Comments for WSJ: Maybe Americans Should Start Stockpiling Food »
Posted By Neophile 1 year, 7 months ago in StyleI don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.
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newbie0420Comment removed: Hard Banned23 Replies
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quackpot1 year, 7 months ago
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Seems to me that the article speaks of the very real ratio of food price to dollar value.
If you are not afraid of either inflationary pressures on the economy or the slipping value of the dollar, congratulations on being a member of the Jet-set
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Grrr1 year, 7 months ago
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If you read the article, he's talking investment strategies here, not so much about a run on food. He's actually suggesting that stockpiling food might provide a better return on investment than other options, since food prices this year are likely to spike more than the avg. return on investment.
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hyperbola1 year, 7 months ago
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See my response below, especially the one about Haiti. Turning the world's markets over to corrupt speculators has been apart of our imperialism efforts ever since Reagan. Concentrating wealth and power in corrupt financial circles has been and is proving to be disastrous.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/9/confessio...
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PainGoddess1 year, 7 months ago
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I have always had at least 3 month supply of food on hand. Remember the Red Cross asking people to do this in case of disaster or pandemic? Maybe I should have six month supply??
It is a silly way to invest. The US still has the lowest prices anywhere and hoarding will not help. We have tried to help the rest of the world become food independent but it never seems to work.
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crghss1 year, 7 months ago
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And this produced them what? Foreign aid makes up approximately 30%-40% of the national government's budget. Most of the farming is "small-scale subsistence farming" which means they eat what they grow. So, AGAIN, what GREAT agricultural export income was "destroyed" by US "subsidies"? And what subsidies for Mangoes and coffee does the US government give our farmers?
Damn American Mangoes and coffee farmers. Destroying countries everywhere.
I knew I should have invested in the Mangoes and coffee commodities.
BTW, I can read Wikipedia to. Just shows how little you really know. Lazy and stupid is no way to go through life.
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crghss1 year, 7 months ago
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"projecting"
Alrighty then. You read the first think that came up on your Google search, took the first nugget of info without comprehending the whole description given you by your search and slapped it out there. So you really don't know anything about Haiti and your to lazy to comprehend what you read. Hence my comment.
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive
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hyperbola1 year, 7 months ago
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Well here we have the ultimate corruption of the right-wingers. Now it is acceptable to get rich by speculating on the starvation of human beings.
30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. What Happened?
The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots
http://www.counterpunch.com/quigley04212008.html
Trillion Dollar Crisis: Bankers Saved, Human Rights Sacrificed
Money â;; The ministers for Finance of Western countries have strongly reacted to the IMF figure, as if it was dangerous to show the extent of the crisis. These same governments, which are unable to help their needy populations, quickly came to the rescue of private interests: nationalization of troubled banks, cash forexchange of distressed debt securities
http://money.propeller.com/story/2008/04/18/tri...
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hyperbola1 year, 7 months ago
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Republicans and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Money â;; Each new decision from the insane Bush regime pushes the dollar a little further along to oblivion.
http://money.propeller.com/story/2008/03/13/rep...
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quackpot1 year, 7 months ago
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Oh good I hope so.
My kids kids will need the trickle down to pay off the debt that Mr. Regan, Mr. Bush I and Mr. BushII have pushed onto them so that the rich folks could get money now to enable the trickle down later......I hope.
Is this anything like the after-life?
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nostalgia1 year, 7 months ago
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This is simply a way to save you a little money
Who remembers the 1970's when there were price stickers on cans etc in the grocery stores?
In the 70's the prices on food were increasing weekly. If you dug through the cans on the shelf you could find ones with cheaper (earlier) prices.
Since everything is computerized now, the price will increase on the item regardless of how long it has been on the shelf
Buying 10 cans of corn now will be cheaper in the long run than buying 1 can/week for 10 weeks
It is simply common sense. Buy when there are sales, buy in bulk and use coupons
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getreal11 year, 7 months ago
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This isn't no joke people this is really happening. MY house is on one Acre of land and I have to plan a garden. I hope the phone jack thing is everything it says it is. I have to do away with a bill. I work stocking food and the store is not receiving the call for the shelves.
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saintetienne1 year, 7 months ago
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getreal1 says: "This isn't no joke people this is really happening."
