All you pollyannas can just move along, nothing to see here. Everthing will be taken care of. Just a temporary glitch in the matrix.
Here is today's small sampling of "food insufficiency" stories. Billy may be right, this appears to be a possible "Perfect Storm", or the fulfillment of Dr. Kissinger's proposal.
Any of you Right or Left Coasters have anything reportable on the first article? We can no longer get Lundberg Farms rice here in our town. This has happened in the last week. Food prices are going thru the roof in a big hurry, produce from the fresh sections is outta sight. Cauliflower is 3.00 +, brocolli same, Iceberg Lettuce 1.68, and these are the common items. I picked up a bag of organic gala apples at
1.98#... twelve bucks for the small bag. Unorganic apples are 1.78#. Meat and eggs are going up weekly. Gas is at 3.35 and diesel is 4.12. Oil passed 117.50 today.
It's fast becoming a matter of backing up and remembering and doing as our parents and grands did, to a degree. We have some cush, just gotta give up some of the extraneous horsecrap, eh?
And enlarge our own growing capacity. Both my sons, *and* DILs are finally onboard and borrowing all the garden info and bookmarks I have.
Those hunnert and fitty issues of TMEN sittin' on the shelf are gonna be the new bibles in the future. ;-)
I'll be stocking up on the low sodium (No salt added) canned veggies before they go any higher... Water costs for gardening eat me alive so it's not economically feasible to make it more than just a hobby. :-(
I'll be studying more of the Texas native edible plants. Zeroscape items that don't need to be babied/watered.
I'll also stock up on ammo so I can hunt my own meat...
Squirrel is tasty in season and I have a hunting license. Same for fishing wild fishies. Deer are also plentiful and I have somewhere I can hunt without having to pay a $1,000.00 hunting lease!
I'm glad that there are still the commons (property of the people, for the people) to e used. Most of it was cut down, destroying the game and plants to be found there, the recharging the aquifers and clean water, the preservation of the top soil, and the cleaning of the air. Sounds like you have some private property lined up but this used to be every person's right before the commons were taken. The oceans are being closed as well as they are the last vestiges of the commons. Grand Banks are fished out. There will be no salmon season on the west coast as we try to save the salmon from extinction. Farmed salmon just isn't the same, nutritionally or in terms of genetic diversity. You probably saw Jerod Diamond's article. "The Worst Mistake of the Human Race".
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.pdf It argues that we never had it so good as when we were hunter gatherers.
You may want to check out xeriplants.pdf
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a mish-mash of landscaping and garden plants. Thanks to Jangchub, I'm trying to grow prickly pear cactus now:-) The county enjoyed how we conserved last year, so they raised the water rates, and now we get to do it again.
Yes, it is private property. Unlike California, pretty much all of the land it Texas IS private property except for the few and far between State Parks, but hunting on those is regulated too.
Still plenty of places to fish here. Fishing fees run the hatcheries so waterways get restocked.
Indeed. For one thing, it limited the population to sustainable levels.
You need some spineless prickly pear pads to use as starts? There is a HUGE one just up the road from me.
Omelet wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.giganews.com:
ooo. i could use some spineless PP pads. please? the pink ones from Jangchub are too cute to feed the torties (unless they grow really really fast). lee
Same here. Started that already and need to make a run to the bookstore.
Check this article in WSJ. Food as an investment. Bottom line is, things look....not good.
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Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.
"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)
Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you'll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.
Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.
And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.
These are trends that have been in place for some time.
And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.
Tastes pretty good out of season too, if necessary. ;-)
Good on ya! Both my boys were here this morning, I had sent them this article. They took off for the store and are beginning to build their inventory. I found buckets and gaskets lids at the lumberyard and we are going to start packing soon. The grocery in town carries dry ice, so we're set on that account.
Don't forget seeds. Heirlooms if possible. This year I intend to hit the stores at the end of the planting season and buy large quantities of seeds, hybrids and all, when they go on sale for next to nothing and pack some longterm buckets of them. Cheap insurance, one shot for the hybrids, but a seasons worth of food anyway.
