Food Prices Approaching 'Dangerous Levels;' 'Volatility' On The Horizon? (UPDATED)

Food and Water storage, along with your current food, shelter, clothing, fuel, and other basic needs, are necessary for human life. We currently live in a civilization of unimagineable prosperity and ease of access, both in terms of affordability, and in terms of proximity access. The vast majority of us can literally drive a few blocks, in some cases, or a few miles, at worst, and purchase all of the above, then return to our place of shelter from the elements.

The vast majority of human history has been a story of scarcity of at least two or more of these essentials, and our current  prosperity IS THE EXCEPTION.

Sadly, we're about to see this time of plenty and ease become a fond memory, if the plans of the radical left continue to be realized.

I have family members who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, and they remember the scarcity of food and the poverty of choices available to those in a top/down government control society; the current paradigm of plenty and affordability can literally vanish overnight.

Store shelves can be cleared in a matter of hours, within the entire radius of the fuel tanks of your vehicle, should something go awry. And much can go wrong.

With rising food, fuel, clothing, and other prices on the brain, should another terrorist attack, or other such event take place, you can count on bottled water and convenience foods (frozen foods, etc.) to literally disappear before the sun goes down on the day you read this.

If this happened, today, are you ready to weather what may come?

And beyond the time when you would run out of comfort foods and convenience foods; are you prepared to make due with long-term food storage you have available, right now, in your pantry/basement/cold storage/cellar? Do you even have a place to store food in your current residence?

What would you do if you needed to call upon such resources beginning tonight? Would you be kicking yourself for not thinking ahead?

And if you DO have food storage, do you have enough water? Do you have enough grains, legumes (beans), powdered/freeze-dried milk and other dairy/protein sources to last the first year of scarcity, should things go really wrong?
Could you make it a month with what you have?

If you have enough, do you have sufficient home defense resources to hold off starving masses searching for something to fill their painfully-empty stomachs, and do you have the requisite training/will to use it?

Do you have a family depending upon you to provide for and protect them? Are you prepared to do so, in such a circumstance?

Do you have life insurance to last years, if necessary, but no food storage, water storage, clothing (especially underwear/socks & other items you wouldn't want to trade for used items from others), fuel, and other essentials to last even a single year?

Please think about what's coming, and how you can prepare; time appears to be running out. Are you ready? If not, will you begin to prepare...today?

Here's some food for thought:

This first video clip is from November 4th of 2010:

Video:  2010.11.04 - Glenn Beck on QE2 & Commodity Speculation (Food Prices To Skyrocket)

This one is from yesterday's Glenn Beck on FNC:

Video:  2011.02.15 - FNC - Glenn Beck - From Cairo to Madison, Workers Unite

Before the relevant news stories, here's a partial transcript:
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President Obama's Budget, Inflation and You | Glenn Beck

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," February 15, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: Welcome to "The Glenn Beck Program."

Tonight, forget BMWs and iPads and jewelry. Do you want to know what the next luxury item is? Believe it or not, orange juice.

So, I want to ask you this question -- what did you tell Washington to do in November? Did you tell them to increase or decrease the debt? Did you tell them to increase or decrease taxes? Increase or decrease spending?

It was pretty clear what Americans said last November. Have Americans forgotten? Or has Washington?

I'll explain. Come on, let's go.

(MUSIC)

BECK: Hello, America.

There is something I want you to consider tonight, the president's budget. Has the country or any country ever devalued it's a way to economic prosperity? That you have to answer. I hope so -- because that is the path our government is taking us down.

I've been warning for years that our current fiscal path is unsustainable. I said this under George W. Bush and I was mocked and called a fearmonger. And conservatives told me, oh, you're just trying to lose the election for George W. Bush, and it was innocence then now and it's nonsense now from the left.

It's an unsustainable path. People in Washington on the left used to say it until they got into power. People on the right used to say until they got into power.

It's political talking point. It's not. It's reality. And you get that. The American people understand that.