-"Soylent green is people! It's PEOPLE!"
-"You moved the headstones but neglected to move the GRAVES!"
-"Somebody is putting these people into COMAS!"
-"The humanity! Oh GOD, the HUMANITY!"
Any other Chicken Littles care to submit a ridiculous, movie-worthy line?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh God....the posts on Nutscape never fail to give me a good laugh! You people are HYSTERICAL!! If it's not global warming or George Bush, it's gas prices and food hoarding that's RUINING YOUR LIVES!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Take a good, long look at yourselves people, and tell me. Do you really believe half the hooey you read and spout off about? DO you? TELL me you're not that dumb, PLEASE.
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AKpatriot1 year, 7 months ago
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Nature,
The reports on Costco limiting the purchases of rice state that there is not a shortage. It is because resturants are stockpiling the imported rices like jasmine and basmati. They are doing this to try to save money on the rice now because of rising prices. They also say that the US rice crop yield was above average.
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quackpot1 year, 7 months ago
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Snt and PainGoddess, you really should read the articles before making a fool of yourself.
The article is about the rapid increase in the price of food and how (hypothetically) it might be an even better investment than gold.
The stockpiling that is [jokingly] suggested is for economic gain. This IS the WSJ after all!!
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dissent1 year, 7 months ago
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funny that. it gets politicians elected, it gets them more powers than sense should allow and it gets us into wars. nothing like fear to keep people stupid and under the thumb. but in the whirlwind of phobias and all the shouts about bogeymen at 12 o'clock high, there are some things we really should have been paying attention to that we haven't. and they're just starting to find traction now. this is one of 'em. if you don't believe this is real, take a trip to panama or the philippines like a cuppla posters said earlier. it's not silly, it's real
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joeblowe1 year, 7 months ago
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The author completely neglected to factor in the additional cost of RENTING A DAMN SPACE to store all that food you are hoarding. NOW - how much do you save? (I don't have ROOM in my kitchen/pantry/freezer to REALLY stockpile anything.)
Next war: Brazil. Screw the oil, we need more FARMLAND!
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zaph221 year, 7 months ago
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oh come on now Joe, let's all hoard all the food we can... and see how long it really does take us to create a illusionary shortage because all the food is stored away at people's homes, and then less see how fast it drives prices up, and how much faster they go up then the are now.
I realize the price of food has gone up a lot, and quickly, but that is in great part because of the price of fuel, but some of us have seen things like this before, when Nixon took us off the gold standard, and then Jimmy Carter got elected and found ways to compound the problems caused by going off the gold standard, and those things together were the cause of what they called the "misery index? back in the 1970's. Then strangely enough by a year or two after Carter left office, and Nixon had been out of office for some time, prices came back down.
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BB641 year, 7 months ago
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The sky is falling!!! The sky is falling!!! Just another fear piece but I'm shocked at who printed this story. If you're living in the USA, there won't be food riot or starvation. However, if you live in a third world nation and more than 1/2 your food comes from the USA in food aide, well you're going to be in trouble. Over the last 50 years taxpayers bought up surplus crops and supplied many nations with food aid. Today, because of the tree hugging anti-gasoline lobby pushed the ethanol agenda, we're seeing farmers move towards producing more and more fuel corn. Less surplus food will lead to a crisis but not for us. We're still the bread basket of the world but now not the poor.
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skeek1 year, 7 months ago
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Your country is just a few hundred years old while your empire is barely sixty years old. Yet already it's faltering and coming apart at the seams.
I'd be very surprised if it sees out this century, should I live so long, much less the next two thousand years.
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quackpot1 year, 7 months ago
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1---- Read the article - it is about the VERY REAL price increase of food NOT its scarcity in the U.S.
2---- The Ethanol lobby is about BIG business. Its major backer for MANY years has been Archer Daniels Midland Company - a fortune 500 company. The major supporters are Representatives and Senators from the corn belt.
3---As you WELL KNOW, your comments about who is backing the Corn-based-ethanol lobby are IDIOTIC. Why you keep repeating them, I do not know. FOLLOW THE MONEY. the MONEY is from ethanol producers (such a ADM) and BIG agribusiness.
