World leaders are warning us of devastating food shortages. Two-thirds of European fertilizer production has already been shut down, global currencies are plummeting making global trade harder and bird flu is killing millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys causing a meat shortage. In the U.S. more than 2,000 barges have been stranded due to low water levels, stopping delivery of aluminum, petroleum, fertilizer and coal, particularly on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. About 60% of the grain and 54% of the soybeans for U.S. export are moved via the noble barge. Barges touch more than a third of our exported coal as well. No wonder Jeff Bezos says that it is time to "batten down the hatches."