Rice exporting countries are curbing their exports to make sure that they have enough to feed their own people. There is fear of social unrest (read: food riots). Whether or not it's backed by reality, the widespread perception of a global food shortage means that we're in for some tough times soon.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I really like rice. Rice is so awesome. Rice-A-Roni is not exactly rice, but mostly pasta. Haystacks are made with rice. Minute rice is good when you're in a hurry (don't tell Val). Rice and beans make a complete protein. Rice can be brown, white or wild. I tend to like the wild. Then again, that's not really rice but special grass seeds. But no one wants to eat chicken and grass seeds for dinner (especially Val) so they just call it rice. You can't wear shoes when you pick rice. Rice gets bigger when you cook it in water. Rice Krispies come from rice. So does rice pudding. That stuff is great with a little nutmeg and cinnamon. yum!
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
There are food riots in places, especially Haiti. Some people in Haiti are reduced to eating dirt cookies, since they can't afford rice or other staples. Some people can't afford dirt cookies. No joke; the dirt they use is from a place that takes a bit of travel to get to, so you have to buy the dirt from someone who can make the trip there and back. Bok is right; other nations will suffer before we will. But that doesn't mean that we won't suffer, even if it just means that our diets become much more basic because we can't afford anything else. I'm just not sure how americans would deal with shortages. When I was on my mission, I got used to it. For instance, once there was a period of weeks where I couldn't buy cheese anywhere in my area. The only cheese I could find was really expensive import cheese. When we couldn't find toilet paper for sale we came up with creative solutions. But I think that if there comes a time when you can't find their favorite snack food in the store, I'm not sure how people will take it.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Considering that North Americans are complaining that they have to sacrifice and buy salmon instead of Chilean sea bass.... I don't think most people will take it well. (I'm still shaking my head over that article)
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
They wouldn't take it well, but I don't think that we'll see food riots just because the store is out of Wheat Thins and doesn't expect any for a few weeks. I think it would take something like food rationing because there isn't enough in the store for everyone.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I am planning on heading to the cannery this week for more rice. Rice is my staple. I am hoping to pick up about 600 pounds of the white gold.
I can't believe how much space one year of storage takes, let alone trying to get to two years worth.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
Just a heads up... I just bought a bunch of rice recently and it was a bit less expensive at Sam's club vs. the cannery.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I found my receipt from Sam's and I bought 50 pound bags of rice for $14.97 ea and the cannery price is $9.50 for a 25 pound bag. (Fyi, I searched Sam's site online and didn't see the 50 pound bag of rice... just a 25 pounder for $9.98, so you might just have to go there and look.)
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Actually, it's kind of amazing I got the good paying job I've got. I'm paid by speed, which is a good thing.
They pay you with speed? Besides the word of wisdom issues, it seems that the legal issues would be killer.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Looks like Sam's has raised their prices in the week and a half since I got my rice. That 50 pound bag is now about $19.50. And the store was about out of all their rice.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I'm going to do some looking around today, too. Our cannery is totally out of everything in the dry pack area, according to our bishop. His wife told me that the requests in our area for Bishop's storehouse food have been overwhelming, and with gas costs and such she was afraid this would happen. They do get things in, but they're gone almost as soon as they get them. I'll be checking other suppliers as I can this week.
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
I stopped by the cannery last night I put up 200 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of black beans.
I tell you, though, that place was the barest I have ever seen it. Absolutely no wheat, most beans were gone, powdered milk (white gold at $13.30 a can!), only about 500 pounds of rice, 200 of which I took.
The cannery people said people had been coming in and buying the wheat in bulk, like a 1,000 pounds at a time and leaving nothing for people to can, so it sounds like they are going to put the brakes on that. The suspicion is that some people are just trying to resell the cheaper church stuff at higher prices elsewhere. They also said that since the church is doing the online purchases and shipping it to people that less wheat is getting out to the canneries. That is quite annoying.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
FYI, our Sam's dropped the price of a 25lb bag of rice back down to $7.49. (Yeah, I know. I go to Sam's too much. I'll be finding a 12-step program for that real soon now.)
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Sam's Club and Walmart are limiting the amount of rice that you can buy.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
There weren't any signs up about it in my Sam's, though. I'm not sure they're doing it everywhere.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Come to think of it, does Walmart carry the 20 pound bags? I know they aren't limiting the smaller bags, and they're mostly concerned about businesses hoarding. Still, food rationing has made it's way back to the US, if only in a limited way.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Not that I want to see rationing here, but part of me does wonder if it might be good for our culture to have to practice some forbearance. I found myself amazed at the level of entitlement our society displays.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Let us know if they are rationing it there. I'm curious.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
Sometimes Minute Rice is really yummy. I never had the stuff until like a month ago. It's like the white bread/donuts of rice. Wow! Plus it's so fast... like... a minute!
