Interesting…

Another food ‘shortage’ on the horizon, as if we didn’t ‘see’ this one coming…

NEW DELHI (AP) – India has banned exports of wheat effective immediately, citing a risk to its food security, partly due to the war in Ukraine.

A notice in the government gazette by the Directorate of Foreign Trade, dated Friday, said a spike in global prices for wheat was threatening the food security of India and neighboring and vulnerable countries.

A key aim is to control rising domestic prices. Global wheat prices have risen by more than 40% since the beginning of the year.

Full article HERE, from the Daily Mail. Funny how the Brit media seems to do a better job of covering not only US stuff, but worldwide issues…

When you add in the ‘issues’ with Russia (sanctions) and Ukraine (war), there is a significant loss of production.

Ukraine and Russia produce a substantial amount of grain and other food for export. Ukraine alone produces a whopping 6% of all food calories traded in the international market. At least it used to, before it was invaded by the world’s largest nuclear power.

Full article HERE, from The Conversation.

Why, you may ask, am I pointing out the obvious?

That was brought home yesterday morning at our local Cracker Barrel. Peter, Dot, and I usually get a plate of biscuits at the start of our meal to tide us over until the food actually shows up. Cracker Barrel has done this for years at all meals, for any kind of bread (as long as it was biscuits or cornbread). Yesterday, the waitress apologized and said she had to charge us for the biscuits as a ‘side dish’…

So, what was once a give away, cheap product has now become a price point due to the rise in raw, processed, and delivered prices, with the expectation that scarcity and MORE price hikes are ahead.

And I went to the store after breakfast to pick up some distilled water. I checked the aisle and there was a definite lack of anything other than plain flour. There was also a surprising lack of product on a lot of aisles, mainly the breakfast cereals, juices, and soups (again)… sigh

Comments

Interesting… — 20 Comments

  1. All part of the plan. They probably think if they keep us hungry and broke we will more tractable. They also ignore history….like the French Revolution. Expect PeeLousy to say something like “let them eat cake” soon.

  2. Jesus said that there would be wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, disease, earthquakes in various places, and famine before his return and we have all of these now. He also said there would be signs in the heavens. The blood red sky seen in China and the many UFO sightings may be part of that. We are in the time preceding the return of Jesus Christ and it is about to get a lot rougher so I suggest everybody repent of their sins and ask Jesus Christ into their heart if you have not done so.

  3. Distilled water was 99 cents/gal and plentiful.
    Then the shelves were bare. Now it is back in reduced amounts at $1.49.

    When flour started becoming scarce, I noticed it also became much older- some of it had been packed almost a year earlier. Not good.

    I bought buckets of wheat berries and a grain mill. The price of the mill went up $70 after it was back in stock. Sigh.

  4. I picked up quite a few cornbread envelopes about two months ago to feed my need for the occasional loaf of it. If my wife and kids leave them alone for long enough, I’m figuring next year should see them whittled down. None of them believe me when I tell them to pick extras for the future – they are still convinced they will have these choices later.

    • At our house, cornbread and chili cannot be separated. We would have a birthday cake without icing and candles, before we would have chili without cornbread.
      In fact, that was my eclipse-watching snack last night, and my breakfast this morning.

  5. I started baking bread maybe 30 years ago, but I’m extremely sporadic about it. My daughter-in-law liked the bread I made for her boys, so she found a local bread-makers supply (breadbeckers.com, that’s not a typo) and bought me some great bead pans. So, I decided what our counters needed was more appliances, and I bought a mill, then a few varieties of wheat to mill. They had LOTS!!!
    Today, they only have three kinds in stock, but: the prices haven’t changed: $40.03 for 35 pounds of hard red wheat in a 5 gallon bucket (the organic versions are $10 more). However, they have put a limit on quantities sold: 1 bucket per order every 14 days. They have brown rice ($60.50 for a 42 pound bucket), and pinto beans ($64.65 in a 41 pound bucket) BUT they only sell it to walk-ins.
    Maybe I visit them today….

  6. Sigh. Interesting times. I’m so glad we don’t have a baby right now with the formula shortage.

  7. It’s more than wheat, alas. My wife and I can’t eat wheat anything (results too disgusting to mention), but the tapioca starch we use as part of the gluten-free baking has been hard to find. My SIL found one source; we’re keeping an eye on that one.

    I gather that most of the tapioca comes from Indonesia, so the material is either stuck on a ship off shore, or never got out of the country.

    • Pamela’s Products makes some very good already-mixed bread ‘flours.’ And pizza flour, and quick-rise/pancake flour.

      Buy them in bulk 25lb bags directly from them and avoid the huge markup on scamazon.

      • My wife prefers to do the specialty mixes herself, since the various applications need different percentages.

        Mass quantities (25 or 50 pound bags), we get from the restaurant supply (OK in Oregon because of no sales tax). Smaller quantities (like Xanthan gum), we can get at a local grocery store. (The supply store has large packages, but that’s too many year’s supply.)

        The exotic stuff comes from Bob’s Red Mill. They offer mail order for small quantities, but very expensive. Never tried Amazon.

  8. I ate at Cracker Barrel today and there was no extra charge for biscuits. Must be a Texas thing.

  9. All- Thanks, and some points I hadn’t thought about. Gerry- We ordered the biscuits ‘ahead’ of our order, that may have been the difference.

  10. I got some great deals on Amazon last quarter for 10lb sealed plastic bags of flour, rice and dry beans. I got 100lbs of each on top of our existing pantry supplies. Pop each bag in the freezer for 24 hours to kill any weevils and other nasty eggs, and they’re good to go.
    And as everyone from Boston knows, it ain’t a pantry, it’s a lahdah.
    It’s really interesting (to me) that with a wife from the 3rd world I’ve had an uphill battle building up my pantry. No food security, not having grown up with the ability to do long-term food storage in the tropical heat, plus the ‘this is America, that’s not supposed to happen here’ mentality.
    I framed it as a cost savings measure, considering prices, and it was better received. I’m envious of my shipmates from the west, who can buy a half a cow off a neighbor and there’s the freezer set up for the immediate future.

  11. Paulb: I would’ve thought “not having grown up with the ability to do long-term food storage in the tropical heat” would lead to an enhanced interest in food storage strategies.

    Although, ‘this is America, that’s not supposed to happen here’ explains almost everyone around me being unconcerned.

    “great deals on Amazon last quarter” Links?

    “lahdah” Hahaha. Pahk ya cah at tha kerb.
    .