Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Load Up The Pantry

From the Wall Street Journal:

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008 6:47 p.m.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

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.

Full article here.

I am currently looking into getting setup to seal bulk purchases into mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, so they don't spoil before we use them. I'll be posting about that. In the meantime, another good read is this food storage FAQ.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No offense, but this is ridiculous.

It's thoughts and posts like this that are driving this increase in prices. I will agree, prices are going up due to rising demand. However, it's not the end of the world.

Currently, we're paying farmers to grow corn for ethanol fuel. We can do just the same with rice, grain, etc. Changes should be made, and when they do, the price will come down again.

In my opinion, this whole panic is unnecessary and way overblown

Anonymous said...

Dave excellent post and great advice. Currently the US has maybe a weeks supply of food in the stores and distribution centers. One disaster could wipe out a good portion of this food. We need to take a more proactive approach to food storage and lay in enough for for our entire family that last at least 3-4 months, a year would be better. There will always be the nay sayers that believe the government will take care of us, but that will not be the case.
I applaud your decision to start stockpiling rice and other food stuff, we are doing the same thing here in our household (been doing so for a while).
Thanks

Steve in Colorado

riverwalker said...

Remember! Store what you eat and eat what you store.

bdoga said...

Food Storage is a very important commodity. I have found that having a little extra food stored away can give you some amazing peace of mind. A company that I have worked with in securing additional food storage and becoming more prepared is Josephs Storehouse (Preparedness = Peace of Mind). This helps you to avoid the rush when a disaster happens.