The Golden Grain

American Thinker noted in February 2012,

“There is no quicker way to foment riots and revolution than to deprive the populace of food, particularly when so much daily income goes into feeding oneself and one's family. The pictures we have seen in North Africa may well be repeated elsewhere throughout the world.”

As Nation after Nation bartered for the last morsels of what would be turned into the liquid more precious than gold, a massive outcry began! The hollow skeletons that lined the streets waiting for a sympathizer to offer them even a scrap were about to unleash a cataclysm that would change the world forever.

The African Nation had nearly fallen two decades ago, no more than a bone yard of human and animal carcasses. It was a wasteland with contaminated muddy pools where rivers once flowed. The rain had nearly ceased to exist long ago and without the heavenly drops there was not enough grain to feed neither man nor beast and the population suffered an ecological holocaust. Greece and Portugal both met similar fates within the next decade.

What was left were a hand full of Nations made up off Scavengers, Sympathizers and Grain Moguls! The Grain Moguls were the filthy rich who sucked dry the oil reserves and were now starving the populace for their opulent life styles. They could be seen driving in armored vehicles going from compound to compound alleging that scavengers were nothing more than parasites or servants. With a heart kept secret from the Grain Moguls, Sympathizers would cross class lines and save their scraps for Scavengers and hire some as Household Help, Riders (those who rode bicycles to run errands within the compound) and Keepers (those who had once been trained as Military, Police or Security) to guard their homes.

The World Union knew decades ago that the natural oil supply was becoming depleted and soon the Oil Barons would have little to sell or trade. The Balance of power would shift and the Nations that were plentiful in Grain would rise to power. South America's Argentina, Brazil , China, Paraguay, India and Canada produced soybeans. Wheat was the major crop of China, India, the United States, Russia (Who cut off all grain exports before anyone else) France, Canada, Australia, Germany, Pakistan and Turkey. Rice was most ample in China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Brazil and Japan. Rice required a significant amount of fresh water to flourish so those countries without desalinization plants available to flood their crops died off as the climate changed. The once rich farm lands of the United States, Thailand, China, South Africa, Hungary and the European Union produced corn.

Those producers that survived the extensive droughts and decline of the shipping trade rose to power! Those who didn't became Scavenger Countries like Africa, Canada and Paraguay or died off all together like Chile, the Middle East area's of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Somalia, and Central Asia's Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and other desert regions. Shipping had come to a near halt without ample trade and plentiful fuel to move the mighty warriors. With no trade, all of the Island Countries and States became uninhabited. They were abandoned by those who were rich enough to buy or barter their way off the Islands or they were surrendered by the grave!

The worlds population had fallen from 12.993 billion to a sickly 4.330 billion in four decades! It was about to take another drastic plunge!

"A world that burns its food for fuel, is a world that eventually kills itself." This was the warning given by Prince Ja'Saron of the African Nation as he helplessly contemplated the dead and dying that surrounded him. He and his beloved people would soon be no more than an echo!

It would take a famine like no other to bring North and South Africa together as one Nation but that is exactly what happened! The rain had begun to decline decades ago and now nothing was left but a sweltering, dusty and dying land. The once life giving rivers and streams were nothing more than muddy, contaminated pools. Famine and disease could not be stopped with empty harbors and vacated airports. They were on their own, both man and beast!

The Saharan, Libyan, Nubian and Western Desert of Egypt, just to the west of the Nile, and the Kalahari populace as well as the populace of the Sahel border region (which is a wide stretch of land running completely across north-central Africa, just on the southern edges of the Sahara Desert.) succumbed to the harsh environment first. A migration of humans began to the coast where desalination plants had been built near fertile land in the hopes of finding work for food. Those who were not defeated by the elements, by disease or starvation were given whatever work they could find, others became Scavengers.

Prince Ja'Saron, was a popular ruler with the Workers, Guards and Scavengers, but not so with the Grain Moguls. He was against using Grain for fuel while people suffered and died due to starvation and disease. He refused to ride in an armored vehicle that burned life giving food. He walked or rode on a rickshaw but never used liquid fuel! The Prince fed as many of his people as he could each day from the National Store House. Wheat, Rice, Millet, Barley, Corn and Teff came from the African National Grain Fields. The National Farms and Groves yielded Potatoes, Yams, Onions, Cabbage, Lettuce, Legumes, Tomatoes, Oranges, Apples, Peaches, Pears and Melons. The main sources of Protein were Fish and Legumes. There were few Goats, Chickens, Beef and Sheep as the climate change made for little grazing opportunities and the Grain was needed to feed the human population. Only the rich within the compounds dined on such opulence!

The National Grain Fields were sparse, insufficient for the population and Prince Ja'Saron refused to turn them over to Grain Moguls without a fight! The Moguls were strong, They were well fed and had weapons. Though the Prince held a ruling title, he and his army were weak from hunger and had access to few modern weapons. What the Pirates did not get, the Mogul contingent took during their raids. But, those who were loyal to the Prince gazed into their rich history and made archaic weapons such as spears, clubs, poison darts, bows and arrows etc... These were shrewd warriors willing to give their lives for their leader and they were gathering together from all points and ready to strike back! The Moguls had no idea what was about to happen. There is nothing more dangerous, than a man who has nothing left to lose!

Living comfortable lives within their compounds the Grain Moguls stole Grain from the National Grain Fields, bought it from rogue scavengers or used Grain from their private plantations. They traded with Pirates for commodities like alcohol, clothing, soap, perfumes, canned goods, tobacco and other luxuries. Each compound had Bio-Fuel processing facilities which allowed them the indulgence of driving automobiles within the compound and on occasion, compound to compound or to the rarely used Harbor for trade. Grain and Bio-Fuel were worth more than anything else on the trade market.

The Prince's army would have to fight their way into these compounds and destroy the Bio-Fuel processing facilities if they had any chance of taking down the Moguls. The first strike would have to be well planned out and flawlessly performed because there would be little chance of a second attack. There would be no turning back once Ja'Saron's army destroyed the processing facilities. It would trigger the beginning of a bloody war!

If anything was worth dying for, it was stopping Grain Moguls from continuing to produce Bio-fuel while millions of people were dying of starvation all over the world!