Same here.
Sure isn't, but if folks think things thru, prepare to whatever degree they feel is prudent, and learn to simplify, some may make it ok. We have been discussing making the shift right now, as if things had downturned severely already, both to increase our skills and to get in the mindset of making do with less. Plus it will be healthier. And save us some cash that we can use on necessities.
It is going to be difficult... very, very difficult for many, if not most of us. You, like us, have family. This is a great benefit. Community of some sort is a necessary aspect of making it thru difficult times.
The spectre of food rationing arose in America today as retailers began imposing limits on rice and flour sales following bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing global prices for staple foods.
Wal-Mart's cash-and-carry division, Sam's Club, announced that it would only sell a maximum of four bags of rice per person to prevent supplies from running short.
Its decision followed sporadic caps placed on purchases of rice and flour by certain store managers at a rival bulk chain, Costco, in parts of California.
The commodity cost of rice hit an all-time high on the Chicago Board of Trade this week and in some stores, retail prices have doubled over the course of a few weeks.
Retail experts said there was little evidence of "panic" hoarding by the public - but that restaurants and smaller retailers were buying up stocks at warehouse wholesalers in the expectation that the cost was heading even higher. Shops said Filippino residents in the US were also making large purchases to send to relatives in the Philippines, where a shortage of supplies is causing concern.
"What you're seeing is people who buy in larger quantities, who have a restaurant or a corner store, stocking up because of media reports that prices could go higher," said Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the Californian Grocers' Association.
Since the beginning of the year, rice producing countries including China, India, Vietnam and Egypt have imposed limits on exports in order to keep prices down at home. This week, a top World Bank official predicted that Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, might follow in restricting shipments.
Restrictions at Sam's Club, which has 580 warehouse stores across the US, apply to Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rices - the type typically used for dishes such as curry. The chain said the limits were "due to recent supply and demand trends".
At Costco, chief executive James Sinegal said only very large purchases would face sanctions: "If a customer came in and said 'I want 10 pallets of flour', we'd probably say, 'No we can't give you that. We can give you one pallet.'"
The owner of one restaurant in Oakland told a local television station that the price of a typical sack of rice had risen from $20 to $40 in a matter of weeks. Son Tran of the Le Cheval Vietnamese restaurant said his stockpiles were dwindling - and that the price of some vegetables had also risen by as much as 50%.
Industry leaders sought to calm fears. Tim Johnson, chief executive of the California Rice Commission, said there was no prospect of an overall shortage of food - and that stores' supplies were quickly being replenished.
"The reality is, at least for the next several years, we've seen a new level for what food costs are going to be in the US and probably internationally, too," said Johnson, who added that a typical serving of rice cost less than 10 cents. "It's still the best deal on your plate."
I called my sister to see what she wants me to store. We have a bunch of storage cabinets on the sun porch, and I think I can combine or get rid of some of the stuff stored out there to make some space.
Cabela's is also having an ammo sale.
Also be sure to clean, dry and store what seeds you can from grocery items such as winter squashes. The grocery store beans also grow rather well. I've done that. :-)
:-)
Yes. I started cutting "luxury" spending a couple of years ago so I'm in better shape right now. I'm considering cashing in some mutual funds to pay off the house, altho' I'm a bit loath to do that as I'd have to pay tax on that "income".
Screw Sam's. The Asian market in Austin has a LOT more rice for a lot better prices! In fact they have a LOT of healthy, bulk dry goods as well as some of the more tasty canned goods for lower prices.
I'll clean out the back of my truck and make a trip down there. I usually freeze or refrigerate bulk rice since I have the space to do so.
We need to so the same with wheat and corn here. Start using more of it domestically instead of selling it. Take care of home FIRST!
And be sure to add beans... Beans are also very easy and fast to grow. I'm planning on putting in a bunch and doing only container gardening to save on water.
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