[mercurygirl]

Make the last preparations. Oh, oh, oh...my sides...help

Don't worry, if we run out of wheat, there's plenty of doritos and coke to go around.

[kpeavey]

This is not enough to crash global civilization. A catabolic collapse demands a decrease in energy throughputs. Also, some thinkers around here have concluded that several other factors must be in place before a collapse can occur. Such things as a functional government, communications, and viable distribution systems are still with us.

This thread is highly focused. Expand your view, worry will decrease. We have heard nothing about the Canadian grain inventory. How about Austrailia? How about substitute goods/ingredients, corn, rice, barley, sorghum, oats, millet, soy, teff, rye, buckwheat, and more to be sure.

The food is still there, its simply in someone else's name and being loaded on a train. A higher bidder can probably buy it from this buyer.

It strikes me as odd that such a volume would be liquidated suddenly but consider some possibilities:
-this deal has probably been in the works for a while. It's not so sudden.
-This is June, the US wheat harvest is due when? in the next couple of months? I'm not particularly familiar with wheat harvest times so help me out here.
-A low inventory level just before the harvest would serve to drive up prices.
-The farmers need the high prices to afford fertilizers/fuel/agrichems/equipment for the next crop, and get the money for that out of this crop.
-A couple of brooms is all that is needed at this point to set up the storage facilities for storing Fresh product. If this upcoming harvest must last longer than normal, fresh would have a better shelf life.
-Food storage rule #1: Rotate.
-Who bought all this grain? Was it a political favor? Whats in it for us?
-There are plenty of American's with enough "personally" stored grains that they can survive a long time during a hard famine.
-30% of the US grain harvest is all that is needed to feed the US population. A caveat: this does not include animal feed.
-Food prices ave been projected to rise by 50% in the next year. Maybe we just found out the reasoning behind those estimates.

Nonetheless, I've not increased my home food storage in a while. I'll be going to Wal-Mart tomorrow and stock up but good.

[Homesteader]

KP,

Good points to be sure. However if you go back and check the link that DoomWarrior posted you will see that the alternatives you mentioned ALL have zero's next to them.

[kpeavey]

Reread the article.
This is only the one small food trust.
Remember what Bartlett tought you: DO THE MATH.

Based on a half a loaf for each person out of the remaining 2.7M bushels, the 24.1 would have only been sufficient for 7.3 loaves of bread per person in the US.

We have far more wheat in inventory than this article is talking about.

[Baldwin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Rubin_Flagg', 'C')onnect the dots people.
govenment food inventory is now basically gone...and the talk of war with Iran....oil is up....monday is going to be the worst day of our lives.

Buy a lot of food and make the last preparations. TSHTF on Monday.

I will be praying for all of us this weekend and enjoying the last of the easy life. I'm even going to go out for a movie and Chinese Food. I wish you all the best.

[kpeavey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Biz/Tech news, Seattle Times, Friday, February 8, 2008', 'T')he U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a bullish report Friday predicting U.S. wheat inventories will total 272 million bushels by the end of May, the lowest in more than five decades and about 7 percent less than expected last month.

[kpeavey]

I ran a search for harvest time, got this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Food Business News, April 29, 2008', 'B')y the time combines begin rolling across the southern Plains in the United States in June,

[Homesteader]

Alright Kp I'll recant my spot on the ledge this time.

[Chuckmak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'M')y pants are still just fine.

[kpeavey]

Chuckmak, about your avatar,

you owe me a new screen but I think I got him

[seahorse]

Ludi, you must be constipated or, maybe you're a snake?

[mystiek]

Looks like a trip to Sams Club this weekend...

[frankthetank]

So my aunt is really nuts. A couple years back she was talking to my wife and the conversation went something like this.

"Oh honey, you know how it is... sometimes when you fart... a little comes out... you know how it is...?"

my wife..."Um... no... that doesn't happen to me"...

"Oh honey... "

Yeah... This lady actually contains genetic material that closely resembles mine...

I've got a chest freezer full of:

[gnm]

Urp. I can cook up some fine chili.... and even homemade tortillas and refritos..

Please tell me you are kidding about that freezer!

That stuff is a culinary abomination!

-G

[roccman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Rubin_Flagg', '
')
Buy a lot of food and make the last preparations. TSHTF on Monday.

[frankthetank]

Very kidding... My brothers in law used to eat these from time to time and we would make fun of them.

[Ayoob]

This is just another example that the government is not here to help you. We're all, each of us, on our own.

A couple years ago, I started calling the various government officials who were supposed to represent my interests in the government. I started with my city councilman, state legislative representative, the mayor's office, my HR representative, my Senator, the governor's office, the DOE, and a couple other random government officials.

Only the guy at the DOE admitted even knowing about peak oil and he told me that there is no plan to deal with the issue, they are simply tracking its progress.

I spoke with the Deputy Mayor of Energy for Los Angeles, and she told me she'd never heard of peak oil and that she figures I should plan on taking the bus. Second largest city in America, and the Deputy Mayor of Energy kind of laughed when I brought it up.

That's part of the reason for my doomerosity.

There's a guy on glocktalk who was part of the emergency management team for LA, and he told me that LA has lots of communications equipment, that they are fully prepared to broadcast in the event of an emergency, but there are no stores of ANYTHING that can be used to help anyone. The cupboard is bare.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the government has no supplies on hand to help the citizens. Does this really come as a shocker to any of you?

How much food do you have stored up? Three days' worth, or is it all in your freezer? How would you cook it if you had to, and what fuel would you use to cook with? Where is your water? How many days' worth do you have? Do you have cans of gas handy to fuel up your vehicle, and what range does that offer you? And where would you go?

We are, each of us, on our own. The cavalry is not going to ride over the hill to do anything other than take whatever you have left.

They're probably just thinking that they want to raise a little money and there's all this grain sitting around collecting dust, they can dump it at the high prices you can get for grain today so they can pay five minutes' worth of interest on some bond issue to get their credit rating raised up for a little while.

It's really the same thing as a bankrupt homeowner ripping out the copper pipes and selling them to pay the mortgage one more month. What's that process called again?

If this makes you shit your pants, wait til the jails become too expensive to run and the doors open on a hundred thousand child molesters, a couple hundred thousand Crips and Bloods, and a couple million illegal aliens. That's gonna be fun, too.

And you guys realize that the price of gas isn't even really that bad yet. Act I, the curtain opens on a mid-sized city in America.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '.')..If this makes you crap your pants, wait til the jails become too expensive to run and the doors open on a hundred thousand child molesters, a couple hundred thousand Crips and Bloods, and a couple million illegal aliens. That's gonna be fun, too...

[TT]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '
')How much food do you have stored up?

[GreyGhost]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', 'I')n the event the SHTF, stick to your plan. Panic solves nothing, contributes nothing, causes harm, injury, pain, and suffering, gets you no place. In order to learn to prevent panic, it can help if you experience panic firsthand. Learn the feeling of blood rushing to your head, recall the confusion, lack of coherence, and inability to respond, recognize the time dilation. This is Panic. If you can identify it you can break free of its grip and RESPOND APPROPRIATELY.