy fields or cow sheds.
We are outsourcing not only our food but our survival.
When the tipping point comes — and it will — we may face famine-like conditions not seen in modern history. And those who laugh at such warnings today may weep in hunger tomorrow.
I write this not in fear, but in frustration.
Because we could do something.
We could change course.
But alas, we’re governed by systems that have failed us. Rampant corruption, short-term gains, and ignorance masquerading as policy. We waste as much food as we consume. A nation built on fertile land and monsoon rains, yet we import garlic from China and rice from Thailand. The irony is staggering.
If war and violence haven’t taught us enough, maybe hunger will.
And when that day comes, it will be too late for many.
Too late for reason.
Too late for regret.
Who stands to gain from this unraveling of food security? That’s a question for another day. But I fear that when the chaos unfolds, a few will retreat to their fortified bunkers — and the rest of humanity will turn upon itself.
Let’s hope this is all just another conspiracy theory. One that never comes true.
But if you’re listening — really listening — perhaps it’s time to grow your own food, or at least know who does.
Thank you, Jerry, for jolting my awareness once again.
We need more messengers and fewer distractions.
#Hashtags (horizontal):
#FoodSecurity #SoylentGreen #WisconsinFire #UltraDante #GreenBayMemories #MalaysiaAgriculture #SystemFailure #FoodCrisis #WakeUpCall #LocalFarming #DystopianWarnings #PalmOilVsFood #GrowYourOwn #CheeseburgerBuddha #FoodForThought
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