Posted on 05/23/2010 7:11:30 AM PDT by blam
Load Up The Pantry
By BRETT ARENDS
May 23,2010
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.
"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.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Got food for 6 monthes now,guess it’s time to go for a 1 year supply.Maybe even more than a year would be prudent?
Thanks for another interesting financial post.
> Got food for 6 monthes now,guess it’s time to go for a 1 year supply.Maybe even more than a year would be prudent?
6 months! My wife lived through famine while growing up. We could easily go 3 or 4 years on the sock she’s got hoarded away.
Interesting point. That non-perishable foodstuffs may be a better short-term investment than anything to be found on wall street at the moment.
"Although the food had lost its fresh smell and appearance, the NFPA chemists detected no microbial growth and determined that the foods were as safe to eat as they had been when canned more than 100 years earlier."
Grow you own ping!
I believe this is still a relevant issue but the WSJ site shows this story is from April 21, 2008. Just wanted to point that out.
hummmm... may be a lot of truth to this. Food may be the poor mans gold if he has enough to survive and barter. It stands to reason with this present wrecking crew Administration a food shortage is possible. Just look at the record of the black liberation movement taking over the prosperous colonies in Africa.
We’ve stocked up.
It’s important too to have the means to keep producing your own food. So we’ve also stocked on heirloom seeds and ammo, and planted some fruit trees. The heirloom seeds were a trial and error - we tried one company, and none of them germinated. We then tried Seed Savers and they did pretty well, but it took some trial and error to find varieties that would grow well in the GA heat. This year we are planting seeds I saved, so I feel we’re finally ahead of this curve a bit.
A good book on foraging is nice to have (I’m reasonably sure we will never need it, but I also never thought we’d have a commie in the WH...)
Thanks. I hadn't noticed that. I received this article in a email this morning and just assumed it was for the newspaper today.
Regardless, still revelant though...as you say.
Yep, this is a relevant issue. Gardens are always a good idea, if not on price certainly on quality of food produced.
I do much of the grocery shopping and locally we have not seen many price increases on staple food items. (exceptions: onions and coffee) BUT, the cost of operating a farm are certainly up, the regulatory cost are significantly up and at the point where the producers fail in large numbers there will be hell to pay.
The distribution system tends to mask this until there is a production collapse.
My family has farmed in this county for over 110 years, and I know what I am talking about. Price a new tractor if you want to experience sticker shock.
PS - in the past year, we have taken out a chunk of our retirement and put it into food/water preps and land. I know you really don’t “own” the land with property taxes, but it’s a little peace of mind. The reason we did this was during the depression, folks with land, fared somewhat better than folks in urban areas. The rest of our retirement we moved around to different types of accounts in different banks.
I always thought that a year would be plenty.Water might be the real issue if things got really bad.
My humble opinion...if you are looking to store a year or more...you might consider having a plan b...to move or bug out.
Dow Theorist: Sell Everything Liquid, You Won't Recognize America By The End Of The Year
Talk to the oldtimers locally, who've actually grown various vegetables in the local soil and weather conditions. They'll know better than anybody. The soil and weather can be just slightly different enough a few miles down the road to favor a different varietal.
Around here, the soil is red clay running to black loam in the creek and river bottoms. For tomatoes, German Johnsons are the tried and true. Eight miles away I have family, the land flattens out and the soil shifts to sandy, an odd pink color, which is a combination of southern red clay and sand. Hotter there in general too. That soil is less acidic. They grow fantastic Beefsteak tomatoes, never have gotten any of mine to turn out like that.
So, talk to the oldtimers. They know. Most of them would be thrilled to realize that somebody values their experience, if approached correctly. If not approached correctly, you'll just get crotchety, lol.
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