Possibility Food Storage

[Mullenite]

Food Storage

March spring flooding has all but wiped out wheat crops in Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri...Much of the remaining U.S. wheat has been pre-sold to foreign countries

April 5, 2008

North Star Talk Radio

Recent news stories have alluded to the possibility of famine in America in 2008 and I believe we may be headed down that road. In all the news reports I've seen, this year's wheat crop is pretty much destroyed worldwide. Agriculture experts and economists are following worldwide weather trends and crop damage and it's not looking good.

AP News has been reporting that the March 2008 spring flooding has all but eradicated Arkansas' spring wheat crop and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri all are reporting similar conditions. Much of the remaining U.S. wheat crop has been pre-sold to foreign countries, therefore it will be domestic supplies that run out first. In fact, wheat reserves in the United States are at their lowest levels since the Depression. Although initially price controls will keep the prices of breads, cereals and other wheat-based products stable, eventually, prices will have to rise in order to keep these industries afloat.

Rain & hail storms in Thailand, Pakistan, and the Middle East are threatening or have already destroyed this years wheat crop. And that is from this mornings newswires. While dry weather in India, the world's second largest wheat producer, has contributed to global supply tightness. India's grain-belt has been stricken with long periods of drought since December, threatening roughly half the country's 2.8 billion bushel crop. "They're stuck in that (dry) pattern. The damage isn't done yet, but it will be done if we stay in this pattern for the next two or three weeks," Jason Ward, analyst with Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis said.

U.S. wheat stockpiles have thinned as bad weather has battered crop after crop around the world, most recently in Argentina and India. The scarcity has fed seemingly relentless demand for wheat supplies, often at any cost. U.S. wheat exporters have sold more than 15 million bushels a week for seven of the last 11 weeks, well above the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly target of about 1 million bushels a week.

The United Nations News is reporting that a new fungus has been discovered in Uganda and the Middle East that is spreading and is also having a serious impact on wheat yields in affected countries.

The food shortage is so bad in Haiti that people are eating mud cookies. Yes, cookies made from dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau and some people can't afford to make those because unless they can make the trip to get the dirt they can't make the mud to make the cookies. Crazy huh? I can't make this stuff up - Google Haitians Eating Dirt and read the story on ABC News or any of the other agencies reporting it.

We take our food for granted and we're all just one season away from a major famine or terrorist threat. And wheat isn't the only thing that's scarce. Corn for food is scarce because farmers are growing Genetically-Modified crops for ethanol production and GMO corn for ethanol isn't edible. Or at least is doesn't taste good.

Since October 2006, 35% of the Western honey bee population - billions of bees - has disappeared in the United States. It's called Colony Collapse Disorder and by the end of 2007 reports of similar occurrences have flooded in from many other countries. It is thought to be related to certain microscopic ticks attaching themselves to the honey bees or genetically modified crops - experts can't seem to agree on anything except that the bees are gone. While this has already started a rise in honey prices, and seriously affecting my Mead production, the actual impact of the honey bee decimation will be catastrophic. Honey bees are needed to pollinate more than 30% of the crops in the United States. Without pollination, fruit and vegetables don't grow. Major crop producers are already seeing the impact on their crops and prices will rise as the honey bee decimation continues.

Couple all of this with rising fuel & transportation costs and crops being grown for uses other than eating and we're in a crisis that we may not be able to recover from.

So what do you do?

You start by making a list. How many people do you need to feed? What do you need to feed them? Choose foods that make sense for your family. If you store 100 pounds of wheat berries do you even know what to do with them? Will your family eat them? Our motto is "Store what you eat, eat what you store and store 6 months to one year's worth MINIMUM."

Your main storage items will be what are called "staples". This includes flour, sugar, salt, yeast, water and canned goods. These items are bought in the bags you get at the grocery or if you buy in bulk they're in large 25-50 pound bags. We repackage these items in buckets with Gamma lids which allow us to upon and close the buckets easily. You can get buckets free sometimes by contacting local restaurants & bakeries. Wash with hot soapy water, rinse with some bleach water and let them dry in the sun which also helps to kill germs.

Do you have a bread machine? They're crazy inexpensive now and a breeze to use. Buy flour and ingredients when they're on sale. Bread is cheaper to make at home and tastes a thousand times better. At a $1.39 a loaf and up you can literally make it for pennies. You can also make pizza dough, breakfast rolls, etc. And once you find out how much you love fresh breads learn how to do it by hand in case the power goes out and you can't use your bread machine. Everything that the machine does you can do by hand. You can bake on a gas grill or in your woodstove or even in a bonfire if you have the right tools.

Shop the sales. Each week when you get the store ads check out what's on special and stock up on it if it's a great price. If you've made your list then you know what your family eats. I keep receipts and keep track of what items like ketchup, mayonnaise, soup, and cereal costs. When it's on sale I can see what I paid last time and if it's a deal I'll stock up and get extras. You should always put a stock-up buffer in your grocery budget. That way if there's a huge deal then make it worthwhile.

Where are you going to put all this stuff? If you have a pantry or closet then great but cases of canned food stack easy and you can rotate the stuff into your cupboards. You can store cases under beds, under your desk, in a garage, up against a wall covered with a table cloth. I've had several tables made out of stacked buckets of sugar, salt & flour topped with a round piece of wood and covered with a table cloth. It was some of the most useful furniture I ever had. One of the main things to remember is keep your food in a cool, dry place if you can. It'll extend the shelf-life. Make room for your own food supply or you'll be standing in food lines waiting for government bread, government cheese, soup, milk and toilet paper.

If you can afford it, buy a freezer. We got our upright used. Occasionally you may have to have it repaired but it's worth the investment when prices are high. Chest freezers work best but they're hard to search through if you have a large variety of items. Uprights are easier to inventory. Buy meats in bulk and break them down into smaller packages or if the butcher department has a sale, have them wrap it for you in individually packed sizes like one or two pounds per pack. It's no extra charge and saves you from having to buy paper and tape. I always stop by that department first, tell them what I need like 20 pounds of ground beef in 1 pound packs and I tell them I'll come back for it. They'll remember you and appreciate that you gave them the extra time and you can use it to go stock your cart with other sale items & groceries.

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[ruthiechan]

Merciful heavens, if that's not an incentive to start I don't know what is.

[MorningStar]

Yay! We just got a bread machine for Christmas. But it says you're supposed to use special bread machine flour. I wonder what would happen if we used another kind? Well, doesn't matter. I have a garlic herb focaccia bread recipe and all you need for that is a cookie sheet to cook it on. :) You dip it in olive oil and it's very yummy. I like to buy grated Parmesan cheese when it's on sale. It doesn't have to go in the fridge until you open it.

We like pasta a lot too and have a huge bag of rice. Our food storage situation has been frustrating because we have very little room for it. We do have some bags of wheat - Don't know how long they'll last for.

[crytsprospect]

We have just moved so are able to reinventory our situation . We really have to stock up on essentials and have to store some Gasoline as we live so far from town. Propane and I never hear anyone talk about sterno but I love those little cans they are cheap and easy to use for heating water soup etc. toilet paper we are low on and used alot of our foodstuffs this last winter so we start again.:)

[a-train]

Certainly this winter seemingly will not end.

-a-train

[crytsprospect]

We have sun and high 70s today but it snowed 2 days ago and still have snow on the ground.

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