De facto rationing starting to take place?

 

 Comment: If "The government of Vermont says that it isn’t really accurate", why haven't they issued a response as to what is?.

The Government Wants to Decide What Items Are Essential Purchases and What Things You’re Not Allowed to Buy
April 6, 2020, by IWB

by Daisy Luther

Recent pictures circulating on social media appear to be from a box store that has roped off access to “non-essential” areas of the store, per guidance from ACCD, with various seed packets behind the roped-off section. As stated above, agricultural seeds have been deemed “essential” in Vermont per the Governor’s executive order, however, a homeowner’s access to seeds has been modified to meet the Governor’s executive order.
We’re hoping that retailers and consumers alike restrict in-person shopping to items that need to be purchased in-person and are of a time-sensitive nature. While the state recognizes the importance of gardening as a source of food for many Vermonters, the ability to browse for seeds and purchase them in person doesn’t outweigh the risk of spreading the virus. Retailers can continue to make seeds available online, delivery and curbside. (source)

Okay. You can just buy them online…or can you?
Buying seeds online isn’t an option either.

Almost every seed company readers in the preparedness community have tried to make purchases from has said, sorry, but we’re just selling to commercial operations this year.

Johnny’s Select Seeds has the following announcement on their home page:

Here’s what you can expect as of March 31st, 2020: 

At this time, we are accepting new orders only from commercial farmers shipping to the U.S. and Canada and international wholesale customers. We plan to resume taking orders from all customers on April 14th. This restriction applies to all orders placed via our website, phone, and email. This was a difficult decision and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Commercial Farmers only: Please login to your website account before placing your order or call our contact center at 1-877-564-6697 for assistance. If you have forgotten your password, you can find information on resetting your password here.

Orders placed with our standard shipping option prior to March 31st, 2020 may experience a shipment delay of 5–10 days. Commercial orders placed on or after March 31st, 2020 may experience a shipment delay of 1–2 days.

You may experience a longer than usual response time when you phone in your order, call on us to answer growing questions, or email us to make inquiries.

We have closed our retail store in Winslow, Maine, and will not be hosting farm tours until further notice.

We remain honored that you have chosen Johnny’s. Whether you have been buying from Johnny’s for 25 years or this is your first order, please know that we care deeply about helping you through the challenges of this coronavirus outbreak. Call or email us if you need growing advice or help finding products. (source)

So…you can’t get seeds from your local Walmart garden center if you’re in Vermont and you can’t order seeds from seed stores. Good luck with that garden you were hoping would help see you through this disaster unless you’ve already got seeds put back from previous years.
(emphasis mine) 
 
What can we expect? 

I think it’s extremely likely that Vermont’s idea will catch on and spread across the country. The province of Ontario in Canada has just closed all their hardware stores and is limiting purchases only to curbside pick-up. Here’s what you need to be prepared to see: 

Don’t expect that you’re going to be able to pop over to Lowes or Home Depot to pick up seedlings – or even seeds – for your summer garden.

Don’t expect that you’ll be able to replace your children’s flipflops or sandals for the summer regardless of the growth of their feet – this could be considered “non-essential.”

Don’t expect to be able to replace clothing for growing children – at least not in person.
Don’t expect to get any summer toys for the kids to play with while they’re in the back-yard – non-essential.

Don’t expect to be able to buy a bigger size of pants because you ate all your quarantine candy. You’re going to have to squeeze yourself into your old pants.

Don’t expect to be able to get the fabric to make masks – remember? Craft supplies are non-essential.

Really, don’t expect anything. Because for some reason, it seems like governments want to make an already difficult and stressful time even worse by taking away the possibility for any kind of pleasant past-time unless you already have all the supplies you need for that.

This senseless crackdown not only makes things even more unpleasant, but it takes away even more streams of revenue for struggling businesses. And more than that, it’s limiting our ability to be as self-reliant as possible, leaving people to fight it out at the grocery store for dwindling resources with few options for creating our own food supplies.

Those living in Vermont have unfortunately missed their window for anything but mail order. For the rest of us, if there are some things you were hoping to get – be it new curtains, paint for the living room, tile for the bathroom, pots for your container garden, or the supplies to make a new chicken coop – you’d better get it now before your state follows the lead of Vermont.
What do you think?

Are these restrictions reasonable or some kind of power trip? What’s your advice to people who are new to preparedness and self-reliance? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

About Daisy

Daisy Luther writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. 
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