Posted on 04/23/2008 5:18:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.
Their pleas did not find a sympathetic audience at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where regulators said high prices are mostly the result of soaring world demand for grains combined with high fuel prices and drought-induced shortages in many countries.
The regulatory clash came amid evidence that a rash of headlines in recent weeks about food riots around the world has prompted some in the United States to stock up on staples.
Costco and other grocery stores in California reported a run on rice, which has forced them to set limits on how many sacks of rice each customer can buy. Filipinos in Canada are scooping up all the rice they can find and shipping it to relatives in the Philippines, which is suffering a severe shortage that is leaving many people hungry.
While farmers here and abroad generally are benefiting from the high prices, even they have been burned by a tidal wave of investors and speculators pouring into the futures markets for corn, wheat, rice and other commodities and who are driving up prices in a way that makes it difficult for farmers to run their businesses.
"Something is wrong," said National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, adding that the CFTC's refusal to rein in speculators will force farmers and consumers to take their case to Congress.
"It may warrant congressional intervention," he said. "The public is all too aware of the recent credit crisis on Wall Street.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Judging by the size of most of the people I see using food stamps, it certainly is.
Onions are easy to grow and many varieties store well.
Anyone with a little room could have grown a bunch.
Store grains and spices in can/freeze jars in the freezer.
Or even on the shelf, with the canning jar lids and bands, they seal very airtight and would restrict an infestation.
I like to save some kinds of peanut butter jars. They come with lids with a rubber gasket built in. I wash them very well, and I’m all set. Then there’s no need to buy canning jars.
And these morons want to manage our healthcare too . . .
I used to store much more stuff when the kids were growing up and I cooked every day. I had a big freezer in addition to the one on the fridge, and we went thru stuff so fast that nothing spoiled.
In 30 years I have never had bugs, but I think S. FL is just a really buggy place (we’ve been here almost 4 years). I was not cooking much, as I was working about 12-15 hours a day, and had gotten lax with storage of things like spices (really pretty bottles with CORK stoppers—dumb, but hey they looked really nice!) I was pretty spoiled from living in dry West TX I think, where you rarely saw bugs/mold/etc.
Anyway, unfortunately, I have very little space here and my freezer is just what comes with the fridge. It’s hard to even keep enough supplies (in my opinion) for hurricanes. But I have started putting everything in either jars (with screw lids like you suggested—I actually have some canning jars stored somewhere, probably the attic, but I may have parted with them when we moved) or freezer ziplock bags, just in case. Those beetles are a BEAR to get rid of tho, and I discovered that they can also live in dried flower arrangements! Perhaps I should have just looked at them as added protein! :)
susie
Yes... home brewers are finding that they are being limited on purchases of hops, and the prices are through the roof (TEN TIMES what they were last year)!
And yes, barley is also rising.
The funny thing is, with the jump in prices, fields are being converted TO hops, after so many were converted away from hops last year!
*blech*
It's amazing what people accomplish under freedom. It's conversely sad to see the suffering under tyrannical elites and governments.
I think it’s time to appropriate Saudi Arabia and Iran and skip this ethanol crap.
Life is becoming like the endless Vista disruptions. I want to ‘restore’ everything to April of last year or so.
I bought a Willamette hops plant from Pinetree Garden Seeds - they had other varieties as well. I haven’t actually started brewing my own beer yet, but I figured laying in supplies for it should be part of any good preparedness plan. I planted grapes for wine this year too.
American Farmer. As a capitalist, with his self interest at heart, the AMerican Farmer can produce more food than any other farmer in the world.
Even as all this nonesense talk about food shortages swirls about, the American farmer has overproduction as one of his 5 top worries.
You mean the looters would actually be taking something they need, not just plasma TVs?
Many renters keep possibly three days food in their apartment or cabin. If they bump that up to five days that would be hoarding according to these Orwellians.
Keep what under wraps? This is all nonsense and is being fed by panic-mongers.
Or beer. Probably not once the looting starts it is a free for all. The entitlement mentality rules all.
I eat so little rice, a 20 lb bag would last me probably 5 years.
There isn’t a US food crisis. Rice is short, because the type of rice the US likes is grown mainly in Asia. And Asia had a cold year last year and a lot of the rice failed.
Beef and pork is so over supplied that farmers are cutting back on their breeding stock. Wheat harvest was great last year, and we still have a corn surplus!
What is going on is that the dollar is tanking, and inflation is MUCH higher than what the CPI funny numbers suggest.
Reusing the jars is fine. But please buy the flats of lids and the re-usuable rings. The rubber seal gets hardened after a proper heating and cooling cycle in the canning process and will not seal a second time.. The food in the jar may not be safe.
You should not take chances on canning jars. A dozen flats are very inexpensive, and the rings are re-usable so they are a one time invstment. Same for good jars. I see most peanut butter is now coming in plastic so you better hold on to every glass jar you can.
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