Another thing I've been harping on is to prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I know it's controversial. It's almost like what our grandparents used to do. By the way, did you see the New York City and state has released an entire guide onto -- on what to do in case of a total meltdown? Do we have it here nor not?

We'll show it to you in a minute. It's pretty amazing. Yes.

Oh, the fearmongers -- or are they just preparing on what to do in case?

How about the governor of Wisconsin? He's now telling the National Guard to prepare for civil unrest in Wisconsin. What a fearmonger. Or is he being responsible in preparing? More on that coming up in a few minutes.

All the experts and politicians keep trying to soothe Americans over with warm tales of recovery and winning the future. I'd love to share those, but the reality on the ground isn't matching the -- hey, we're in the beginning of the recovery, you know? It doesn't. Talk about dangerous rhetoric. That would be it.

The fed can keep playing tricks to mask the real problems but not for very long. Inflation, there's no masking the rising cost of inflation, is there? I mean, have you been to the grocery store?

Here's what inflation is -- a persistent substantial rise in the general level of prices related to the increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency. Got it? First part, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to the increase in the volume of money supply.

So, if they weren't printing anything and this orange juice was a dollar and then they started to print more money, the orange juice would cost more because there are too many dollars out there now trying to buy that one glass of orange juice. Well, is that happening? The experts say, of course, not. Really?

Well, let's look around the world. U.K.'s inflation levels hit 4 percent. Eurozone's inflation levels jumped to 2.4, and that isn't it. Experts -- experts are now predicting -- try this one on for size -- that the new, and I'm quoting, the new luxury item in America will be this -- excuse me. Orange juice?

They say factory prices and problem with drought -- factory prices could rise as much as 80 percent for orange juice and 60 percent for apple juice.

Let me show you what is happening, the six-month price percentage moves. This is six months. This isn't over a year. Six months, with just a few of the necessities.

Here they are. Cotton is up 125 percent. Six months, sugar 82; corn,59 percent; coffee, 41 percent; rice, 40 percent.

Let's look at some others -- oats, if you're a horse, panic; copper, 36 percent; lumber, you want build a house, up 33 percent. Put some gutters on it, why don't you? Or just have that old-fashioned thing called electricity. Oil, 25.1 percent.

During that same six months stretch, what has the dollar done? The dollar has dropped by 6 percent. Every time we print more money, the value of your dollar that you have earned at work goes down, making the price go up. By the way, we are now the number one buyer of our own debt.

Oh, do you remember the old days? Old days when I told you -- it was about a year ago, I told you this and everybody said, "Glenn Beck is a fearmonger." Oh, there I am. Here I am. A year ago, showing who's buying our debt -- who's buying our debt and what's going on. "He's a fearmonger, that's crazy!" Hmmm!

Number one, tell you about cotton. Let me show a real life example. This is cotton. Just in the last six months, cotton has gone up 125 percent. So, you have to go out and buy a new shirt.

It's a great shirt. This is a non-iron Brooks Brothers shirt. These are fantastic shirts. This shirt was six months ago, $79.50. Today, it is $88. Here it is.

But the real hidden trick is the hidden value of your dollar -- it's like a hidden tax. The value on the same time of your dollar has dropped 6 percent. So, you need to add another 6 percent to the cost of this, because it takes more of your dollars to buy them. So, it makes it not $88 but actually $93 for this shirt. Does that sound like a recipe for success? Especially when the government continues to spend and print.

Again, did you tell Washington in November to increase or decrease the debt, taxes and spending? Do you remember?

Let me go back to the president's budget announcement today which basically amounts to pouring gasoline right onto the fire. It is $3.73 trillion budget. It is greater than the combined GDPs of France, Italy and Ireland. Those three countries, everything they spend, everything they buy, everything they sell for an entire year is what this budget is.

It will also be the biggest one year debt jump in the history of mankind, $2 trillion of debt. For the man who said we have to get our deficits under control, he's not doing it.

