Brett Arends starts off this piece with “I don’t want to alarm anybody, but maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food.”
Arends is not appealing to your stomach, though; he’s appealing to your bank account. I agree with him that it’s a good idea. The difference is, Arends sees this as a hedge against inflation. I see it as a hedge against starvation.
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. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you’ll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.
Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.
And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They’re all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.
Arends says that the reasons for this price surge include rising demand in Asia and the growing demand for ethanol. He also says this: “The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil.”
With that, Arends seems to miss the point completely. Food costs are not following in the footsteps of oil; they are being dragged along by the rise in the price of oil, the essential component of industrialized agriculture. It’s something Peak Oil theorists have been saying all along, and why this is such a dangerous time.
This is more important than last night’s Pennsylvania primary results, which change nothing as far as whether Obama or Clinton will eventually be declared the Democratic Party’s nominee for next last president of these United States.
We need to reduce our dependence on oil, period. There are several ways to do this; most of the suggestions don’t have a big enough impact or take too long to have an effect. Alternatives are a way off, or won’t be able to cover all of the problems that will arise. We are only starting to feel the first shockwaves. The big shakeup is coming; how or when it happens remains unknown. Load up the pantry.
Here’s one way to do it:
My husband has a 50 ft x 50 ft vegetable garden. He loves it and has found heaven on earth among the soil, bugs and vegetables.
And the compost heap is amazing.
What wasn’t mentioned in the WSJ article is the darker side –woodchucks, racoons, plant diseases, birds, watering needs, ph testing, mosquitos at dawn and dusk- blah,blah, blah. These are despite the solar-powered fence that’s supposed to keep animals out.
The joys of nature often conspire to ruin all that serenity and produce.
Not to mention–weeds! Don’t even ask about the weeds.