How Secure is Your Food Supply? (Part Six) 

As we continue the series on food security, we will take a brief look this week on the most basic of food staples – bread; and its derivative, grain. We will then go  on to consider how to approach setting up a local trading co-operative.

Bread and Grain

The Bible makes it clear that we cannot live solely on bread (Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4 and Luke 4:4). It is, however, perhaps the most basic of all food commodities and when fresh food is scarce – over the winter for example – bread, in whatever form it takes, offers a good means of filling an empty stomach.

Making Bread

My husband and I taught ourselves how to make good, edible whole wheat bread, having first ground our own flour from raw grain. This is not as easy as it sounds. A tried and tested recipe is available here.

For other ideas on making bread alternatives using dried goods from the storehouse (e.g. chick peas), please click here.

A recipe (untested by me) for Ezekiel bread – the title comes from an instruction given to Ezekiel by God in Ezekiel 4:9 - (using sprouted grains and peas) is also available.   
 
Grain Supply

We quickly realised that maintaining a constant source of grain supply would at some point in time become essential. As we prayed into this, we felt led to explore the whole subject of setting up our own wholesale trading company for the highest quality Canadian red wheat. We called the project Kingdom Grain.

The ability to mill flour from raw grain is one of the most basic essentials of emergency planning.

What is Kingdom Grain?

It is a seedbank for those who…

• See their assets as wholly God’s and not exclusively their own.
• Are willing to freely offer their assets for the common good in the Kingdom of God. 

Kingdom Grain is essentially a wholesaler that uses common wealth ‘seed’ to:

• Purchase stocks of different types of grain and seed.
• Purchase or lease farms, grain drying and storage facilities in strategic regionally placed areas.
• Co-operate with members who hold & maintain stocks of grain for Kingdom Grain co-operatives.
• Trade with independent locally organised trading co-operatives.

Nick Szkiler went twice to Canada to talk with various farmers, trading co-operatives and shipping companies. He also became a dealer in hand-operated grain mills. The ability to mill flour from raw grain is one of the most basic essentials of emergency planning. (Please see Nick’s own website or contact him through Issachar People for more information).

Grain will be the new gold

In 2014 Nick set aside a whole year to the making of a film, Grain Will Be the New Gold. You can view the film here. The title came from a prophetic word, but the inspiration came from Revelation 6:5-6.

‘When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
 

In 2014 Nick set aside a whole year to the making of a film, 'Grain Will Be the New Gold'. 

To be a workable entity, Kingdom Grain needs the Body of Christ to give selflessly and have a genuine desire to work together. We sense this might only be possible once a certain period of history has been reached. However, everything is already set in place for when the Lord moves His people to perceive the need and release the financial resources to make it become reality.

Kingdom Grain and Local Trading Co-operatives

Kingdom Grain would essentially act as a wholesale company but its objective is to be a supplier to smaller local trading groups or co-operatives. So, amongst the members of our prayer house community, we put this into practice by setting up a local trading co-operative, through which we traded goods and food supplies among ourselves.

What follows are the outlines on how to go about setting up your own local trading co-operative.¹

What are Local Trading Co-operatives?

The idea behind local trading co-operatives involves:

• A locally organised trading system made up of members; a mutually co-operating community which conforms to agreed objectives and principles.
• Trading comprises either exchange or payment for goods.
• Any profit (dividend) is based on consumption (i.e. trading), not on investment.
• Every member has an equal say and voting right.
• Members may participate other than through trading.
• A response to the Christian community’s needs.
• Ability to maintain stability of food supply to the community in times of national upheaval or persecution.

 
Starting a Local Trading Co-operative – An Overview

Sowing the Seed

• Share the vision with those around you; your fellowship group, local congregation or family members.
• Gather a group of interested people together to talk through the following:
  • Identifying what your co-op is for.
  • Identifying the criteria for membership.
  • Identifying who your founding members are.
• It’s about building community, so share the load by accepting responsibilities.
• Plan and organise your start-up financing (lump sum, weekly or monthly subscription?).
• How are you planning to begin trading?
  • What will your ‘currency’ be? (ours was different coloured Oxo cubes: Red was worth x, yellow was worth y and green was worth z).

Do you need to open a bank account in the world’s system or will your co-op only use an alternative form of local currency?

Growing the Idea

Once the core group has been established, you then need to think through and plan the practical organisation. For example:

• How will it work?
• What stock will you keep? Where will it be based?
• Who will you trade with outside of your own group?
• Who will run it? Volunteers or paid staff? Do you need to train them?
• Who are your customers?
• What are you going to do with the profits? E.g. how will dividends be distributed; e.g. via tokens, stamps or goods?
• Do you need to open a bank account in the world’s system or will your co-op only use an alternative form of local currency?

You will be sure to encounter lots of challenges in becoming involved in this. (Please note; a helpful pdf document showing the content of the above is available here).

Activating Faith

One of the repeated criticisms received over the years we have carried this message is that to create a storehouse is in some way to counteract our faith in God, who is our Provision. Will He not always supernaturally provide for us? Whilst well meant, this argument does not hold up biblically. In previous articles, we explored the story of Joseph and referred to the accounts of Noah and Ezekiel.

God clearly fed Elijah through the ravens at the Kerith ravine: “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” (1 Kings 17:6). But that was an exception, not a rule.
 

As long as we do our part and set aside what He asks us to, we can be certain that He will definitely do His part too, and in some way multiply that which we have prepared.

In Matthew 14:13-21 Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes that were presented to Him and multiplied them to feed the crowd of five thousand. This miracle of multiplication is repeated in Mark 8:1-9 in the feeding of the four thousand. In Matthew 25, the virgins who failed to prepare their lamps beforehand were resoundingly shut out.

The understanding we have arrived at is this: if we will exercise our faith by asking God to instruct us in exactly what preparations we are each to make (and this will differ for every household) and then do it obediently, we can confidently go forward believing that He will continue to lead, guide and teach us as to what to do, where to go and whom to partner with when those resources begin to run low.

He is our faithful covenant partner; He is always on our side and will never let us down. So as long as we do our part and set aside what He asks us to, we can be certain that He will definitely do His part too, and in some way multiply that which we have prepared.

Think: What is your reaction to what has been written over the past weeks concerning the vulnerability of our national food supply? Have you thought through how you might begin to provide basic food for your household in an emergency? Do you already have a form of storehouse? Are you part of a local group with whom you could set up a local trading co-operative?
 
Endnote

1. Nick and I hope to run a short series of webinars on Kingdom Grain and the things discussed in this series, so if you are interested in attending then please register your interest by contacting me sarah@issacharpeople.org.