He's -- maybe it's like -- it's like golf, Mr. President. You play a lot of that. Low score wins, low score, not high score. He's tripled -- tripled -- the deficit in two years.

But now, he says he's ready to slow it down. He wants you to believe that he's no longer going to spend. No, those days are behind him. Remember -- this is the same administration that spent the last two and a half years arguing and arguing and arguing that you had to spend in order to save the economy -- stimulus or debt, it's the only way.

And those -- may I quote-- those Tea Party people will destroy the country if they get in there and start cutting spending. Now, all of a sudden, he wants you to believe that he has the virtue of spending cuts down. I'm going to go way out a limb here and say -- I don't think he believes that. Something in my tummy says, I don't think so.

Let's look at some of the real cuts, because today is a new day, maybe the president -- the sky has opened up and all of a sudden, he's seen the light. Here he is today. Listen carefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: What my budget does is to put forward some tough choices, some significant spending cuts so that by the middle of this decade, our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: That is fantastic -- our spending to match our revenues. That is great. And all you have to do is go to President Obama's budget page 171 to see him tell the truth.

Here are the receipts. These are the things that are revenues and these outlays are our spending -- receipts and outlay. What we take in. What we put out.

All right. Here's our deficit. Woo, bad one, $1.6 trillion and then $1.1 trillion. Uh, 2013 we're up to the middle of the decade yet, $768 billion, 2014, $645 billion in deficit.

Well, OK, here's the middle of the decade. We're still $607 billion away from that. Here's what we're taking in and here's what we're spending, this should be zero and these two must match.

Well, he must have meant 2016. No, it's actually going up here. 2017, no, it's down from the year before, but -- OK, 2018, 2019, 2020 -- oh, boy, it's getting bad again, 2021.

Mr. President, I mean, I could be missing something or maybe you're just -- oh, what's that old-fashioned word, lying. Which is it? It's deficits every year through 2020.

Now, his explanation for this obvious discrepancy was well, I'm not counting the interest on the debt -- oh, I know. Here I thought we were being honest. Oh, my goodness, that is so great. Isn't it great you just not count an entire category? But even if you do that -- still deficits every single year.

He also promised to cut $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Whew, that is an average of $100 billion every year. That is two Joe Biden high speed trains. Whoa! That's California's pension losses. That's insanity
-- in the scope of the entire budget, that's nothing. We're spending $3.7 trillion this year.

And our national debt now has grown bigger than our economy. Every dollar spent on clothes, advertising, food, services, airplanes, products, slap chops, jails, roads -- you name it -- it's now equal to our debt. And we haven't even begun sending money to the state to bail out their union pension funds. And that's coming, my friends.

If that wasn't good enough news for you -- Glenn, I'm -- I can't believe your show. There is some happy news. Yes, I know. Wait, there is more.

Obama's budget also projects that the interest on our debt as a percentage of GDP will triple to an all time high of $554 billion by the middle of the decade. Yes, let me show it to you. Let me show you. OK?

Here's the interest in 2010. Our interest was 1.3 percent of our GDP. That means all the money that we spend and make in the United States, OK? Here it is.

Now, let's look what happens with our budget. Uh-oh, red is bad. Must be like the golf thing. Now he's confused because that was like high score wins -- no, Mr. President. Low score wins.

Here's what it means -- if your salary stayed the same -- actually, the government says it's going up -- we'll be lucky if our salary stays the same. But your credit card interest goes up, that means the percentage of your credit card interest is growing a bigger portion of your salary that you to have pay. And this is just the interest to keep the loan sharks at bay.

You're not paying the credit card off. You're not getting anything new. You're just paying the interest on that debt. And we haven't even talked about the rising interest rate yet....
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Food Costs at Records as U.N. Warns of Volatility

Published February 04, 2011 | Reuters

Global food prices tracked by a U.N. agency hit their highest level on record in January, a problem set to worsen after a massive snowstorm in the United States and floods in Australia.

