Stock up on Food (says WSJ columnist and others)

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

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.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/04/the-global-food-shortage-stock-up-now.html

The Global Food Shortage: Stock Up Now

[crim son]

1. Also: duct tape and surgical masks.

Sigh.

[Auggie]

14. Why duct tape?

[crim son]

17. I'm kidding.

I'm thinking about the post 9/11 era & all the emphasis on duct tape.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Indeed

I have my groceries delivered, and I put together a shopping list online. In the past six weeks, I've watched prices inch up every week. So, this time, I'm buying multiples of everything that's on sale, if possible, and stashing it. Pasta, canned beans, tuna, sauces, cereal, rice. Just like the WSJ writer suggests. Prices are only going to go up, up, up, so, even though a $200 grocery bill looks insane at first - as it does to me right now - it makes good sense in the long run.

[spanone]

4. we've seen this happen with gas prices....not out of the question

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

7. Im going out tonight, Ill probabally spend 250 dollars on staples..

[Warpy]

3. Be careful

The best way to store grains, both whole grains and flours, is frozen. Refrigeration will slow bugs and rancidity but not stop them. The same goes for coffee and a host of other foodstuffs. Canned foods start to lose a lot of flavor after a year. Oils go rancid with exposure to air. Meats, fish and poultry should be frozen for only 3 months or so before they lose flavor.

It doesn't hurt to keep a few months ahead on staples if you store them properly. However, hoarding large amounts will only feed the bugs.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Store Twinkies. Don't they last forever?

:9

[Submariner]

18. We're in the post-Cretaceous time period now, so they're probably good for another eon n/t

[depakid]

5. The Wall Street Journal just keeps getting stranger and stranger

[Aloha Spirit]

8. Stock up because it's a good investment, not because the supply will become critical. Just sayin...

no need to get people riled up.

[Android3.14]

11. Spend those checks

Strange that prices are jumping just before every damn one of us gets a hot little tax rebate.

They wouldnt manipulate things so we will spend this rather than save it?

No way.

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Right?

:thumbsup: Only not everyone is getting those pay scam checks.

[Hannah Bell]

9. Panic-Mongering Moves to the Wall Street Journal

In 2 days, a laughably-researched article in the NY Sun (right-wing) moves from there to FOX News, Glen Beck, CNN, & onward. Today, the once-venerable, now Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal is telling us we should hoard food - as a frigging investment.

The writer is Brett Arends, formerly from TheStreet.com. He
advises:

"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..."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."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

Either there IS a food shortage in the US, in which case the government should step in & ration to prevent starvation & speculation - or there isn't. If there isn't, Brett & his buddies seem determined to create one.

BTW: Quaker Strategic Growth Fund, the fund whose manager Brett quotes in his piece, the fund Brett himself holds, the fund for which this piece constitutes free advertising & an implicit recommendation....

....is invested in....commodities - energy, fertilizer, metals, and...grain.

Among their top ten holdings: Archer Daniels Midland, grain monopolist to the world.

http://online.wsj.com/fund/page/fund_snapshot.html?mod=...

[Aloha Spirit]

12. Wow on QSGF. Man that's rich. WSJ is still good for lining bird cages.

[Matariki]

23. Again, great investigative information - kudos.

Those connections need to be posted LOUDLY all over the web.

And again, this deserves its own post. DU needs more critical thinkers and less indiscriminate fear-mongering.

[samdogmom]

10. Huhhh?

So we should stock up and push out others?

I'm a "wait my turn" type of person...I don't want to take advantage of anyone!

[Auggie]

13. You'll hear more on this with May sweeps coming up

Broadcast media LOVES sensational stories like this. It'll mean big ratings from the crowd that doesn't read print media.

That will lay the groundwork for panic.

[mak3cats]

16. And panic could be deemed to be a "domestic emergency"...

...warranting the fascists in the White House to take over complete and sole control of the government.

[Auggie]

19. I want to think all this - mortgage crisis, gas prices, inflation - is disaster

capitalism at work in the U.S. BushCo planned it back in 2001.

[Hannah Bell]

15. Brett Arends Recommends Food Hoarding

Brett Arends published an incomprehensibly crass article in today’s Wall Street Journal calling on Americans to hoard food. Not because he expects a shortage, but because “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.”

This is exactly the sort of unconscionable speculative greed that turns a bad but temporary situation into an all-out crisis and famine.

I’m not against making money; I’m against starving other people to make money. Arends has the privilege and the luxury to direct millions of investors from his perch at the Journal, and with such a position comes a great responsibility. His words move markets, and he does not appear to appreciate the magnitude of what he is doing. He is telling his readers from his comfortable environs that some faraway people in poor countries are starving, and they can make a few bucks by making it worse for them....He is brazenly and openly calling for food profiteering and price gouging.

http://www.economaton.com

[knitter4democracy]

20. Already on it.

Got stuff in the pantry; bought an Easter lamb this week that's in the freezer with what's left of the bison and some sale chicken, put up veggies from last year, and more goodies (I need a bigger deep freezer, actually), and we're expanding the garden massively this year, putting in four big square foot planters so I can can, freeze, and dry more this summer.

[musette_sf]

22. WSJ headline, 5/5/08:

"Consumer spending trends UP in April 2008".

the economy is GREAT again

:sarcasm:

[dysfunctional press]

24. they're just shilling for the big-money commodity investors...

shortages are cool, profitwise.

[limit18]

25. Another Y2K maybe