[RedStateGreen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('blukatzen', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'P')eak oil I can live with, but peak chocolate is just too horrible to contemplate.

[Ludi]

People bake a lot during the holidays. It may be difficult to keep all the sections filled at all times.

I noticed the beer section was practically cleaned out the other day!

Beer shortage!

[cynthia]

Cocoa's real dark side is the child slavery issue. See the following link for articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_cocoa

Our food Co-op researched all our chocolate sources and now only carry fairly-trade cocoa and chocolate. This affected all products, even items like cheese and beer that contain it.

Ludi is probably right about the cocoa shortage you observed being a product of high fudge making demand rather than an actual shortage of cocoa.

Still, I expect food shortages down the road. One of our largest food vendors missed one delivery due to weather related causes earlier this week and our shelves had some empty spaces because of it.
cynthia

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cynthia', 'C')ocoa's real dark side is the child slavery issue.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'o')n a more serious note cocoa is one of the things i've got in my preps

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'L')asts much longer than chocolate if well cared for (kept cool and dry). I am currently using some that's over 4 years old and it seems brand new.

[efarmer]

If I remember correctly Shanny, some cocoa is natural and some
is Dutch process to treat the fatty acids in the cocoa butter
with alkali (I presume to kick the shelf life higher). Is your
4 year old stash of cocoa natural or Dutch processed?

Perhaps you should mail a parcel of cookies to me and
others here on the forum so we can taste them and
make sure you are eating safe things. I think that a few
dozen of each would be enough for determination of safety.

I also noted that high fertilizer cost, cold and rain, and
pod disease hit the Ivory Coast and Ghana (almost
half of world production) crops of cocoa beans this year.
I am keeping this quiet in my house because Ms. Efarmer
is my rock of Gibraltar and that rock rests upon a bedrock
of fragrant and dark chocolate (below that is where I think
the creamy nougat center that makes abiotic oil is located.)

Efarmer

[oowolf]

Cocoa powder has had most of the fat (cocoa butter) removed. The industry claims a shelf life of 2 years. I bought an antique cocoa tin on ebay that still had powder in it and it tasted fine (although I don't know if it was the original contents).
You do know the beans are a fermented product, right, like black China tea.
Cocoa powder is the #1 investment commodity of 2008 (made the best profit).

[Sixstrings]

More chocolate woes.. grocery store had no white chocolate at all. Closest I could find was Hershey's "cookies n' cream" candy bars.

Also had a hard time finding cornmeal. Lots of of cornbread mix, no cornmeal. I almost gave up when i found one lone bag, tucked towards the back of a shelf, with a little tear in it. Didn't see any bugs in it, so I went for it.

[3aidlillahi]

How good of a trade item do you all suppose that cocoa powder is? It would seem to me that it'd actually do pretty well since many people may long for the days of sweets and such a substance would take them back to the good ol' days of cheap energy. A bit like a drug would. Although if space is an issue, I'd say bullets, bread, wheat, etc. would still fare better.

[roadrunner]

I read this thread with interest because I hadn't noticed a shortage in our area, I just thought I came in at the end of a week's sale. I now want to go check the stores and see if the before holiday shortage, if that is what it may have been, is gone.

The items I keep an eye on are Cocoa, Salt, Cornmeal, Flour, Rice.

Since starting on this site I have been keeping an eye on what stores offer each week for sales. I have noticed it's just about the same stuff each week. It hardly ever changes except for the meat special. That is disappointing. I stock up on the basics but never save any money doing it.

I want to store most of my stuff in the root cellar but I think that may be too damp for cocoa or salt. Does anyone use their root cellar for it or do you just put it in your pantry. I have flour in 5 gallon buckets that have done okay so far but I worry it will be too damp.

[Quinny]

Large sealed tubs, expiry date 2010 +. We use it a lot so will open before ex date and use.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quinny', 'o')n a more serious note cocoa is one of the things i've got in my preps

[bikerguy]

I have noticed shortages on the slelves of Walmart food stores and there prices have jumped in the last week, 10% on some foods like soup. I think inflation is already starrting to hit, and hit hard.

[perdition79]

That's what happens when "real" money is created. That soup went up a few cents, and you are quite literally eating the cost of our bailout culture.

(I can post again! Anyone who can't needs to dump all personal data, including cookies.)

[lowem]

Looks like there never was any deflation in the food arena. And it's official too. Over at my side, the Singapore inflation rate came down to 2.9% but food prices went up 6.2%, year-over-year.

It's probably playing out as feared - prices of *needs* going up while prices of *wants* going down, and the ordinary consumer is screwed every which way. In short, the worst of all possible worlds. That, and the threat of shortages. Certainly makes a compelling case to join the doomer camp if one isn't there already.

[alokin]

No everything the same in OZ, but the prices rose a bit (but I don't buy soup)

[DarkDawg]

Um, prices have been going up for a while now. Have you not noticed the deceptive tactic of downsizing packaging at the same price point? For example, a half gallon of ice cream is no longer a half gallon. Sometimes they will make the metric numbers bigger and bolder on the label in order to confuse the mathematically challenged among us.

People look at the price and that's all they see.

Call it being "nickel and dimed" to death, but it is the same old slimy marketing tricks with a new face.

You are not getting what you thought you were paying for.

[Byron100]

Another annoying trend is the reversal of the "buy larger to save money" paradigm. These days, more often then not when I see the same product in different size containers, the per unit cost of the smaller package is less than the per unit cost of the larger package. Perhaps this is a way to trick people into paying more if they buy the larger size, even as they think they're saving money.

It really pays to scrutinize the "per ounce / gram / etc" comparisons on the those yellow shelf price tags...it's amazing how easy it is to get fooled if you don't compare the actual numbers.

[vision-master]

No shortages at all.

[Jotapay]

I didn't see any Mexican coffee (the cheap but really good stuff at $3/can) last time I went. I stopped getting Whole Foods $12/pound coffee a while back and switched back to Cafe Bustelo. They were also out of Cholula hot sauce. Nothing too bad.