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Natureboy1 year, 7 months ago
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bluetexasvalley1 year, 7 months ago
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A vegetable garden is a great idea, but do not diss lawns. I live in a very warm climate, and it is a fact that a green lawn, as opposed to paving or dirt, cuts down the temperature around your house 10 degrees, lowering your AC costs.
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Natureboy1 year, 7 months ago
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It is also a fact that planting anything in abundance will do the same thing. It is just the cooling effect of the moisture aspirated by plants into the atmosphere. Try planting an edible groundcover and you will have the same effect. Try planting in all ecological niches, and you will have the same effect plus you won't have constant battle against "weeds" which are trying to fill those open niches.
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canadianrancher571 year, 7 months ago
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I listen to alot of ag reports every day and if I go back to late Feb. it sounded as there was no wheat left in the world and the Mar wheat on the MGE ran up to 25 dollars a bushel which is 60 lbs. Now without the crop even growing it is hard to find a price above 9 dollars. The prices of many commodities are set by the futures market and not really by actual supply and demand, there has been a growth in commodity funds who are playing this market for the speculators. When prices started to move last year on the grains it did not take all of the ag suppliers long to cash in by increasing prices so profit for farmers may be sort of like hoping to win the lottery, panic in nearly all markets is caused mostly my rumors and not fact and I think this is what is happening now in the grain markets. Alot of farmers in my area made enough with the increase in prices last fall that they are just sitting on stocks of grain, sort of a reserve just in case.
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Amazing11 year, 7 months ago
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If you want to invest, I suggest seeds. Real seeds. Then you can grow your own. Sell seeds to your neighbors, etc. Also ammo and gold. Can't go wrong there. Food prices will rise. The problem is how to store it. Canned foods are good. Rice will go rancid after a while. But you can save money in the long run. Seeds, however, take less room and carry the potential in case there is a shortage later on.
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bluetexasvalley1 year, 7 months ago
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And seeds you don't use this year can be kept in a sealed container in your refrigerator, and will be viable for up to 5 years. And if you use square foot gardening, you will only use the same number of seeds for the number of plants you want.
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bluetexasvalley1 year, 7 months ago
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Unused seeds will keep in your refrigerator and remain viable for up to 5 years. If you use square foot gardening techniques, you only use the number of seeds you need for the number of plants you want. Check out squarefootgardening.com
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JackofallChems1 year, 7 months ago
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Well, it's 85 posts so far and nobody has figured out yet that it's because of China and European socialists that food prices are going through the roof all over the world. When trade is redistributed from the 'rich' to the 'poor' for political reasons, it messes up the incentive for people to work hard and get ahead in life - that kills domestic production/productivity and impoverishes everyone in such countries. When trade is deliberately imbalanced, such as Chinese currency manipulation or Eurosocialist price fixing on pharmaceuticals under US patents, countries sensible enough to reject socialism and other forms of sociological stupidity are impoverished by their 'trading partners', HOWEVER there's no subsequent productivity in the countries that sucked out the value - just squandering, hoarding and pandering for power. As a result, the US is going to starve and the rest of the world will ultimately join us unless there's a successful trade war to break it up. Major bummer...
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JackofallChems1 year, 7 months ago
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p.s. never try to trade with an unreformed communist and expect life to stay the same or improve (they don't like advancement, and only value the equality of poverty), and never try to negotiate a weapons-free peace as a non-Muslim with die-hard Muslim neighbors (they don't like the idea of sharing a planet with anyone that's not Muslim or a financial/physical slave of a Muslim). either attempt is doomed to fail, and both are equally likely to be fatal in the forseeable future.
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slate1 year, 7 months ago
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How do you fix this and other problems faced by the world today?
1. Take oil off the speculators market and place it on the regular market.
2. Drill for oil and flood the market with it.
3. Build 5 more refineries in the US.
4. Find one national "fuel blend' and do away with all other blends, so the refineries aren't playing perpetual catch up to make enough of all the different blends for each season, or region.
5. If only Bush actually was buds with the Saudis as some claim, you could ask him to call and ask to reduce the cost of crude oil.
6. Invent a way to run cars for free once you pay the 'purchase' price of the item, like 'yesterday' already.
7. It's the fuel costs that are causing all the economic woes in the world's economies.
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