Equipped To Survive Equipped To Survive® Presents
The Survival Forum
Where do you want to go on ETS?

Page 1 of 2 1 2 >
Topic Options
#131349 - 04/28/08 01:03 PM Long-term storable food shortages
jaywalke Offline
Member

Registered: 12/22/07
Posts: 172
Loc: Appalachian mountains

I've been looking to add some variety to my stores of long-term food, and I've noticed that retailers are getting slammed with orders at the same time that stocks are low. It's not up to pre-Y2K levels yet, but Walton Feed has pushed their shipping times out to months instead of weeks. Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com) has removed a lot of their larger package deals from their website, and the guy at Survival Acres (who is, admittedly, wound pretty tightly) is threatening in his blog to close up shop due to an avalanche of orders. He is still buried even after setting the minimum order level at $500!

Are more people paying attention to the news? Is this panic buying? I think the shortages and higher wheat prices play into it a little bit, but these places seem to be selling out of food at any price.

Interesting times.








Top
#131362 - 04/28/08 05:23 PM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: ]
Chris Kavanaugh Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 02/09/01
Posts: 3824
Anyone want a case of IDF gasmasks? My local survivalist can't give the things away now.

Top
#131365 - 04/28/08 06:09 PM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: jaywalke]
BrianTexas Offline
Ordinary Average Guy
Enthusiast

Registered: 04/26/06
Posts: 304
Loc: North Central Texas, USA
Originally Posted By: jaywalke

I've been looking to add some variety to my stores of long-term food, and I've noticed that retailers are getting slammed with orders at the same time that stocks are low. It's not up to pre-Y2K levels yet...Are more people paying attention to the news? Is this panic buying? I think the shortages and higher wheat prices play into it a little bit, but these places seem to be selling out of food at any price.

Interesting times.



I think that the "panic factor" is certainly kicking in. What amazes me is that a lot of people are buying stuff they normally wouldn't eat in large quantities. Think about the person who buys 50 lbs of Jasmine rice. Isn't that about 800 - 1000 servings?

Also many of the people buying the MRE's and large amts of freeze-dried food normally don't eat those foods. It could be that many of those bulk purchases end up on ebay or get thrown out because of improper storage.

Don't get me wrong - my wife and I store extra food, but we purchased food we normally eat and a little extra at a time. It doesn't take that long to build up a "safety margin" in case times get rough.
_________________________
Also known as BrianEagle. I just remembered my old password!

Top
#131372 - 04/28/08 06:31 PM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: BrianTexas]
Arney Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
Originally Posted By: BrianTexas
What amazes me is that a lot of people are buying stuff they normally wouldn't eat in large quantities. Think about the person who buys 50 lbs of Jasmine rice. Isn't that about 800 - 1000 servings?

For people who normally eat rice, 50 pounds is nothing. Throw in some growing boys to the mix and that 50 pounds goes very quickly.

Not all kinds of rice of in short supply. California-grown medium grain rice (which I eat) seems to be in its usual, plentiful supply. The price might be up a bit, but that's not particularly alarming since everything else has been going up, too. However, as anyone who eats rice knows, there's a big difference between eating plain old long grain vs basmati vs Jasmine vs medium grain rice, so simply switching varieties is not as easy an option as it might seem.

I was working in Japan more than ten years ago when they had a national shortage of their normal short grain rice. I forget if it was just bad weather for that year or something. Anyway, a lot of long grain rice from Thailand was imported, but the Japanese wouldn't touch the stuff (it tastes/smells and cooks different). The government had to order that all short grain inventory had to be blended with the imported rice, otherwise people would've gobbled up all the short grain rice in short order, and then had no rice left until the next rice harvest that they would want to buy/eat. Eek, can you imagine sushi with the wrong kind of rice? That's like only being able to eat donuts made of whole wheat flour! eek


Top
#131392 - 04/28/08 11:34 PM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: jaywalke]
ironraven Offline
Cranky Geek
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 4642
Loc: Vermont
Two words:

Pan
Nic
_________________________
-IronRaven

When a man dare not speak without malice for fear of giving insult, that is when truth starts to die. Truth is the truest freedom.