The United Nations said on Thursday its Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index rose for the seventh month in a row to reach 231 in January, topping the peak of 224.1 last seen in June 2008. It is the highest level the index has reached since records began in 1990.

"These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come," FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian said in a statement.

Wheat underscored the problem affecting commodity prices around the world, settling on Thursday slightly lower after hitting a 2- year high earlier in the day. Corn and soybeans, which also have been hovering near long-term highs, also declined.
Global food inflation is a mounting worry for world leaders. It has contributed to political unrest in countries with high poverty rates and unemployment, as evidenced in the toppling of Tunisia's president in January. That unrest has spilled into Egypt, Yemen and Jordan.

In response, some countries are increasing food imports and have built stockpiles to meet their domestic needs. Among them is Algeria, wary after food riots in early January. It has made huge wheat purchases to avoid shortages, and on Thursday it announced plans to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency in a bid to avert spreading protests.

In Central America, Honduras has frozen prices on many basic foodstuffs despite complaints from farmers. El Salvador is increasing anti-poverty programs by 30%, and Guatemala is considering slashing import tariffs on wheat and is handing out food and cash vouchers to landless peasants.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a Reuters interview urged world leaders to "wake up" to the dangers of rising food inflation, a problem said he sees no relief from.

"We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," he said.

SUPPLY THE KEY
Catastrophic storms and droughts have slammed the world's leading agriculture countries in recent months, including flooding and a massive cyclone in Australia and a powerful winter storm that swept across the United States.

Dubbed "Stormageddon," one of the biggest snowstorm in decades dumped up to 20 inches of snow in some parts of the U.S. grain belt this week, paralyzing the shipment of grain and livestock.

A deep-freeze forecast for the Midwest, the bread basket of the United States, threatens the region's winter wheat because it may lack sufficient insulating moisture to withstand the cold.

Sugar prices also have surged to three-decade highs on fears of damage Cyclone Yasi would bring to the Australian cane crop. Prices for Malaysian palm oil, a cooking staple in the developing world, hit 3-year highs on flooding.

Big companies have had to adjust to higher raw material costs. Kellogg Co, the world's largest breakfast cereal company, said on Thursday it has boosted prices on many of its products to offset rising costs for ingredients such as grains and sugar.

"Today's announcement by the Food and Agriculture Organization should ring alarm bells in capitals around the world," said Gawain Kripke, a policy and research director for Oxfam America, an international development group.

"Governments must avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when countries reacted to spiraling prices by banning exports and hoarding food. This will only make the situation worse and it is the world's poorest people who will pay the price," he said.

Janis Huebner, economist at Germany's DekaBank said inflation partly fueled by increasing food prices could in turn trigger interest rate rises in several countries this year.

"This could mean a slowing down of growth in the countries which raise their interest rates," he said. "This could involve Asian countries and other regions, this would somewhat brake growth but I do not expect a hard landing."

STOCK BUILDING
Some countries, particularly where food prices loom large in household budgets, have been building up food stocks to contain prices -- and to limit the political and social fallout.

During the last food price crisis, the World Bank estimated that some 870 million people in developing countries were hungry or malnourished. The FAO estimates that number has increased to 925 million.

"2008 should have been a wake-up call, but I'm not yet sure all the countries in the world that we need to support this have woken up to it," the World Bank's Zoellick said.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy, last week bought 820,000 tons of rice, lifting rice prices, while suspending import duties on rice, soybeans and wheat.

Algeria last week bought almost 1 million tons of wheat, bringing its purchases to at least 1.75 million since the start of January, and ordered a speeding up of grain imports.

On a day of bloody confrontation in Egypt, where protesters are demanding an end to the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, the U.N. World Food Programme's Executive Director Josette Sheeran said the world was now in an era where it had to be very serious about food supply.

