Devastating Fire at Historic Oregon Flour Mill | በታሪካዊው የኦሪገን የዱቄት ፋብሪካ ላይ አውዳሚ እሳት

A historic flour mill in Oregon owned by the nation’s biggest independent flour milling company has been completely destroyed by a fire.

Authorities are describing the Grain Craft mill in Pendleton as a total loss after a small fire that began on Tuesday afternoon reignited early Wednesday morning while the building was empty, fully engulfing the mill due to the significant amount of dry grain it was housing as well as its wood structure.

Pendleton Assistant Fire Chief Tony Pierotti told the media that the fuel load was “extreme” because the silos were filled with finished grain.

Authorities have been keeping the area clear in anticipation of the potential collapse of the building, which is more than 100 years old, as well as the amount of slow-burning grain. The mill is surrounded by the county courthouse as well as businesses and homes.

The fire was reportedly caused by mechanical failure that may be related to a sifter’s filter. Police Chief Charles Byram said: “It happened in the mill itself, with one of the pieces of equipment, with a rubber bushing or housing that obviously got too hot and started the fire.”

There were no injuries, but some buildings in the immediate area sustained smoke and water damage. The mill had been processing a significant amount of flour as the fire occurred right in the middle of harvest season.

Although an exact figure was not available, employees of the mill have estimated that there were “hundreds of thousands of pounds of processed flour in the bins.” An estimated cost of the damages is not yet available.

The company is now working with Pacific Northwest wheat farmers to handle the excess supply. Although they have never disclosed the building’s production capacity and it is difficult to determine the full extent of the damage, the president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, Ben Maney, said that a substantial number of area farmers bring their grain to the facility, which he described as a staple in the Pendleton community.

Fire yet another hit for struggling wheat farmers

Maney said the fire is just the latest hit for growers who are still struggling after the severe drought of last year. Some crops rebounded thanks to the spring rains this year, but many farmers lack home storage for their grain and relied on the mill.

He noted: “A lot of farmers don’t have home storage, and they can’t store that grain on their farm. For this heartbreaking event to happen today, it puts the community and a lot of the farmers in a tough situation. It hits the community hard.”

The farmer-owned flour company Shepherd’s Grain emailed customers to inform them of an interruption in flour supply as they work on a contingency plan and get wheat staged to be moved to another mill.

Byram pointed out that the fire will have a big impact on Pendleton, stating: “They’re a major employer; we are obviously an agricultural community that does a lot of dryland wheat farming. Wheat farmers from the surrounding area bring their wheat in here to the Pendleton flour mill. It’s yet to be determined what the impact is, but I can gauge it’s going to be significant.”

The mill makes flour for several types of foods, including tortillas and pizza. Oregon is America’s 11th biggest producer of wheat, and the crop is the third biggest cash crop for the state. Up to 90 percent of the wheat that is produced in Oregon is shipped to markets overseas, especially in Asia.

💭 Texas & Tegray (Ethiopia) Massacres + Tedros (TE) & The Queen | ትግራይና ቴክሳስ + ቴድሮስ & ንግሥቲቱ

💭 Ancient Grain – Gluten-free “Super Food„– TEFF Takes Root on US Plains

💭 Exotic, Gluten-Free Grain Grows in Popularity — Enough to Cause a Dust-Up in Eastern Oregon

A little-known grain from the Horn of Africa — billed as the next wave in America’s quest for healthy foods — is proving that competition for a hot commodity can get downright nasty.

Only a few thousand acres of Oregon farmland are believed devoted to the production of teff. But people suffering from gluten intolerance together with immigrants hungry for traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean ethnic dishes are driving up the domestic demand for the iron-rich grain.

All of which appears to have played into an angry clash between rival teff traders in the out-of-the-way Starlite Cafe last year in Vale.

❖ Teff Hotspots in the US:

• ☆ Texas
• ☆ Idaho
• ☆ Oregon
• ☆ California
• ☆ Nevada
• ☆ TExas
• ☆ TEgray (Tigray)
• ☆ TEdros (Tigray Native)
• ☆ TEff
• ☆ Anagram: OREGON = NEGRO

💭 Cricket Apocalypse: ‘Biblical’ Swarms of Giant Mormon Crickets Destroying Crops in US West + Texas