Top
#131550 - 04/29/08 11:48 PM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: ironraven]
Susan Offline
Geezer

Registered: 01/21/04
Posts: 5163
Loc: W. WA
I feel my cynicism boiling up....

....getting ready to spew....

With this kind of 'panic', people are not required to think, but they're sure they can buy their way out of the problem.

Sue

Top
#131698 - 05/01/08 01:31 AM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: Susan]
nursemike Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 11/09/06
Posts: 870
Loc: wellington, fl
Panic buying here does seem an odd response to food shortages in the third world. The most significant nutritional problem in this country, regardless of socio-economic status, is obesity. We have lots of cheap food, but not good food. Associated with that, we expend billions of dollars of disposable income on diet gimmicks, exercise equipment, bottled water (still more expensive than gasoline) and designer coffee-all triumphs of perceived need created by the marketing industry.
_________________________
Dance like you have never been hurt, work like no one is watching,love like you don't need the money.

Top
#131702 - 05/01/08 02:09 AM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: jaywalke]
wildman800 Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 11/09/06
Posts: 2846
Loc: La-USA
I am starting to get more Instant Potatoes into my inventory.

I am also adding cans of Spaghetti and tomato sauce since they can both be quite versatile. I have been adding pasta to my stores.

Canned meats that are in the inventory include: Spam, Roast Beef, Ham, Chicken Breast, Slim Jims, and Dried Beef.

All MRE's are reserved for training (camping, hiking) and Bugging Back Home {I just invented a new acronym - BbH}

BbH: Bugging back Home - making the trip from your workplace to your home.

Due to the latest news info, I am also increasing the amount of Cooking Oil and Flour that I had been keeping on hand.
_________________________
QMC, USCG (Ret)
The best luck is what you make yourself!

Top
#131723 - 05/01/08 03:33 AM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: nursemike]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
"...bottled water (still more expensive than gasoline)..."

Maybe in Chicago!!!
_________________________
OBG

Top
#131725 - 05/01/08 04:17 AM Re: Long-term storable food shortages [Re: wildman800]
NorCalDennis Offline
Journeyman

Registered: 01/30/08
Posts: 61
Loc: Sierra Foothills, Nor Cal
We purchased a 50lb bag of Jasmine rice for the first time last week, but we probably have been eating about 5 lbs of jasmine rice a month. My wife cooks up rice with many of the meals she prepares. For us it made sense to simply step up to a 10 month supply from a one month supply - regardless of where the price is going. If this is a short-term panic buy, then we should see the prices drop in the coming months. If everyone stocked up then no one will be buying for several months.

I'm with Wildman and pasta sauce - it is a great base that can go so many directions. We too added cooking oils and wheat this week.
_________________________
While I have long believed that I will never get old, I have come to the realization that sooner or later there will be more people younger than me.

Top
Page 1 of 2 1 2 >



Moderator:  MartinFocazio, Tyber 
March
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online
0 registered (), 318 Guests and 5 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
GallenR, Jeebo, NicholasMarshall, Yadav, BenFoakes
5367 Registered Users
Newest Posts
What did you do today to prepare?
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:21 PM
Zippo Butane Inserts
by dougwalkabout
03/27/24 11:11 PM
Question about a "Backyard Mutitool"
by Ren
03/17/24 01:00 AM
Problem in my WhatsApp configuration
by Chisel
03/09/24 01:55 PM
New Madrid Seismic Zone
by Jeanette_Isabelle
03/04/24 02:44 PM
EDC Reduction
by EchoingLaugh
03/02/24 04:12 PM
Using a Compass Without a Map
by KenK
02/28/24 12:22 AM
Newest Images
Tiny knife / wrench
Handmade knives
2"x2" Glass Signal Mirror, Retroreflective Mesh
Trade School Tool Kit
My Pocket Kit
Glossary
Test

WARNING & DISCLAIMER: SELECT AND USE OUTDOORS AND SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Information posted on this forum is not reviewed for accuracy and may not be reliable, use at your own risk. Please review the full WARNING & DISCLAIMER about information on this site.