"If people don't have enough to eat they only have three options: they can revolt, they can migrate or they can die. We need a better action plan," she said.
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WORLD BANK: FOOD PRICES APPROACHING ‘DANGEROUS LEVELS’

Posted on February 15, 2011 at 6:02pm by Meredith Jessup

WASHINGTON (AP/The Blaze) — The World Bank delivered a stark warning of the impact of the rising cost of food Tuesday, saying an estimated 44 million people had been pushed into poverty since last summer by soaring commodity prices.

The group’s president, Robert Zoellick, says global food prices have hit “dangerous levels” that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries.

“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world,” Zoellick said. “The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food.”

The bank says in a new report that global food prices have jumped 29 percent in the past year, and are just 3 percent below the all-time peak hit in 2008. According to its Food Price Watch, the World Bank’s food price index was up by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011, is 29 percent above its level from just a year earlier, and only 3 percent below its 2008 peak.

Wheat prices have been hit the hardest, doubling between June last year and January 2011, while maize prices were up 73 percent.

“Measures to address the recent round of food price spikes include expanding nutritional and safety net programs in countries where food prices are rising fastest, avoiding food export restrictions, and finding better information on food stocks,” the group noted. “More investments in agriculture, the development of less food-intensive biofuels and climate change adaptation are also needed.”

Zoellick said the rising prices have hit people hardest in the developing world because they spend as much as half their income on food and suggested rising global food prices were an “aggravating factor” for protests which have toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia in recent weeks.

Additionally, Zoellick said he expects food prices to continue to rise, and that export bans and weather disruptions are partly to blame.
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Report Card on Obama's First Two Years

By K.E. Campbell | Posted January 20, 2011
Two years ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States. Are you better off today than you were two years ago?
Numbers don't lie, and here are the data on the impact he has had on the lives of Americans:
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* This number is going to increase significantly within the next several weeks due to food and assumed food and gasoline/heating oil increases.
♦ This increase is a fraction of what it will be if the current budget is passed, and Obamacare isn't totally repealed.
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WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

See Chart on:  Report Card on Obama's First Two Years

Sources:

1 - U.S. Energy Information Admin.

2 - Wall Street Journal

3 - Bureau of Labor Statistics

4 - Census Bureau

5 - USDA

6 - U.S. Dept. of Labor

7 - FHFA

8 - Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller

9 - Heritage Foundation and WSJ

10 - The Conference Board

11 - FDIC

12 - U.S. Treasury

h/t Jared Law at the 9/12 Project

 

Video:  Food inflation is a global reality

REPLIES TO THIS DISCUSSION

Permalink Reply by Spencer Willard on February 16, 2011 at 9:55am

Start your Gardens now.

Permalink Reply by Marla Beihl on February 16, 2011 at 10:05am

I agree with you completely! Already started since we live in Southern California. I'm still getting tomatoes off of last years plants even after a few mornings of freezing temps and lots of rain. I'm already planning to increase what I plant and I'm finally going to learn how to can or "put things up" as my Grandma used to say. We have to be self-sustaining as much as possible!

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on February 17, 2011 at 3:35am

And learn indoor small scale growth methods.

Research Wheatgrass juicing and understand the benefits/limitation of the food value of it. Store extra wheat berries to support this method of nutrition.

Extremely handy for those who know not how to till the soils....

Permalink Reply by Wellsie 4 hours ago

I just received an email from efoodsdirect.com.  They make bulk canned & pouched foods as well as water purification.  You can get free shipping:  http://www.efoodsdirect.com/free-shipping.aspx

 

Permalink Reply by Katie Kalpin on February 16, 2011 at 10:16am

And this my dear friends is why i have learned too hunt, learned too chop fire wood, learned how too make stream water into drinkable water, this is why I have learned too grow my own food....in MY basement!  Anytime a sale hit's the store...we buy wayyyyyy too much. Is it too much...uhhhh NO. ;) We have all the wheat and grains and sugar that we could need for three years lol. TP, paper towels, meds that don't go bad for a long time. all of that stuff.