💭 ከእነ ለተሰንበት ‘ንግሥተ ሳባ‘ ግደይ ወርቅ ጀርባ ያለችው ጽዮን ማርያም እንጅ ደራርቱ ቱሉ አይደለችም

በአሜሪካዋ ኦሬጎን ግዛት ለተሰንበት ‘ንግሥተ ሳባ‘ ግድይ በሰንበት ዕለት የወርቁን መጋረጃ ባርካ ከፈተችው ፥ በካሊ ኮሎምብያ ደግሞ ወጣት ሃይሎም እንዲሁ በስነበት ዕለት በአስገራሚ መልክ የወርቅ ሜዳሊያ ለጽዮናዊቷ ኢትዮጵያ አምጥታ ውድድሩን ዘጋችው። ጽዮናዊቷ ትዮጵያ በኮሎምቢያ በተደረገውን የዓለም ከ፳/20 አመት በታች አትሌቲክስ ሻምፒዮና ውድድርን ፮/6 ወርቅ፣ ፭/5 ብር እና ፩/1 ነሀስ በድምሩ ፲፪/12 ሜዳልያዎችን አግኝታለች። በአጠቃላይ ከአሜሪካና ጃሜይካ ቀጥሎ ከዓለም ፫/3ኛ ከአፍሪካ ደሞ አንደኛ በመሆን ውድድሩን አጠናቃለች።

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New Study Reveals That Bible Prophecy Is On Target As Turkey And Other Nations Have Been Experiencing The Worst Drought It Has Ever Seen For The Past 900 Years

Drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean, especially in Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and the West Bank was likely the worst of the past nine centuries, according to a study from NASA.

Its called The Levant drought. The study found that the 1998-2012 period was drier than the previous driest interval in the time period in question, which occurred during the years from 1205 to 1219. In other words, this was the driest 15-year period of the last 900 years, and a 98 percent likelihood that it was the driest 15-year period of the last 500 years.

This is a worrisome prediction for the Pentagon and intelligence community, who see water stress and population growth as two factors that are likely to tip the scale toward more conflict and humanitarian crises in the coming decades.

And its not only in the Levant. North America, Europe and Australia lost about 20 percent of its crop from droughts since 1964 and 2007.

Richard Seager, a researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Observatory in New York stated:

“[The study] truly backs up our contention… that the Syria drought was unusual and influenced by human-driven climate change. As such, it places more confidence in model projections that drying will continue and intensify across Middle East in coming decades and, yes, cause more trouble in a water scarce area”

While I always replace “climate change” to “God decided to change the climate”, by 2011, drought-related crop failure had pushed up to 1.5 million displaced farmers to abandon their land; the displaced became a wellspring of recruits for the Free Syrian Army and for ISIS and al Qaeda. Testimonies gathered by reporters and activists in conflict zones suggest that the lack of government help during the drought was a central motivating factor in the antigovernment rebellion. Moreover, a 2011 study shows that today’s rebel strongholds of Aleppo, Deir al-Zour, and Raqqa were among the areas hardest hit by crop failure.

In other words, drought changed the economic, social, and political landscape of Syria. Iraq, already reeling from ISIS and sectarian tension, could be next.

Satellite image showing Syria at focal point of Middle East drought.

What also plays a major factor besides drought is the human factor. Keep in mind that the fall of the Ottoman Empire between the eighteenth century to the mid nineteenth century was caused by revolts which disrupted the established food supplies of the empire and caused large-scale famines to starve the major cities on a regular basis. In response, the urban populace became a restless, misruled, and anarchic mass that broke loose at the slightest provocation, responding to unemployment, famine, and plague with riots and summary executions of the officials considered responsible. This caused the Ottoman collapse.

What the Ottomans did in pouring their wrath on Christendom finally caused God to pour His wrath: “until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” (Daniel 9:27) (more on that on our coming Sunday Special)

There will be no difference between the collapse of this first beast and its resurrected version of the Caliphate soon to arise, except that this unfolding will happen at a much faster pace as final “birth pangs”.

The Bible predicted that a war will erupt where Turkey with other Muslim nations will invade Jerusalem over the issue of food (Ezekiel 38:13) and that the price of wheat will skyrocket “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius …” (Revelation 6:6)

In other words, this Syrian drought, and the cataclysmic conflict that has been a related result, may be just the beginning of a long period of water stress and instability in the once-fertile Levant region.

This year, Morocco’s drought wiped out half of its wheat harvest — devastating a country where even the King has called on the nation to pray for rain. The driest start to winter in two decades in the center of the country has decimated crops in Africa’s second-biggest wheat grower, where just 15 percent of fields are irrigated. Imports may double to a record next season to account for the reduced harvest, a Bloomberg survey of six analysts showed.

