Americans hoard food
This piece at TheWashingtonTimes certainly caught my attention. It caused me to think, ‘since when did Americans start hoarding food?’ And then it occurred to me, ‘why would Americans be hoarding food? In this day and age?!’ I know that food and gas has been on the increase over the past few years and it certainly has been making even larger increases at the pump and the checkout stand in recent months yet I wasn’t all that aware that we as Americans had been hoarding food, anyway not since the ‘Great Depression’ of my parents era.
But after reading on down in the article one soon becomes aware that what some rather wise and astute Americans, myself included have actually been doing is starting to read the tea-leaves and starting to buy and store extra foodstuffs and other related items we need in our daily lives otherwise known as ‘laying in extra vittles’. Okay okay, some might call it ‘stockpiling’ and maybe some might try to even stretch that to ’hoarding’. I wouldn’t quite go that far, personally.
Americans hoard food as industry seeks regs …. some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.
In all seriousness our basic food commodities supply have lately been showing signs of worsening with no real relief in sight for at least a couple of years or more according to some economists familiar with the world food supply numbers. Many world economists have been predicting that food and fuel will rise at least anywhere from 15% to 48% a year for at least the next couple of years. Even after that the prices will continue to rise but supposedly at a slower rate if some so called experts are right. Right now there are reports that these prices have already risen around 37% since just 2002-03. That’s about 6% - 8% per year. Now some are saying to expect double digit percentage increases each year of the next year or so.
With that being said I can certainly understand why some Americans are feeling the need to cover their families backsides just in case these dire predictions are only just half-right and there’s no way of knowing whether those numbers may actually be closer to 100% correct or anywhere in between. And with news items like this one that appeared in the WSJ recently, 'Load Up the Pantry' people have the right to be concerned in times like these.
In any event some people and I count myself in that group are just being careful and socking away certain non-perishable foodstuffs that will be needed no matter what happens and that these same foodstuffs will only continue to rise in price and keep rising for the foreseeable future especially with the continued weakening and dumping of the of the U.S. dollar worldwide and the continued meteoric rise in oil and gas with no end in sight which has a direct and devestating bearing on food prices at every level in our economy and the worlds economy as well because what happens in world markets elsewhere have at least an indirect domino-like impact on American consumers.
I call it an investment hedge against out of control worldwide basic foodstuffs supply and growing inflation. Never mind what the government tries to sell you and me we have some serious inflation woes staring us in the face with possible shortages in our food supply chain in coming months. The government does not include things like food, gasoline and oil and many other daily necessary commodities in the idea for figuring the inflation rate index but as a practical matter and as a consumer I do consider them when figuring the real world inflation numbers and how and where to spend my limited supply of money. - More later -
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