We are Americans remember? We are strong. Look at how the Founding Fathers lived, the people before them, the American Indians. We are the Non-government Dependant people...remember? We Can survive on our own. All we have too do is learn, teach ourselves. We will be the ones too survive...not the Liberals. Remember that liberals depend too much on others. Sadly this will be a time of survival of the fittest....No one will have enough too share or help others. This is dangerous! We need too be prepared! Not scared. Go online..learn the secrets on how too grow your own stuff in the Basement of your home, Trust me it is the best thing that you can do! :) We must prepare for this! It is coming we are going too have an egypt type thing going on. But it is us! We can do this without fighting!

Permalink Reply by Karen on February 16, 2011 at 12:44pm

Katie,  Did you take a class to learn how to grow foods in your basement?  Do you recommend any books on the subject?

Permalink Reply by Katie Kalpin on February 16, 2011 at 2:27pm

I did take a few classes on how too do this. :) I have a few books at home lol I have too get back there to remember the names! I'll post them here asap! ;)

Permalink Reply by Barbara on February 17, 2011 at 4:10am

Look into growing sprouts, it is nothing more than grows seeds in a jar and eating them once they start sprouting.
There are books on how to do it.

Permalink Reply by Josie on February 16, 2011 at 9:27pm

Katie, how an you grow in the basement without alot of sunlight.  Grow lights are too expensive to use for the 15hrs of light source plants need and we will not be able to rely on having electricity unless you generate your own.

Sounds like you have prepared well.  Good for you.  I do worry about being able to help others.  I know every few that have made any attempt to stock up on supplies.

I live in Illinois and my worry is heat in the winter (no fireplace available).

I think it would be wise for each one of us to learn a skill to barter with, such as soap, candle,  cheese making, shoe repair, sewing, butcher etc. 

I would like to start raising chickens but it is not allowed in my town.  I thought of saying they are pets if I have a problem.  But then I would not be able to slaughter them anyway and having feed for them would be another problem - I guess if you are hungry enough anything is possible. 

Does anyone know what happens to the chickens in the winter time?  Do they stay outside or do they come in?  I have thought about keeping them in my basement, but worry about criters, smell etc.  Does anyone out there know if it is possible to keep chickens in a basement in winter conditions?

Sounds so silly and immature but we have gotten so far away from all this stuff.

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth McLaughlin on February 16, 2011 at 9:31pm

I believe a portable solar generator could operate an electric heater.

Permalink Reply by Minuteman on February 17, 2011 at 3:15am

NO!!!

Don't buy in to those Solutions From Science "solar generators" with the intention of running large loads like electric heating units!!!

If I could shout this at your front porch I would.....

Permalink Reply by Barbara on March 3, 2011 at 7:38pm

Grow sprouts, this is nothing more than seeds. Google it, go to book stores. Seeds do not need light of any kind they only need heat 70 degrees or higher to grow. It is done in a jar. You put the seeds in a jar rinse well, soak, drain, and put up in a cabinet or closet. They need to be watered a few times through out day till they sprout, then place them in the fridge. Must be eaten with in three to four days, they are a good source of vitamins, higher volume not like when they grow into a plant and produce the vegetable.
I got a book from grandmas country.com

 

***  We would highly suggest that you put together a plan. It is later in the day than you might think.  ***

Put in a garden

Get Chicken

Work toward having 6-months+ canned and dehydrated food on hand for everyone living in your household plus extra.

Store water

Dig a well if you can

Invest in a short wave radio system

Partner up with neighbors

Be ready and able to defend yourself

Have Bug-out-Bags for everyone in your household and include supplies and food for pets

Ammunition, food and water will be worth more than gold, silver or jewelry for bartering

Have plenty of candles and matches on hand

Learn to make your own ammo

Learn the basics of hunting and fishing to help feed yourself and your family

Related:

Homegrown Revolution  -  Something We Should All Be Doing

Bartering

The Hidden Dangers of Your Home-Grown Veggies

** Terror threats rising as FEMA orders $1 Billion in dehydrated food - National Finance Examiner | Examiner.com **