Moroccans consume more than three times as much wheat as the global average, eating it in everything from thick soups to filo-dough pastry. The grain is a staple in North Africa, where higher food costs and shortages in the past six years helped trigger unrest that led to the toppling of governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The drought evoked King Mohammed VI to lead rare national rain prayers after normal Friday worship for a second time in January.

In Turkey, despite all the talk to cover the problem of a dramatic rise in output, the country has kept importing wheat as the locally produced wheat is of low quality due to unproductive seeds. The productivity level can be increased through certified seeds, according to sector players. The quality problem in wheat production has, however, not been resolved.

“Around 50-60 percent the wheat production is made with certified seeds. That’s why we cannot reach the desired productivity levels. Turkey imports wheat to produce flour as its productivity levels are low. Besides, we need to wait for rainfalls as we cannot do irrigated farming. This also affects both production and quality negatively,” said Agriculturalists’ Association of Turkey (TZD) Chairman İbrahim Yetkin.

WHILE TURKEY HURTS CHRISTIAN RUSSIA WILL POUR OUT GOD’S WRATH

While Turkey has ‘bad wheat’ Russia opposes genetically modified food (GMOs). According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ukraine and Russia are expected to export 39 million tonnes of wheat in the 2015/16 marketing year, a massive 14 percent increase on the record volume of 2014/15. The United States is undeniably bringing up the rear, as it expects to export the lowest wheat volume since 1971/72.

But perhaps what will unfold these biblical prophecies to cause the skyrocket of prices for wheat is not just weather patterns. The continuing geopolitical tensions between Turkey and Russia and export restrictions and deteriorating domestic infrastructure are “pinch points” which will disrupt commodity flows, causing food price spikes and “severe and sustained disruption of critical food supplies”, according to analysts at Chatham House, who are mapping the risks in food commodity trade.

The shipping route from Russia that Black Sea wheat now goes through “is a highly tense region”, says Rob Bailey, research director of Chatham House. Russia exports wheat all the way to Nigeria and Mexico, which have traditionally bought US wheat.

Keep in mind that the increased output of wheat from Russia and Ukraine is sending U.S. exports to a 44-year low, further eroding the appeal for American growers who already are mired in the longest income slump since the 1980s.

As that region depends on Russia and as grain flow from the Black Sea grows, a disruption on the Bosphorus would have a severe impact on international markets. Other transport “chokepoints” for commodities from the region include the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden. 90 per cent of Russian wheat exports go through the Bosphorus. Factoring in harvest shocks from droughts so that “a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius” becomes a fact.

Mounting tensions between Moscow and Ankara are worrying some analysts including an escalation of the Ukrainian situation or a flashpoint in Turkey, that could imperil the passage of ships through the Bosphorus.

And Turkey plays a major role in cutting off water. Kurdistan’s and Iraq’s sources of water are mainly the Tigris and Euphrates, both of which come from outside the country. With this weakness point, and all the troubles going on in the country, Turkey has been working to control the sources of water by building several dams to gain more influence over Kurdistan and Iraq and use this to achieve more political and economic pressure.

In the early 1900s, the American journalist Alfred Henry Lewis famously wrote that there are only nine meals between men and revolution. As the water resources available for agricultural production decline precipitously across the Middle East, we ignore Lewis’ observation at our peril. The Tigris-Euphrates river basin, which feeds Syria and Iraq, is rapidly drying up. This vast area already struggles to support at least ten million conflict-displaced people. And things could soon get worse; Iraq is reaching a crisis point.

Shoebat.com last year reported that between 2003 and 2009, the Tigris-Euphrates basin comprising Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and western Iran “lost groundwater faster than any other place in the world except northern India”. We also have the risk of war between Egypt and Ethiopia due to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, threatening to restrict Egypt’s access to the Nile River, which supplies 98% of Egypt’s water supply.

Turkey, Syria and Iraq are biblically doomed:

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared,” (Revelation 16:10).

The Euphrates stems from Turkey downstream to Syria and Iraq. Egypt too will suffer from the Nile being stopped:

The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry. The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more. The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away. (Isaiah 19:5-8)

“A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius …” (Revelation 6:6)

The price of wheat is addressed in Scripture at a silver denarius per quart for a reason. In New Testament times, the silver coin weight was 3.65 grams. A U.S. mint quarter has 5.625 grams of silver. If we take a measure of wheat to be a quart (32 ounces) and the price of wheat at an average of $332 per 2000 pounds (metric ton) which is 32 cents a quart in today’s prices, then a silver denarius (3.65 grams) is at $3.24. This would mean that the spike in the price of bread will increase to 10 fold.

Imagine buying a loaf of bread for $20. Years from now, folks will read this article to only reflect.

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