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I'm not really a fan of Minute rice. I don't actually eat much rice these days, though I wouldn't hesitate to eat our stored rice in a time of need.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
There was some mention (on a the HD thread of all places) about the difficulty of eating rice with chopsticks. Having sat across from MrHic at many asian meals, I can say it's definitely a talent that can be acquired. I think it runs in his family, though. His cousin used to be able to eat jello with chopsticks.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
At Costco today, a store worker and customer were yelling over the rice, with the sw threatening to ban the customer from the store. My stomach was in painful knots just froming hearing their battle. I guess he was taking the last of the rice, because when I walked by the area for rice, it was bare. The commissary was limiting rice purchases. There is no real shortage of rice in the US, but because of rumors we have a run on rice. On a news show, a panel of commentators were talking about it. One said she hated rice and never ate it, but felt compelled to go buy rice. I predict in a short while, rice will be cheap as everyone will have over bought, and most don't believe in a years food storage. Supply will drawf demand. At least in the US.
If there's rice at the store, there's not a shortage?
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I was told that the US does not import rice, in fact, we export it. According to the first article, more was actually grown this past year (5%). As for our exports, they are down 75-85%. However the run on rice creates false shortages. As I said earlier, wait a couple of months. Then, because those that normally buy a week or two worth have bought months worth - there will be a lots of cheap rice.
This should be a learning experience for all of us, especially Latter-day Saints. We have been counseled that food storage is something we should have been steadily doing for decades (the Great Depression was the painful learning threshhold). Now,prices spike and most people panic (including Latter-day Saints), sending emails about where to buy wheat and beans, how to cash out your retirement funds because they will be empty in a year, and the profiteers are laughing all the way to the bank. Prices will stabalize eventually. In the meantime, we need to follow the counsel of the Brethren who have said "let us not go to extremes". If you don't have adequate food storage, now is not the time to go buy mass quantities. Let this be a lesson, and next time gradually and prudently build up your food reserves.
The reason this topic irks me is that some Latter-day Saints have a tendency to be pharaseical about this issue. I had about seven months of food when I started college with my family. We are now down to three because it sustained us during a couple semesters when there was viritually no income. It was truly a blessing and it strengthened my testimony about the need to be prepared.
Now, consider this. How would all of you like it if I told you to quit your careers and go get a Ph.D. or a Masters degree becasue you were not prepared for the difficult economic times ahead and your current career would be gone in a year? I mean, President Hinckley urged education just as much (if not more so than) food storage. Of course, that is absurd for most people. All things must be done in wisdom and order. Yet, when panic ensues, people preach food storage like it is the only commandement in force.
Ok, I have ranted long enough.....my apologies. I think I'm just worried about Fast Sunday testimony meeting and I know of a few in my ward who will stand up and give us the "I told you sooo!" testimony on food storage.
We have been counselled to acquire food storage for years, but sometimes it takes a real "experience" for some people to "get it." Maybe they will lose their income or have some other real-world event that will suddenly shake them enough to really do it.
One of the articles called it a "media-fueled hysteria" ... how does this sort of thing happen and why?
And I think I would agree that regardless of what the USDA in Missouri says, if I can't get rice, I can't get rice and that affects me. I don't know what the situation will look like in 6 months when everything's supposed to smooth out.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
Other than our regular rotational food storage purchases, I haven't bought anything based on current events. The only exception is honey - we have it overrepresented in our storage. If all the bees die, I'll have a good barter/sale good. If they don't, well, my SIL opened a 30 year old can of honey the other day and began making honeyballs with it. We use it weekly.
TM Davies found that 3000+ yr old honey buried with mummies in Egypt that still smelled like honey. Now that's food storage!
LM
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And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, seven hours every day. That would be the sweetest thing of all.
And I think I would agree that regardless of what the USDA in Missouri says, if I can't get rice, I can't get rice and that affects me. I don't know what the situation will look like in 6 months when everything's supposed to smooth out. And there's the rub. It only affects a person if that person doesn't already have rice stored.
But then I'm feeling all superior because my staple supplies are complete. Don't listen to me.
My wife accused me of panic buying the other day. Me, I am buying extra, not a lot, but some. My view is that at the moment, things are uncertain, so I would rather not dip into my stores, but buy the shelf and preserve my long term storage instead.
I bought an extra 100 pounds of rice, 50 pounds of wheat, 50 pounds of flour, and 25 pounds of sugar, so now my long term storage remains untapped and have about two months of goods that don't require opening cans and pouches.
Plus, I have gotten into making my own hummus and so have been buying a bunch of chickpeas.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
Val's post raises a question. At what point do you "tap into" that food storage? Do you use it as an insulation from prices driven by the current "food bubble", or wait until there's no food on the shelves anymore?
Seems to me that having rice in storage, but continuing to buy "extra" anyway so you don't have to use that stored rice kinda defeats the purpose of storing food. But I imagine that Val sees his storage as a SHTF protection only. I don't view it that way so much.
Bok, we definitely use the storage on a regular basis and then I replenish it. In a time where people are buying up everything, threats of shortages, economic crisis, I would rather buy what I need now than to tap the stores so that if something really happens, I still have the year plus storage on hand.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
I don't know. I have bad timing all the way around. I suppose I am panic buying. Amazing, MrHic is onboard with it. Maybe that's why it wasn't time for me to do long term food storage before now. Nothing like alienating an investigator spouse.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton