Early 2013: Prepare For A Massive Food Price Surge; Up 175% from the Year 2000

by | Sep 19, 2012 | Headline News | 332 comments

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    The after-effects of 2012’s summer drought are far from over.

    According to a new analysis from Rabobank this year’s crop failure and premature slaughtering of pigs, cattle and other staple meats will lead to an average 15% surge in food prices in 2013.

    It may not sound like much, but when you combine this with monetary easing that threatens to rapidly depreciate the value of the dollar and an already indebted U.S. consumer, we can expect even more participants to enter government nutritional assistance programs.

    It’s more expensive than ever before just to stay alive.

    The record US, and global, summer drought has come and gone but its aftereffects are only now going to be felt, at least according to a new Rabobank report, which asserts that food prices are about to soar by 15% or more following mass slaughter of farm animals which will cripple supply once the current inventory of meat is exhausted.

    From Sky News: “The worst drought in the US for almost a century, combined with droughts in South America and Russia, have hit the production of crops used in animal feed – such as corn and soybeans – especially hard, the report said. As a result farmers have begun slaughtering more pigs and cattle, temporarily increasing the meat supply – but causing a steep rise in the price of meat in the long-term as production slows.

    “Farmers producing meat are simply not making enough money at the moment because of the high cost of feed,” Nick Higgins, commodity analyst at Rabobank, told Sky News. “As a result they will reduce their stock – both by slaughtering more animals and by not replacing them.” Somewhat ironically.

    Food prices are now being kept at depressed prices as the “slaughtered” stock clears the market.

    However once that is gone look for various food-related prices to soar: a process which will likely take place in early 2013, just in time to add to the shock from the Fiscal Cliff, which even assuming a compromise, will detract from the spending capacity of US (and by implication global) consumers.

    The “mass liquidation” of animals – which Rabobank said will pick up pace in the beginning of 2013 – will contribute to food prices hitting new highs.

    The cost of pork is expected to rise at the fastest pace – by 31% by the end of June next year – while beef costs could increase by up to 8%.

    “This record cost of meat and dairy will combine with already-high crop prices to increase food prices by 15% by the middle of next year,” Mr Higgins added.

    This would see food prices reach their highest level on record, up by 175% compared to the year 2000.

    But the report stressed that the current situation is very different to the crisis of 2008 – in which food stables of the world’s developing economies, like wheat and rice, were severely affected.

    The bank’s research follows official figures that showed inflation had slipped back to 2.5% in the UK – closer to the Bank of England’s inflation target of 2%

    But Mr Higgins warned that next year’s food price rise could push inflation in the UK higher, and so further away from the Bank’s target.

    Via Zero Hedge

    But inflation is only at 2% according to the CPI.

    Ben Bernanke and his helicopter air force have everything under control, just like they said they would.

    That 15% in food price increases doesn’t even include the new money that is sure to hit the system now that some $80 billion a month is being committed to maintaining the illusion of economic stability and recovery.

    All the while American consumers, who assume everything is as it has always been, are going to be paying 175% more for food by summer of next year than they were paying in the year 2000.

    The only investment strategy available to ensure that you don’t run out of affordable food as the US dollar loses value and climate effects deplete available food stores is to invest in hard assets today.

    Hat tip Satori

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      332 Comments

      1. I just harvested 1 ton of personally grown wheat, and a bunch of vegetables that I’m dehydrading and storing in my cellar. Got enough for my fam and some friends in addition to newly purchased long term storage. Gonna be a rough ride, but at least I have a seat belt.

        • Good work, Sterling Silver.

        • I just took my dad to his doctor today and while he was checking dad out, we talked. I asked if he would see dad for a silver dollar when the economy collapses. He very quickly said he would. He also told me he is treating several patients now for a small cash fee. These are people who have lost their jobs and have ran out of money and have no govt. help. He charges them a small fee because most people do not want charity. If he refuses their small fee they often do not return.

          Last month I made the same deal with my dentist and simply asked if he would accept junk silver for payment of services. He also said he would do so. I suggest every prepper have a similar talk with their service providers, whether its the doctor, dentist or propane guy. You maight be surprised how prepared many professionals are.

          • @HighspeedLoafer: One of my good friends regularly barters ammo for legal services with his local attorney. His lawyer is a bit more educated than most BAR attorneys in what is about to transpire and is trading his services for real value.

          • I’ve asked two doctors here and they both said no. I also asked an optometrist who said no (guess he’s a doctor too). The only people that have any interest here is the local pawn shop but they’ve got nothing I need.

            • Wow, I’d find me another doctor.

            • Their tune will change, I suspect too late to do them any good though. Question for the peanut gallery: do you suppose medical practices, since they use electronic medical records, are noting in those records when patients don’t use insurance to pay? Since the billing systems are part of the same software as the medical records, it makes sense. Do you suppose not being normal makes one a target?

            • They might want accept cash but cannot take the risk. There are all sorts of penalties regarding Medicare/Medicaid if they get caught doing cash treatments especially if Medicare has said no. Not like the old days when you could ring the bell at your family doctors house and he would see you. I had a hand stitched up once for five dollars. Those days are gone now, just keeping opiates in a doctors office makes them a target for breakins and robbery.

          • Although I don’t get taken up on the offer much, I have taken payment in pre 65 quarters for HVAC work many times since I started accepting them in 2010, the going rate is 2 per hour.
            It’s time, that we all do everything we can to leave the government and the IRS out of “our” business!

            • Tomas
              Medical records always indicate whether the person is insured because that is how the clinic gets paid. If someone pays cash, this is also indicated because the accounting system has to track everything.
              Some practices don’t accept people without insurance because they are very likely not to pay at all. A business won’t last very long on those terms. My own clinic does not take insurance so we accept cash and credit cards. Because of this we have a very small patient base and limited hours.
              I would love to have patients who pay with silver or ammo but no one has ever asked.

            • I know people who can clean out/fix computer viruses, do HVAC work, yard work etc. on the side and get gift cards for various stores in payment or paid in cash. If Obamacare kicks in, I heard some Dr’s in my area will retire earlier than planned.

          • our local clinic has all but shut down. The doctors there opted for early retirement sine the .gov will no longer pay them. (Oh they got paid, but it took years of paperwork). The one remaining doctor told me he is taking chickens in exchange for services sometimes. Really.

        • One thing: Rabobank is a dutch banking conglomerate (go to their website, says so right there). They are likely looking at European food prices as their main focus.

          How prices are affected in the US is up for grabs.

          • Rabobank are very active in Agribusiness in both Australia and NZ, and agriculture is their area of speciality.

            It is a very good bet they are pretty close to the mark.

            • They’re also very active in the US. However, what we don’t know is where they’re focusing their pricing targets.

          • I spoke with someone from the Omaha area this evening and asked them if indeed the drought had been as bad as reported. Their reply was that the corn crop had been devastated but how much the impact would be was as yet unknown.

        • High prices as the result of droughts are nothing new to civilization or even America, for that matter. Its happened here before and it will happen again.

          That’s life.

          Make the best of it. These are cyclical events that occur periodically. No need to panic, just adapt.

          Double digit inflation is not hyperinflation, not even when it is compounded over a dozen years. The sky is not falling. Nevertheless, WE should all take a positive, proactive approach to the changes that are taking place.

          Keep prepping.

          (And eat your neighbor’s cat if you get hungry. Just saying, dogs are man’s best friend) 🙂

          • I get your point. And when you’ve been around long enough to see a few cycles, you tend not to panic as much.

            I think what has most people upset/panicking is what you could call the additive theory. Never before have you had:

            Fed fiat money printing on a vast scale + US debt reaching critical mass + zero faith in the federal government + high probability of war in the ME causing a surge in gas + drought/bad crops + whatever natural event you prep for (solar flare/polar shift/super volcano/whatever…)

            Whether it ends up being right or wrong, when you add it all up you end up with a record numbers of preppers.

            Mal

            PS Don’t kill my cat. It kills mice.

            • Hey Mal! I’m sure it was just the cat lover’s out there in shtfplan land that thumbed me down; that, or I have a fan club! 🙂

              While there are dangers fiscally in America, I believe those dangers and the responsibility for the consequences, lie with Congress, not so much as with Bernanke.

              Bernanke is just the janitor that has to mop up the puke.

              Many here may not be old enough to remember the Savings and Loan mortgage crisis back in ’87 that was created (by Congress)to eliminate the competition of the commercial banks for the GB’s.

              It was Congress at the behest of the dual citizens and lobbyists that passed the legislation that has repeatedly facilitated these bubbles in housing and the stock market for the GB’s; with each new fabricated crisis tightening the noose tighter around the America people.

              And yeah, Earth Changes are coming OUR way in a BIG way, so this will magnify all of OUR other problems.

              Is it any wonder that Nappy is planning for the worst? At least she is planning ….

              Cheers, Mal. 🙂

          • Agree with you on the dogs. Our 130 lb German Shepherd is superb. Had shepherds since 1966. Not a finer protector for my old hearing.

            As for cats, I am not much on cats. Wife has one that stays in the barn. He is definitely a democrat though. He gets free vet care, lodging, food, beds, etc. Sleeps all day. Will not catch mice even when I put the nest in front of him.

            I call the cat DEET, “Dog Entertainment & Exercise Toy” as the dog can never catch the furball and they both get some exercise in the process.

            Keep prepping people. They enemy is within the perimeter and right under our noses. When the lights go out and the moocher checks stops, well….we will all be in for one scary odyssey.

            If the elections keep Emir O in power, the journey downward will be painful.

            • I knew this was you once I read your post. Got my tin can and string yesterday……gonna have someone in the colonial fort area hook it up for me when I am up.

            • You just proved the cat works for his pay he is your dogs physical trainer 🙂

            • Painful and alot quicker than most people suspect. 208 coal power plants will have been be closed soon. Just how is that power going to be replaced?

          • Hey! Don’t eat my cats…they keep rats, bunnies and moles out of my veggie garden!

          • The suggestion of eating your neighbor’s cat is repulsive. Dogs are MUCH better eating.

            • “A dog is a fine meal”

              🙂

            • FYI, the lowly Chihuahua was bread as a food animal…

            • I can confirm and Roger That! A dog is better eating than a cat. Other than what I grew up eating in the wild life of West Virginia growing up. I have eaten dog, cat,Asian Caribou or Water Buffalo, horse, monkey,snake,all kinds of bugs and insects (cooked and raw)while overseas and once I even had a decent portion of rat one time just to try it in Thailand. I’ve also eaten the live baby rats they have there also which I didn’t chew it I just swallowed it down with a beer kind of like you do a raw oyster hahaha and I can’t remember what they called those. I sort of thought the rat meat was similar to squirrel. My wife is from the Bicol Province in the Philippines which is South East of Manila. That’s where I ate dog for the first time. They scuwered the meat onto small bamboo sticks and bbq’d it. Some of you may have eaten or heard of an egg in the Philippines called “Balut”. It’s a Duck or Chicken embryo that is boiled just like a hard boiled egg. You top the egg, then drink the juice and peel it and eat it. Sounds disgusting I know but once you get past the smell it’s all downhill. I have been married to my wife for 25 years now and her family especially her brothers get together with me and drink beer and I can’t begin to imagine how many Balut I’ve eaten over 25 years and they’ve thrown any kind of food in front of me and I eat it. But the winner out of all of those foods was the monkey meat. That stuff was great! I advise anyone that takes a trip to Singapore or Thailand and ask where you can get some monkey and try it. You’ll be surprised and want seconds. But for those of you that are squeamish or soft hearted… **DO NOT WATCH THEM while they skin and butcher it!!! A few guys (NY city boys) from my division thought they could handle it but they didn’t stick around long.lol haha I still have to laugh when I think of their faces.lol I won’t describe what it looks like. Most nights there we were super inebriated by beer or the Thai Whiskey which had a few illegal opium additives and we were told it was off limits but drank it anyway which is probably why I ate just about anything after that with no conscience whatsoever. You only live once!

            • JustMe said:

              “FYI, the lowly Chihuahua was bread as a food animal…”

              Well, FYI, the lowly Chihuahua was actually meat as a food animal…

              If you want bread, that’s a different food group entirely.

            • Gator,

              All else being doable, the “live baby rats” really got me. YUCK! But hey, people eat live scorpians, too.

              BraneFrees,

              My mispelling, I meant “bred”, as meat animals.

          • durango I like what you write and how you feel, but what really comes down in prices? Nothing I can think of except computers or tv’s. everything in life goes up they go up huge then plane out and drop 5 percent below plane they they go up 30 percent and go down 5 then goes up 30 more and so on. thats how I see things. I dont see food prices going down or gas below 3 bucks etc. what do you guys think. Then this asshole now wants us to pay to live, if we dont 1200 bucks a year and if dont pay they double triple and go up and up each year as well. they have us by the balls and this is fucking wrong!! what if you have 5 kids and cant pay or loose job? still pay or not. and a guy on yahoo news was saying he cant pay for health insurance because he has to put gas in his tank. but he tried to get his house refinanced but the banks wont, even though they got another bailout but wont help out the people. screw the banks. I got half my money in bank and other hidden. Im taking 95 percent out here in the next week. I cant stand people who rip people off. OR you dont pay a bill and they screw up your credit score and you pay bill and never comes off. but wait you fill out this form at courthouse and they will remove it but you spend more money and you just wasted money and time and they still fuck you. this didnt happen to me a friend of mine. its all wrong and its time for payback,. I wish 90 percent of the people were like us.

            • Clint: I appreciate your predicament and in no way do I want to minimize the difficulties that many people, both here and abroad, face every day. I understand perfectly as there is no teacher like experience.

              I was just having fun with the cat lovers.

              My point is that each of US must strive to adapt to the Changes that are coming. I do not believe that any of US are here by accident, in this time and space, and frankly, I wouldn’t want to trade the Last Days (however long they last) for any other time in history.

              Each of US must reach within, grasp OUR connection to the Divine Creator and use that understanding to guide OUR families, friends, neighborhoods, and communities to a better place: mentally, physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually.

              These times that WE will all face soon enough, (but not yet) will be defining moments in OUR lives. It only takes an hour to change the life of any man or woman. How will HE find you in that hour?

              Is your glass half full? Or half empty?

            • gotcha durango okie dokie. Is my glass half full or half empty, its neither I think I won’t have a glass with the cost of everything anymore. lol I was going to say its cracked but that makes no sense. Its half full and not having financial difficulty or anything. I get raged at laws forced on us. I feel like william wallace from the movie braveheart where my fiance isnt killed yet or the beginning of the movie and the english are snoopin around our crap right now just ready to be raged with what obama is doing to this country and new laws. Even as a kid I had a good life im 39 and college, navy etc, but I never got a break for a speeding ticket at 16 where others would, that would make me so mad I wanted to break the cops window where he would park it at night. I would help ol laidies to mentally challanged kids all the time you name it but when government stuck its nose in our business I just flip. that is how I feel and there is nothing or control I have when government does things to us. im no protestor or violent 99 percent on the time, I break fights up, stuck up for the kids in high school that the bullies pushed around and put them in their place but if government gets in way that is only thing that sets me off to do something, I carry concealed and had many road rage times, but never got out of the car or lost my temper. But im afraid if things go bad I will not back down. that is how I feel if that explains me with not too much.

          • DK I get your point, and I agree. However, I feel compelled to warn everyone. If anyone eats my cat, I promise, theirs will be one less human mouth to feed in this world. 😉 Just sayin.

            By the way, I gave you a thumbs UP.

          • Durango Kidd said:

            “(And eat your neighbor’s cat if you get hungry. Just saying, dogs are man’s best friend) ”

            Um, you ever eaten cat ? I have. YUCK. Greasy and stringy. Maybe if I’m starving, but I would go after that annoying Basset Hound down the street before I would Kitty Gato.

            • Cat and raccon are just about the same, I surmise. Way back when, I was dating a “good ole boy” who regularly brought game over to my house for me to cook for him. FYI: a skinned racoon looks exactly like a cat in a frying pan.

        • A really stupid question I need to ask: what do I do?? I have about a doz ducks raised by a friend, bought by me. I will have them slaughtered in Nov. if I decide to freeze the meat The problem is per the article , if I sell them live it will be at a low price.

          • Don’t kill them all. Get a drake and keep a couple or three hens and breed them. Birds are easy to raise, grow fast and taste good. If you have some room duicks can get by finding alot of their own food. Get some rabbits also and you will not go hungry.

        • That’s really inspirational man. I am on the road to this kind of sustainability myself, hopefully at least. Got a lot to learn.

        • Watch out for the rat plagues.

      2. What’s more valuable, corned beef or gold?

        • False dichotomy. They both have value. There is no need to draw the line.

          • It depends on whether you are currently starving or are about to get evicted from your home due to lack of rent/mortgage payment.

            • Agreed. Gold may be great when you have food, but if you can’t get any food with any amount of gold, someone would probably go to rather extreme measures to get your corned beef…

          • He never said that either one was worthless – he asked which one had more value. Therefore, no false dichotomy is present.

            On the one hand, gold can be traded for goods, but only if the seller is willing to take gold as a means of payment. On the other, you can’t eat gold, and you can always get gold in exchange for corned beef (or other foods) if food is extremely short.

            Thing with barter is, it only works when both parties have something the other party wants, and in sufficient quality/quantity.

            As to the original question? It all depends on value per unit of measurement (ounce, bushel, etc), which he didn’t mention. 10 pounds of gold has a lot more value than one can of corned beef hash. On the other hand, 10 cases of cans would carry a lot more value than a 1/2 ounce coin of gold.

            All that said, it’s a lot easier to test quality on the corned beef than to insure that the gold isn’t alloyed or otherwise tainted: make the other guy eat a couple bites of it before the transaction is complete.

            • Yes, but by presenting the question beginning with “which” it then presents a choice, no? I would still submit, they both have value. And which one you choose is situational.

            • why go thru all that if you want his gold just take it in a couple weeks when he dies of hungar

            • @Bleako: Exactly. 🙂

              @old school – sadly, you’re right. On an amoral, objective basis, you’re right. On the other hand, what does that make the person who would do such a thing?

        • Joe(another): Best order has been stated by most of the best prep gurus; Beans, bullets, band aids, and bullion, in that order. First, you have to eat, then you need a way of protecting it and youself, you need to stay healthy, and you need a little extra ‘stuff’ to barter for those things you’ve run short on. Get the first one (food) well under way and then begin to work on the next priority, and then keep going to the next step, etc. You also need to go over the figures of everything you need to make sure you’ve done the right calculations.

          • This, right here.

            I can always make money later on. I gotta eat, defend, and stay alive first, though.

          • Any “prepper”(a word I hate), would obviously place water as the #1 or 2, maybe you and those who gave you a thumbs up, should re-read some of those sites, written by “guru’s”, I think you missed something.

          • Gregory8,

            Great points, all of them. I would only add that one should not ignore all other categories while working on the “more important” ones on the list. Best to focus on one, but diversify some as well. For truly I don’t believe you ever sit back and look at any one category (e.g. food stash, water stash, ammo/gun stash, medical stash) and say: “yup, I’m done with that one!”

            One final note. Many people forget to consider the importance of community. Without divulging too much try to find like minded people who, if necessary, you could band together with if times got tough. Even Rambo has to sleep sometime, and that aside if you got sick or weak you would definitely need someone to watch your back.

            PJ

            Prepper-Resources.com

        • I don’t like corned beef. However a live checken?!

        • Corned beef in cans has gone up so much, they think it’s made of gold!

      3. Food prices are continuing to climb far faster than any pay raises that I know of. Food is a great investment. It will never be cheaper.

        • Here in the S.E. meat in particular is very inexpensive right now due to the effects of the mass slaughter. Everything else is sky high and climbing every week. It would pay to invest in a freezer and buy now.

          I have invested in a food saver and I repackage a lot of meat to prevent freezer burn. For all of you that can, it would pay for you to buy now and can it in jars for a later date.

          Otherwise…..this time next year you may be a vegetarian….and not by choice.

          • Tina, learn to can the meat!

            LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, START YOUR CANNERS!

            • I second what PO’d said – pressure canning is so easy (once you get over the initial fear of blowing yourself up!)

              I have shelves full of chili, chicken soup, beef stew, seasoned ground beef, and chicken breasts. It is reasonably priced, purchased direct from a farm and will keep us in far better health than those nasty store-cans of flaked chicken bits!

            • Daisy, that is so funny to me right now. I’m looking at a new All American pressure cooker that my wife bought a month ago. She’s afraid to use it because ….. she’s afraid of it blowing up. Must be a common fear. She calls it the nuclear bomb. 🙂

            • po’d
              what is the shelf life of canned meat. i’m like tina ,i put all my freezer meat in seal a meal bags and i’ve pulled out steaks after 3 yrs and they’re like the day i put them in the freezer. i’ve thought about getting a pressure canner but from what i read the shelf life is only 1 yr. my thinking is fill the freezer and if something happens and i loose power then pull the meat out and can it.
              as a side note i was a sams last weekend and bought 160.00 worth of beef and the couple in front of me made a comment like “what are you doing buying the store out”.i just said i had a big family rather than ask if they were totally clueless about food prices going up. i cant believe how asleep some people are

            • Bill ~

              It used to be a real risk with the old canners but with the new ones, it’s practically impossible. Of course, that did not make me keep from waiting until my child was at a sleepover to use it for the first time!

              Follow the directions exactly!

              ~ Don’t let the pressure go above 15 psi
              ~ Don’t try to speed up the cool-down process – just walk away!
              ~ Don’t unscrew the lid until the pressure is at “0”

              Those are really the only things that would cause injury! She’ll be so happy she’s learned to use it and better to practice now and get comfortable than in the future when you could be doing it on your woodstove!

            • PO’d,
              I have two canners and love to can! Like Daisy, I’ve canned chicken, ground beef, stew and chili, etc. I’ve also added bacon and ham, weiners, shrimp, rabbit, and wild deer and turkey.

              I’m going for variety because I read somewhere that one of the reasons for starvation in a TEOTWAKI situation is appetite fatigue. You just get so darned tired of beans and rice that you simply stop eating.

              So stock up on those staples but add in plenty of spices, condiments, jellies, cocoa and peanut butter. Add variety every way you can.
              God bless-

            • I miss canning on the wood stove, I liked it best.
              And as far as them lasting over year, do not buy one with a seal get the metal to metal lock down types.

            • @ PO’d Patriot…..don’t know if you guys saw my “little blurb” last week or not….it was to give everyone a chuckle, as I had my first pressure canning experience.

              Directions said not to pack my beef too tight in the jar…..well I didn’t pack it tight enough…..when I removed them from the canner…all the jars were only half full! On top of that, the jars were to large to begin with! I guess that is what they call “Beginners Luck!” ):

            • FYI ~ Dried beans will cook completely in a pressure canner. I made some “baked beans with bacon” a few weeks back from dried pinto beans, a watery sauce (it gets absorbed) and 2-3 slices of bacon per jar. Nothing could be easier. This is how I fill space if I don’t have a full canner load. A quart jar 3/4 full of beans and topped up with water will completely cook in your p-canner at 10psi for 90 minutes.

            • Canning is indeed a good skill to have and we will use it extensively should we need to, but… who has time to do all their own food storage with canning especially since you have to eat it all and do it again next year. Like I said, I can can (LOL) but for our basic 1 year food storage we purchased delicious freeze dried and dehydrated Items from http://www.srmarketplace.com. They deliver it right to your house. Store it and forget it for the next few years anyways. Most stuff has 25 year shelf life without the need for a fridge or freezer. We would buy more but since we don’t have a basement I don’t know where to put it all!

            • Mark, meat canned properly in jars will last at least 2 years. David Sarti has YouTube videos of canning beef, then opening up and trying it out 1 and 2 years later. He’s still around, so I think he did it correctly. I would guess that meat would last even longer than 2 years, since Spam is good for decades. I just got an All American pressure canner and plan to can beef, chicken, pork, bacon, as well as vegetables that are hard for me to grow for myself.

              I think the article is too conservative as to the amount of food inflation. Management at a local grocery store told me that he expects beef to be unavailable at any price in the near future. I know there will still be beef coming to market, but high-end stores and restaurants will get it first.

            • Been puttin up lots of ‘maters….sauces,salsas,chowders,relish,stewed,whole and pickled! …sure is nice to see the wolf get pushed way back far from the door! 🙂

            • On the subject of canning, been doing it for years. Just a few tips to remember and make notes on, or research about. Acidity is the key to safe canned foods.
              I have always thought tomatoes were acidic enough to can using the “boiling water bath” method. Wrong. Not all tomatoes are acidic enough. You could wind up poisoning yourself and family if you take chances.

              According to canning test/studies run by many of the Universities,(U of Georgia has good site), the ph level must be below 4.6 or the jars must be “pressure canned”. I guess the tomatoes we ate while growing up must have been acidic enough, cause we canned using water bath method and nobody got bad sick.

              I was shocked, just this year, to find out this info, so I bought a little roll of litmus paper to do my test with and sure enough, some of my tomatoe varieties aren’t acidic enough. I ran some of my own sample test by adding lemon juice (bottled, not fresh), and a little pineapple juice. Got it down to about 3.9 to 4.3 and water bathed away. Tried pressure canning tomatoes and wound up with half water and half mush. For making tomatoe juice, I mash thru a strainer,pour in clean jars and sit in the fridge for a few days and use a suction tube/meat baster to remove the excess water from the top of the jars. Keep it up for a few weeks and keep adding as the tomatoes come in and then can the reduced, thicker juice. Have to remember to bring the ph level down, or just pressure can. A good alternative to water bath canning, especially for preserves and apple sauces is just to “Hot Pack” and sit the jars in the oven at 200 for about 30 minutes. Works every time for me.

              Once I learned about the ph minimum level and how to get it low enough without adding vinegar, I canned squash for the first time ever. I used equal parts concentrated lemon juice and pineapple juice. After the first batch, I bought some chicken breasts,cooked it up and threw in some peas/carrots and gravy mix and then added the canned squash. Little woman thought I had used fresh squash. Perfect.

            • Well thanks for all the canning support and YES Daisy I have a pressure canner and have yet to use it because i AM afraid of blowing my head off….LOL

              Actually I am a much better student when someone SHOWS me verses me reading about it and figuaring it out on my own so I have asked a friend of mine to come over and we will have a “canning party”

              Hopefully, I will catch on quick and then I can do what Mark is planning and can all the meat in the freezer if the power goes out. I do have a gas stove with a 250 gal propane tank filled to the rim….

            • As far as canning tomatoes and many lower acid foods via water bath the best way to be safe, IMHO, is to add some citric acid when packing. Generally 1/2 tsp/qt or 1/4 tsp/pint. The nice thing about citric acid is it won’t alter the flavor of the tomatoes like lemon juice, vinegar, etc.

              You can generally find jars of citric acid $3-4 wherever canning supplies are sold or at nearly any bulk food type store.

          • With our tomato harvest, I’ve canned almost 200 jars (pints and quarts) in the past 2 weeks. Next up is the apples — 2 bushels are waiting to be turned into applesauce and applebutter. And next week, our fall crop of green beans will be ready to pick and can. I need a second pressure canner. Seriously.

            We don’t grow beef but I plan to buy more and freeze it until I finish up w/ the harvest, then I’ll can it all up. I haven’t noticed any decrease in pricing per pound but there are some BOGO specials in supermarkets.

            • Annette,

              I’m a big advocate of long term food storage, much like you have mentioned. People should be cautious however when placing all of their faith in #10 cans should the S-Hit The Fan. Having canning skills or gardening skills will be crucial and a great supplement to your supply.

              People often purchase these “1 year supply” deals, but is it truly 1 year? Is it 1 year for 1 person, and you have 3 or 4 in your family? Now you have about 3 to 4 months of food, if that (lots of cans of dehydrated fruit, milk or sugar…not exactly what I would call dinner).

              You also have to consider many of these package deals come with quite a few cans of winter wheat. Do you have a wheat grinder and do you know how to incorporate that into your daily diet?

              I’m not trying to shoot down your plan, you’ve done more than most by actually taking steps to prepare yourself. Great job! I would just caution against placing all your faith in a few boxes of freeze dried food that sits in the corner of your basement/garage that you most likely have never opened or tried to eat. The fact of the matter is in a prolonged collapse even that food will run out at some point, and then what?

              PJ

              Prepper-Resources.com

          • The meat from the slaughter house here comes vacuum packed except for the ground beef.
            I have meat from October, 2010, and it tastes great.

            • Oh, you pay a little extra for that–but I’d like to think it was worth it.

          • We have not started the slaughter this year in Canada. They want some funding to keep the livestock farmers going. My guess is that the USA slaughters and other nations sell to America after the prices rise, therefore negating the bailout investment on our farmer/ranchers. I would rather bail out a farmer than a banker.

          • A regular freezer is only safe for storing meat seven or eight months tops. Long term requires a sub zero box or canning. Took me along time to get my ol lady to stop believeing that just because its’ frozen you can keep it forever.

      4. Peter

        I couldn’t agree more. Food is going to be out of reach for so many. We already have a situation here in the Uk where in the coldest weather many have the choice between eat or heat. This does ot bode well for any of us

        Take care

        • Ramen noodles, rice, beans (only if you’ll have the fuel to cook them).
          Did you guys know salmon has a 4 year shelf life on the can?? It’ll probably last longer.

          • Just stocked up some yesterday…mine says July 2017!
            Good stuff!

      5. An example: For a special occaision I enjoy a crown rack of lamb. I went to buy: $38.00 a pound. I decided someone else would have to enjoy that rack of lamb. :^(

        • Peter not to bash on you but I never understood the deal on crown roast(pork or lamb) you are just paying for presentation, it just makes more sense to me to just buy the chops since after you bring it to the table that is what yo cut it up into anyway. I am sure your butcher loves you when you pay him a lot extra to fancy up the meat.

        • Let it rot in the case.

        • I had a dream not too long ago, about the coming times. I had walked to the store to get some food, and went to the meat counter. There was a 1lb slab of ground beef, the attendant told me it was $30. I asked why it was so much. He said because there was’nt any left…

          • Good hamburger (93%) at my local grocery store was $5.29 a pound yesterday.

          • There’s an old joke along those lines:
            Lady goes to the butcher, “How much for your round steak?”
            “$4.00 a pound,” says the butcher.
            “$4.00 a pound? I can get it across the street for $2.00 a pound.
            “Why didn’t you buy it?” asks the butcher.
            “Because they’re out of round steak today.”
            Butcher, “Yes, Lady, when I’m out, my round steak is $2.00 a pound.”

      6. I’ve doubled the amount of dried goods that I purchase each month. Those buckets of wheat, rice and beans will go along way if food prices continue to sky rocket.

        Is anyone else using gardening to offset their food costs?

        • Definitely – I don’t think I bought a single veggie (aside from stuff for canning) the entire summer. I also buy bushels of veggies from the farmer’s market and can them.

          • I will be pickeng my second crop of Hercules crowder peas this weekend. Also my sweet potatos are looking great and I have turnips and carrots I hope to harvest soon.

            • Purple hull peas…a bushel in the freezer; $20.
              Half bushel of sweet potatoes for $15..man, they are good. Stored in the cool closet.

          • Had a beautiful summer garden started. Then I got the deal of a life time on a great German Shepard, puppy ate the garden. Winter garden is now going in along with the electric fence. Happy prepping and keep in mind not always do your best laid plans go the way you intend. Still love the dog though!!!!

          • @ Daisy….got a great deal on large stocks of celery today…do you advise wash, chop up and freeze or should I dehydrate? thank 4 your advise in advance…CC

            • Definitely dehydrate! Then if you lose power you’ve still got it – losing power and losing a freezer full of food would be a nightmare! 🙂

            • Daisy…Did you ever dehydrate sweet peppers? I traded a dozen eggs for a huge bag of peppers. More than I need to freeze.Is it worth dehydrating them?

            • JRS – Sweet peppers are one of the major things I dehydrate because it seems to me the only way to save them for later without soggy yuckiness. If you shred them and drain them on a coffee filter in the fridge overnight, they will dehydrate faster. You can finely chop them instead.

              Save the drained pepper liquid and add it to soup or spaghetti sauce – I usually pour it into a baggie and freeze it for that purpose. 🙂

            • JRS – Sweet peppers are one of the major things I dehydrate because it seems to me the only way to save them for later without soggy yuckiness. If you shred them and drain them on a coffee filter in the fridge overnight, they will dehydrate faster. You can finely chop them instead.

              Save the drained pepper liquid and add it to soup or spaghetti sauce – I usually pour it into a baggie and freeze it for that purpose. 🙂

            • Daisy…I will try it. I don’t use my dehydrator for much other than beef and deer jerky but I think that’s a good idea.

            • If you freeze celery it will be mush. Why even bother with celery as it has no calories or food value it’s all water and some cellulose. It’s only used for flavoring and texture.

        • @ EP:

          We grow vegetables and !tobacco! (it’ll be a cash crop again….) We eat our home grown veggies at every meal.

          Also, quinoa is super easy to grow,complete protein, if necessary,can feed it to the chickens, and when garden theft gets to be a problem, most people have no idea what it is when it’s growing……

          • Quinoa is also v. high in calcium (important for children) and a complete protein source. We eat a lot of quinoa in this house instead of rice. It’s not a staple due to space restrictions for us, but it does seem to grow well in poor soils, so always gets a spot on the garden plan.

            Cos the UK is so soggy I get mine from realseeds.co.uk – heirloom varieties that work in a wet climate.

            Amaranth is another grain that the sheople are unlikely to recognise as edible straight away.

        • Expert Prepper, most every veggie, fruit, and meat we eat is homegrown. Our eggs, milk, butter, and cheese are homegrown, too. We buy our grains, rice, coffee, sugar, salt. We raise and butcher pigs, rabbits, chickens and have dairy goats (don’t eat them though). Since I am a seed saver and we have our own compost/manure and a greenhouse, the garden is pretty much $0 cost but lots of ‘sweat equity’ goes in. 😉

          We don’t buy much at the grocery store but we spend money at the feed store. So far, it’s healthier and cheaper, but ask me in a few months how expensive the feed is.

          • Zoltanne, something I’ve wondered about for those who farm their own chickens/pork etc, how feasible is it to grow their food instead of buying it at the feed store?

            I know absolutely nothing about this topic so this may be a very silly question. 🙂

            • A person could write a book on what it takes to feed livestock, a lot of people have 🙂

              Seriously Daisy, depends a lot on what you want to do. Chickens need very little if left to free range, mostly protection from predators, then usually just at night. I have endless supply of corn, and wheat, (grinder needed for corn, at least I always grind coursely) but if I limit the grain the chickens find a lot on their own during the day. If you are forced to keep the chickens in a small pen, I wonder if health problems would show up in the chickens on straight grain. My guess is that a more varied diet would be needed for layers. If you are just going from chick to broiler, then the diet is less of a concern since the bird will be alive for only a few months.

              Overall, chickens are very easy. But still a chore everyday. I would suggest everyone give them a try, can not think of a reason NOT to have a few around.

              Chickens will eat any table scraps, don’t recall anything thrown out that they will not pick clean, even beef bones. Then there is berry season, mulberries seem to be a favorite for our chickens, but they seem to tire of them after some amount of time.

              Ok, now I am just rambling, bad habit of mine…

            • Daisy,if I may,I buy some feed stuffs like corn/oats/wheat but I also raise some corn and sunflowers for my animals…Ive been raising sunchokes for fodder too and so far tops and bottoms seem to have a use…I have a deal with a store too that I buy old breads and such off for very cheap and that helps alot and I feed my hogs and chickens alot of potatoes/culls…I dont want to depend on outside imputs very much as it represents a weak link in the whole operation,generally anything that can be eaten here gets used…also any milk I have left after butter/cheese/ect goes a long ways to fattening up the hogs and turkeys…been at this along time and still am working on making this farm a closed loop,at least as much as I can…dont know if that helps or not 🙂

            • Daisy, Not a silly question at all! Everything that each of us does or invests in should be looked at as a business proposition with bottom-line tallies on labor and money.

              Like REB pointed out, self-reliance is about having a closed loop, so having to go outside the homestead/farm/compound for any food or product is the sticky widget for those of us aiming for self-reliance. It’s a very important point that we’ll all have to come to terms with as our economy continues to tank.

              As each of us faces this probability near-term, we’ve all got to start examining our sources for everything. What will happen after we’ve burned through our supplies? Who is striving for subsistence living and/or self-reliance? It may very well get to that. What will each of us do when something is used up, broken, or a consumable has been depleted?? We’ve all got to start thinking this through with exhaustion to keep ourselves aware of the devalued monetary system and the delivery system that’s going to change drastically.

              Enough of that. For livestock, it’s water, grasses/hay, and grains that are needed. Some can be foraged through grazing or by folks ‘picking’ foraged or cultivated foods for the livestock, but this is time intensive for most. Some people have enough pasture/fields that they are able to grow their own grains. This will work as long as there is the fuel to run the sowing and harvest machinery (since few run draft-horses or man-power equipment).

              So to have livestock, some property is necessary or the ability to grow-your-own or forage is required. We can’t grow-our-own hay or grains at this point because most of our property is wooded. The woods are great for foraging medicinals, nuts, and fruits — and we’ve been planting bushes and trees (even ramps) in the woods for more of a food forest. And we have our own woodlot, stream, and firing range by having the woods, but what we lack is open land. We’ve only got about 2 acres that are open and that’s where our gardens and critter yards are. Most farms nearby have idle pasture and horses that serve as ornaments, but they’re not serviced at all. If the S hits, they’ll have to switch gears and learn to garden or farm or that’s it for them. At that point, we hope to arrange a community setup to keep our community going with grains and livestock that’s more functional, I’m sure. No, we’ve not approached anyone because their lifestyles tell us where their priorities are. But — I’ve planned. We have pounds of grain and alfalfa seed here for this scenario because I know that no one else would have this seed available. We’ll need to create a community barter to keep things going — I hope.

              We do grow some foods for our animals and have some perennial foods that we pick or dig for them and for us. Variety is more nutritious and healthier for animals if you get them SLOWLY accustomed to the foods.

              Small livestock like chickens or rabbits can be kept and fed without much expense at all. I’d encourage anyone with a yard, or in the suburbs, to undertake this, especially rabbits since they’re much quieter and can easily be caged. And they multiply (like rabbits!). 😉 Rabbits can be raised to fryer size on veggies, fruit, and forage if you breed selectively and ‘harden’ your breeding stock to select from. They’re also VERY easy to butcher. Chickens are natural foragers — they’re just a bit noisy at times so some suburban areas won’t allow them. If not chickens, look into the coturnix quail for eggs, quick growth rate, low feed-to-meat conversion, and easy butchering. I’m on a hard-sell to set up some quail cages — I’d rather butcher those quail than chickens, to be honest.

              The pigs are very easy. We bartered goat milk for 2 piglets and they’ll be butchered in about 2 months time. They get buckets of “slop” and leftover veggies, or overripe garden foods like tomatoes. They also get about 2 gallons of goat milk every day. We do give them pellets that we purchase but I believe they’d still grow well if we couldn’t provide that for them. I’d like to keep a sow and boar but My Mister refuses doing that. I told him he’ll probably miss pork more than he realizes when we can’t get piglets from someone else in the Spring.

              We were using organic grains until a few months ago when the price increases were just too high to tolerate anymore. A year ago, a 50 pound bag of organic grain for the dairy goats was $29 and when it hit $39.95, we had to give it up. Organic finish feed for the pigs last year was $17 for 50 pounds — I can’t even imagine what it is now but we’ll make that decision next month as we finish-off the pigs. We have to look at the quality of what we raise, the work and fun involved, plus the cost we incur. It’s self-reliance, yes, but we can’t lose-the-farm, so to speak, just to do this. No one could! So you see, your question isn’t silly at all, it’s basic business — we all do it every day but most of us don’t realize it.

            • Zoltanne…I’m not generally an envious person but your setup makes me jealous.I wish I had the ground to do what you do.Great info on the quail.I may try them to replace some of the hens. I used to raise meat rabbits…may have to go back to that. They ARE easy to raise and butcher.Do you hatch your own eggs? I made some “shake” butter this week from the cream off my raw milk.Good stuff.To those who are afraid of canned meat over a year old, don’t be. If you pressure can your meat correctly it will last as long or longer than store bought canned meat.You will not have the nitrates and sodium either. We’ve been eating home canned meat for quite a few years. Get the Ball canning book for reference to times and pressures.Good sustainable living info on here today.

            • Thanks for all the info on feeding livestock! This is something I’ve long been thinking of. I’m not in a place where I can have livestock right now, but one of these days it’s a goal!

              People around where I am are more into hunting and fishing than raising livestock, so I’m planning/hoping to do a lot of bartering!

            • daisy, where you are , you are probaly better to learn about fishing and hunting. its not good growing area in particular and would be quite expensive to raise most types of livestock. you would need many acres of decent land for growing or alot of money to buy feed for cattle. chicken feed has gone through the roof. i would hunt for deer, birds and fish as well.and scrounge for apples and peas and the like and have a garden but understand, you will not get nearly the same kind of potent growth and fullness of your garden as you did before. not even close.

            • Eeder~ Hey! How are ya?

              The kiddo and I are figuring out the fishing part, but I’m going to confess, and everyone can thumbs down and make fun of me, but I am personally really squeamish about the idea of hunting. I really don’t want to do it! I only wanted chickens for the eggs. I can’t explain why, but cleaning a fish doesn’t bother me nearly as much as doing the same with a different type of animal.

              There, I admitted it! I’d rather leave the slaughtering, butchering to someone else! 🙁 I’m a weenie!

              Going by the gardens that other people have way up here, I think I just have to re-adjust what I was planting to be successful here, as well as try some techniques to extend my growing season with greenhouses and covers, etc. We have a pretty decent bounty of crab-apples from the woods behind our house and what I suspect are wild raspberries and blueberries too – I just bought a field guide for the area. 🙂 Hoping not to poison us with my fledgling foraging efforts!

            • Daisy,

              I also feel rather ‘squeamish’ about slaughtering and butchering livestock. But, cleaning fish doesn’t bother me. Fortunately, there are others who will do this.

              Yet, I welcome working in the garden – whether planting, tending plants or weeding. 🙂

        • We had a massive crop failure this year due to drought and extremely high temps for the upper mid-west. However, I garden and can every year and have a FEW jars left from 2011. I made friends with one of the butchers at our large supermarket, and he says meat will be unbelievably expensive by next spring. Am sure he’s being truthful. For Daisy and Tina, do you have any suggestions about successfully canning meat? I’ve been circling the subject for over a year, but am about ready to jump in. I have lots of experience with vegetables and fruits, and have canned soups successfully. We also bought (and paid dearly) for several large cans of the 25-year plus dehydrated food. We opened the Chinese stuff and it was dreadful, to our tastes. Now I think it’s necessary to can meats. I did buy a case of Albacore Tuna and a half case of Salmon. We have wheat and wheat grinder, plus about fifty pounds of oats, steel cut without groats.My grandmother used to can venison stew and while I don’t care for venison, her’s was good. Unfortunately, she’s no longer with us, so I can’t ask her anything. Final note: I’m a dog AND a cat lover. Am currently concerned about accumulating enough food for them, as well. Any ideas? Also, what are you doing for milk supplies?

          • standard rule of thumb on canning meats – 90 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure. Consider canning meat with other veggies to reduce prep time if the power goes out. I can chicken with celery and onions…easy enough to dump in a pot, add rice or pasta, and you’ve got a meal. Ground beef or venison (or venison sausage) is good to can with green peppers and onions…add pasta to the beef and you’e got “sketti” – or add beans and rice to the sausage/peppers/onions, and you’ve got quick and easy red beans and rice – which is a staple in my household. I also purchase a whole smoked ham – cubed it and canned it. Dump it in a pot with mac and cheese…yummy.

          • Vicky pick up a new edition of Ball canning book. You can also pick up an addition of Backwoods Home magazine and get one of Jackie’s books on canning. That lady cans everything. It’s got to be one of the best magazine’s out there on self sufficiency.

            Also, right here on this site is Rancher’s Wife. Click on her name and it’ll take you to her website. A great place to get tips on canning and dehydrating. She just had a great article on canning milk. Read up!

            P.S. I am not affiliated at all with Backwoods Home magazine. Just my 2cents worth. YMMV. Cheers!

          • Vicky ~

            I’m a bit lazy so I mostly use the raw-pack method for canning meats. The heat and pressure from the p-canner will fully cook it and beef stew and chili made this way tastes like it has been simmering on the stove all day long!

            For raw pack canning, like Tmedlin said, approximately 90 minutes at 10 psi (check your altitude first for proper adjustment of the psi).

            If you want to can stewing beef, for example, simply place the raw meat in your jar until it is about 3/4 full. You could also throw in some garlic, potatoes and onion if you want, as well as non-iodized salt. (I’ve used iodized and never noticed a difference but all the books say not to).

            Fill the jar to 1 inch headspace with whatever liquid you are using – it could be broth, tomato juice or water. Often, I just use water because the process itself turns the water into a nice flavorful broth.

            Do not add thickening agents like flour or cornstarch before canning – add them when you are heating up your food to eat it.

            Wipe the rim of the loaded jar with a cloth dipped in vinegar – this gets rid of any meat fat that may be on the rim, as that can keep your jar from sealing properly. I find the vinegar is much more foolproof than just a damp cloth.

            Place the lid on, tighten down the ring, and process in your pressure canner based on the directions of that particular canner. Really – it could not be easier!

            You can use the exact method with chicken, venison – basically anything.

            I precook ground meats though, otherwise the texture is really mushy. Then when I take them out of the jar I sautee them again real quick to get a nicer texture.

          • Oh – and PS: I’m really sorry to hear about the crop failure. 🙁

          • Backwoods Home Magazine has a real good online area for canning meat. Jackie Clay one of their most entertaing writters does a great job explaing everything one needs to know. Great magazine to subscribe to.

      7. After reading “The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East” report released by New England Complex Systems Institiute, we are in for a rough road ahead.

        Do not think that the U.S. is immune from riots due to increased food prices. Remember, it was one man immolating, himself in Tunisia that sparked the “Arab Spring” Push hard enough against people’s bellies and it could happen here.

      8. @ PP –

        What pay raises? Anyone who is receiving any kind of a meaningful pay raise probably works for the guberment.

        Stock up on canned goods every chance that you get. Don’t miss any of those 2X for the price of 1 sales.

        God Bless & good luck with your preparations

        • What guberment employee got a raise? I just retired from the feds after 3 years without any. My position was reclassified to allow elimination of another position. It was a promotion on paper but the salary that should have come with was frozen. I got more duties and people for the same salary. I was thankful for the job, but it broke my health. The bozo’s in DC may be getting more $$ but the ones out in the boonies doing the hard work aren’t.

      9. One of the most sensible and essential things anyone can invest in is a long-term food supply in order to stay alive. My supply is mostly canned goods and a few dry goods for now, but I’ve been trying some samples of freezedried foods lately. As soon as i decide which brand to get, I will get a 2-year supply. I’m debt free so fortunately I can and have been putting all my extra money into prepping. I’ve also got a few water purification supplies: looking at getting a Big Berkey next. Call it my own version of life insurance; it guarantees I’ll survive whatever happens in post-SHTF. I hope everyone else is doing the same. Take care and keep prepping.

        • Berkey is a good choice. When we got ours two years ago, we received 3 FREE sports bottles; two are in our BOBs.
          Grateful, I am that the Lord has blessed us to have the resources to prep- but it was slow and one thing at a time and we still aren’t self-sufficient, but can still say–not worried about food, water, protecting our food and water(wink-wink), medicines, vitamins, clothing, and hygiene.
          Prayer every night for the farmers, too.

        • Like was stated earlier be sure to check your made to order supplies. Some include items you can get from the store and re-pack yourself for far cheaper. Also pay attention to the calorie content. My son did the math and sometimes they aren’t what they seem. Don’t forget the fats. We do need them.

      10. When enough people get hungry enough, the domestic war will begin and the politicians and government officials will be the targets.

        They know that already. Why else would they buy all those bullets that are illegal in international warfare?

      11. Burt the Brit: You’re absolutely right. Belt tightening is certainly getting worse here in the US. A tremendous number of people here who make only a low wage for the work they do have to make hard choices all the time and it’s not getting any better. All the people who have been kicked out of middle class status over the last 4 years finally understand what it means to be poor. I thank God and my own work ehic for getting to where I’m at today and for the financial capacity to prep to the extent that I have and continuing to do so. When theballoon finally goes up, we’re all going to experience things most have never been through before. Times are very tough and will only get tougher. I believe I’ll make it and I hope all other preppers do too. Take care and keep prepping.

        • I dread seeing other people suffer, even if I do not suffer (much).

          I remember reading Ferfal of the Surviving in Argentina blog writing about the conditions in his homeland when they were enduring hyperinflation during the late 90’s. He said one of the hardest things was watching innocent children starving slowly to death, but you quickly learned you couldn’t help. There were hundreds more behind every one you saw and you couldn’t feed them all.

          That’s gonna KILL me…

          • Me too.

        • Most of the lost middle class, doesn’t understand what it is to be truly “poor”, they still own many assets(home, car, IRA, gold watch, etc) that the poor only dream of.

          • And most of the “poor” in this country don’t know what it’s like to be really poor compared to the rest of the world…like having a toilet and running water….heck many of the “poor” in this country own iPhones, have air conditioning, multiple flat panel televisions with cable/satellite and spend money on liquor and cigarettes.

      12. This is higher than I expected, but even if they just go up 50%; I expect the US to turn into Greece or Spain within months as riots, stealing food and stealing from others becomes normal in the bigger cities where those living paycheck to paycheck or on welfare are just out of options besides riots and stealing.

        I keep thinking this doesn’t happen until 2014, but the right things click into place and within two months, everything has changed.

        Lets see, extreme food inflation, skyrocketing gas and utility prices and more job layoffs; yes; we’re all set for collapse if those all come together.

        • Lena: The shy is falling …. DUCK! 🙂

          • Ducks are still edible, are’nt they?

        • If/when food prices go up, the .gov will simply increase the electronic credit applied to the SNAP cards. Folks on the dole won’t notice nearly as much as those of us who actually pay for things.
          If the SNAP cards stop working, which I honestly don’t see happening for a long time, there will be immediate riots.

          My son commutes to college close to the city.
          We live a bit further out of town.
          He drives a BIG 4×4 (with low-range, not some little nancy-pants honda crossover POS). The gas tank is never less than 1/2 full.
          He & I have spent some time off-road in his truck so I could teach him about obstacle avoidance, proper use of low gears, and trying to find the limitations of his vehicle.
          If SHTF, we have pre-arranged the “Get Out Of Dodge, Get Home” message.

          The only “fly in the ointment” is when I show up at my daughter’s high school in the middle of the day to pick her up. The school drones will shit a brick if I walk in armed to the teeth. I’m NOT leaving weapons at home when I go out to get my wife & daughter. Leaving them in my truck isn’t that appealing either.
          I guess for a quick run into the building and back out, a total of just a couple minutes, weapons in the truck will be OK; better than the 30+ minutes delay while the school goes into lockdown and calls the police on me!

          • About those people on assistance. From personal experience one of my daughters was on for awhile. I used to nag her all the time about what food she bought. Like others she just bought without paying attention too prices. I could have gotten her enough food to last for 6 months after she got off the system. Now that she isn’t it is a little different.

      13. First it was 3-4 weeks and I heard a matter of days from a prominent economist and now its early 2013…..just long enough for people to forget !
        Talk about kicking the DOOM can down the road !

        • This speaks for itself.. from records of purchases made March 2011 compared to listed prices Sept. 2012, same company, same products, same quantities.
          Barley – up 15% Oats – up 5% Corn Meal – up 8% Pinto Beans – up 25% Small Red Beans – up 28% Small White Beans – up 17% Lentils – up 8% Garbanzo Beans – up 25%. Average % increase in 18 months, 16.375%. Differences in price increases vary vendor to vendor, for example, Lentils at a local grocery store are up 25%.

          It’s not going to get any better.. buy now, store well, profit later.

          • oUCH…and the base price increases of all these commodity items has increased many times the figures you show,they havent been passed on to the end user yet…which means theres a heck of a lot more correcting in the pipeline so to speak that the consumer hasnt had to deal with yet…thats without any future increases…its gonna get real tough!

        • notice nobody can debate the facts on this one !!!

          • Rich! Glad you are back. You were missed!

        • Watching what is happening is not being “doomy”. Only the fools are’nt paying attention, now. Can you debate that the prices of your food has gone up? The prices of just about everything?

          Again, no one can predict the day things will change drasticly, but history has shown that after long periods of good times, come hard times. Our time and place will not be immune. There are way too many factors involved, not just food, for things not to change.

      14. I would strongly, strongly, urge and encourage everyone to pick up bulk staples now, the classic rice and beans in 50lb bags and store them to help provide nutrition and calories or just supplement them. R&B’s provide a complete protein and are about as cheap as you can get. One of each or 100lbs around here from big box store will set you back a paltry $60 out the door and give you roughly 110,000 calories, or about 2 calories to the penny. That equates to about 44 days of the RDA calories for most people (2500 per day).

        Keep the bugs away and these will store in the closet for 3 or 4 years without any problem without taking any special precautions.

        A generic bulk multivitamin and some garden veggies that won’t cost you more than a few dollars for the seeds and water will provide you with enough variety to keep sassy although not fat.

        • New problem…it is all over the health sites and yahoo today – TOO much arsenic in rice! They are now recommending adults only eat two servings a week. Is this true or a way to get us to stop eating rice?
          I just don’t know what to believe anymore…
          Another ‘additive’ to the list of the Dumbing down of America.

          • If that were true about the rice, wouldn’t all the Chinese be sick or dying since that is the staple diet of many of those countries. It’s probably a new scare tactic. Just sayin…

            • From what I know about it its not a problem everywhere but mainly here in the US…why?…seems they use alot of chicken waste on the fields in the rice growing regions(Tx.Ark.region)…well guess what? didja know they feed chickens arsinic? Yep that chicken you buy off tyson or predue and others for that BBQ or dumplings is fed some arsinic,supposedly they stopped it recently but who knows,I dont trust em!
              Another source is some of the fields used for rice were once used for cotton, the poison used to kill the boll weivil?…you guessed it…arsinic!…so anyhow this is where most of it come from….chicken and rice anyone? 🙂

              On a side note most all the corn and lots of other grains in this country are sprayed with “Roundup”(monsanto)dispite what monsanto says it stays in the ground a long time,in addition to being sprayed on plant tissue in many cases…in addition to all the other junk sprayed on food what do you thinks gonna happen when they finally figure out glypophosphate(sp?) is in all the food people eat? THATS the main reason I grow most all I eat! 🙂

            • I read this today–a doctor said it was a scare tactic, that the arsenic comes from the water rice is grown in and is normal.
              First, tuna from the Gulf, then seafood from Fukishima, then arsenic in chicken, beef with antibiotics and hormones for growth enhancement, now rice.
              We are being poisoned–well, bring it, cause I can’t stop eating this OR grow my own.

            • Heard about the arsenic in chickens in the late 80’s from one of my “damn yankee” friends. He was from Michigan and moved to the tarheel. One of my best friends ever and we joked with each other about the “damn yankee” thing all the time.

              One day while in town I asked about lunch at KFC, and he said, “not no ,but hell no”. What’s the deal yank, don’t like chicken. He went on to explain that KFC bought chickens that had been used for egg production (layers), and they were fed arsenic to speed up egg production. He further explained the dark bones and greasy dark leg and thigh meat as proof. This guy was smart and had never steered me wrong, even with the stories about what his Dad had found out while working for NASA. It was many years before I ate KFC again. I know they get broiler chickens from the Tyson Plant here locally so maybe KFC is ok now. But somewhere out there, somebody is eating those “used up” laying hens. Question is; how much if any arsenic is still going into their feed?

          • doesn’t seem to bother the chinese.

          • consumerreports dot org (slash) cro (slash)/ arsenicinfood (dot) htm (pound sign) chart

            Take a look. It isn’t that bad when considering portion size and frequency of ingestion.

            White is better than brown.

            Thai, Indian better than domestic.

            Rinse in 6c water first, discard rinse water.

            Vary diet.

            Interesting *fact* that the highest levels come from former cotton land turned to rice. Isn’t cotton grown on dryland? Isn’t rice grown in flooded fields? So, the main problem may be from leftover inorganic arsenic used in cotton pesticides that becomes soluble when the fields are flooded for rice.

            Manure used for fertilization is being pointed to and arsenic has been eliminated w/in the past year from domestic fowl feed.

            Bear in mind that this testing came about due to a _political agenda_ aimed at setting government standards for arsenic.

            In some areas of the world, arsenic is naturally in the soil. A map is available at the link.

            Old actuary rule of thumb: take a look around, including at yourself and your family. If you can come up with evidence that seems to support the numerical statistic being put forward, then get yourself/family members tested. If everyone seems to not be suffering from the supposed problem, you can probably relax. This is for everything where statistics are quoted.

            Do not discount hysteria.

            • Sorry BlueH2O…I didnt see youd already covered it…:)

            • Arsenic is naturally occuring and is in most everybody’s well water.

            • @Zoltanne: I do not belive the mercury is from the cans – no.
              It comes in from the toxic environment we have created for our streams rivers and oceans. I used to live near the Columbia river that was turned into Lake Rosevelt in E WA. The smelter in Canada filled the river with pollutants. At frst it was recomended that pregnant Women only eat one fish a week from the river/lake. Then it went to one a month. Signs are acutually posted on the shores. I stopped eating the fish there years ago. We used to joke every summer that we had to go swimming to get our yearly dose of Dioxins in order to build up our mutant abilities!

          • Wow! Now HLN is saying the schools should take Canned Tuna out of the kids’ lunches because there are HIGH levels of mercury in it! Although they stated one shouldn’t stop eating tuna!

            I’m still stocking up on tuna! Can’t believe much of anything that comes across the tube.

            • I thought tuna was exposed and contaminated from radiation at Fukishima.

            • @ Zoltanne:
              “I thought tuna was exposed and contaminated from radiation at Fukushima.”
              It is.
              And mercury an BPA from the lining of the cans – but preppers know how easy it is to store cans and do not want to hear those other inconvenient facts!
              Bring on the thumbs down!
              Oh and by the way in case you missed it, thanks for the water storage advice you gave me a few threads back, much appreciated!

            • Yep—Lord does provide…all my tuna stocked BEFORE the Gulf disaster.
              And salmon.

            • Halfkin, so the mercury is from the canning process? Sheesh. Store bought cans (and even the metal canning lids) do contain BPA. Do folks realize this?? I think some foods are worse than others due to the acidic content (like canned tomatoes).

              You’re welcome on the water storage. And don’t worry about the Red Thumb Brigade — consider it practice for a future Zombie attack.

            • Zoltanne ~

              The Tattler reusable canning lids do not have BPA – I have not yet purchased them but they are definitely on the list.

              ~D

            • i just can go to georgian bay and fish for trout and whitefish and salmon

            • Daisy, Yes I know Tattler lids are safe — those are the lids I use now. It’s just maddening to know that store-bought cans have BPA and there is no warning label but we have regulations for just about everything else. Even Big Gulps. This Nation is topsy-turvy….

          • That is only the case if the old method is used for bleaching. Not a problem anymore especially US raised rice. Indian Basmatti is the best for taste though.

      15. 2 for 1? i laugh at those sales, when they increase the price before putting “on sale” a normally 69 cent can of beans is selling bogo for 1.69! BEANS, NOT CORN SOY ETC…

        not just meat and dairy will go up either. the drought has affected all crops, not just feed grains. Funny thing how global crisis exploits local business…. here in central ny, the drought was not as bad as other parts of the country, farms are bringing in loads of corn (albeit still less than normal,) yet prices still are rising to insane levels. b/c of GLOBAL Markets.
        a month ago it cost me $12.59 for a 50 lb bag of chicken feed. this month it’s $16.60….–
        good thing they free range, or they’d all be dinner. i just think if we had a free/ fair trade local economy, farmers in the NE wouldn’t be suffering the same as SW farmers, and could be providing feed for reasonable prices,keeping farms in business. And if farms are NOT replacing livestock due to costs of feed we will see a massive depletion of meat all together in the coming decades. Anyhow… cows and goats and pigs and sheep are not MEANT to eat grains like corn and soy. it makes them sick! not to mention most of it is GM! this should be an awakening as to HOW we farm, and how we ought to.

        anyhow… i suggest anyone who’s concerned, stock up not only food, but also learn to SAVE seeds, and animal husbandry. get a couple rabbits, even a small space will allow this little critter who reproduces quicker than any other livestock, tastes mighty good, and would provide you and your family with vital protien in the tough times ahead.

        as for pay raises vs increased cost of living, i haven’t had a pay raise in 4 yrs, yet my job provides all the excess produce i can handle to preserve, so i can’t argue with my struggling employer for a pay raise he cannot afford…
        I’m more concerned about freezing this winter than starving!

        • i could almost go into my backyard and grab a rabbit and strangle it. i can get within about 10 feet without them flinching. all i would need to do is put a .22 caliber air rifle pellet in their head while they are feeding on clover.

      16. I am a rotter. I rot. I rot good! I can rot a barrel of vegetable waste in less than 6 months! Add about 50% sand and you have soil to grow more vegetable matter to rot.

        I love rotting! I rot a lot!

        Maybe I’ll be a rotten consultant? Anybody wanna rot with me?

        • QuantumBubbler,

          I’m there with you. But hey– throw in a couple of handfuls of Red Wiggler worms and you’ll be rotten in less than 6 WEEKS. They multiply like crazy and do a number on garbage, anything organic. I bring scrap paper home from work and they turn it into great compost The chickens love ’em and they make good fish bait, too.

          Worms are great.

          • My ‘worm’ is the Black Soldier Fly! Actually they are maggots. That’s gross, so I call them Fly Babies, that’s better.

            43% protein and 35% fat. Chickens die for them! They crawl out of the compost and into the coop when they are done getting about 3/4 inch long.

            • Oh, and I forgot to tell you. ‘They’ say the Black Soldier Fly’s excretions excite the worms activity by a factor of 3x.

              And get this, when they do emerge as a fly, they do not even have a mouth! They just live for a week.

          • What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple?

            Finding half a worm…

          • Been rotting and worming for years. Little woman covers about two acres of pasture and yard every day or so collecting those horse turds and transporting to the two composters I’ve got set up. I have fencing strung up all around the yard and anywhere there is grass. The horses do get rowdy sometimes and try to mess with things, but they sure do keep my mowing/gas expense down.

            I mix in scrap hay and turn a few times with the tractor loader over the winter and then relocate before adding fresh manure. Spread on the garden in early spring and spread the pellet lime over it. No petro-chemical fertilizers in my gardens. The earthworms are so thick you can pick up a dozen in a handful of compost.

          • Worm question. Has anyone thought of harvesting your own worms to feed chickens? Just a thought that I have been kicking around. Vermiculture. Any thoughts? Yay or Nay?

          • OK I am blind. Don’t know how I missed this when I posted earlier asking about the worm/chicken thing.

        • My “rotter” is behind somes bushes attached to the chicken run. After a rain I throw all the night crawlers in it. The chickens peck up whatever crawls out.I take a leak in it when no ones looking. Great for the nitrogen.

      17. I’m hoping to get a lot of woods time for deer during bow, black powder and rifle season. Hope to wack em, stack em and pack em!

      18. I have been canning tomato’s,dehydrating bell peppers and egg plant from my garden. Also froze all my green beans and corn for later. I am learning to plant more plants than I think I will need due to loosing a few plants to bad weather or bugs. If you have extras then it’s not devastating if you lose a few. It’s also a good idea to freeze your flour, oatmeal etc for a week before putting it into Mylar bags and buckets. That kills all the bug eggs. Good luck to all!

        • Diatomaceous Earth..food grade. Bay leaf.

          • Jayjay,
            I enjoy your posts.
            I also use Diantomaceous Earth. I buy it in 40 lb. bags and it goes a looooong way. I put it in the grain I feed my animals. It kills weevil larvae as soon as they hatch out and so my grain stays intact. It also kills the internal parasites in my goats and keeps ticks and mites away. Great stuff.

            I use bay leaf, too. I buy flour and corn meal by the 5 lb bags and store it in long boxes under my bed with dried bay leaves. So far nothing has bothered my stuff, but I found the bay leaves I bought at the store were really quite expensive. So I bought two little tiny bay trees, only about 3 inches tall. Within two years they’re seven feet tall and still growing and I have more bay leaves than I can use!! I dry them and put them all over the place, in closets, under beds, in pet areas, etc. Don’t have many insects around here.

        • Oven canning also kills all the bug eggs in your flour or rice or noodles or beans. Makes it easy to store and shelve smaller amounts for later use.

      19. This is nothing that can’t be corrected by starting all over again and learning from our mistakes.

        We can plant more crops and stabilize the food belt..

        Be concerned.. Prep.. But understand this happened before.. And we made it through the poop shoot!!

      20. Slow down your prepping government report on housing says it is the best report in 2 years.Things are a OK.

        • Things are better than OK Jimmy! They’re Outstanding! Just ask the 30 million Americans who don’t have to go to work each day because we outsourced those worthless jobs to Asia and South America!

          Ninja home loans… never ending personal credit extensions… home prices rebounding a couple percent after a 50% haircut… and a President who says we’re just getting started!

          Iphone 5’s for everyone baby!

          Take the kids to Disneyland!

          Outstanding, I say!

          • I just heard on the local news that BoA is cutting 16,000 jobs by the end of 2012. They will also close another 200 banks. I think I heard that Fed-x is cutting another 4,000 and one of the airlines about 11,000. Thats a lot of jobs from just 3 major companies. Yep, Obama is doing a smashing job.

            • When I heard that, I immediately thought of Soros and what we know is insider-info about the financial sector. Doesn’t take an insider to see the free-fall. We’ve got Bernanke.

        • Now that the GB’s have settled the Robo signing lawsuit, the larger SECOND WAVE of foreclosures will hit a real estate market with a 2 million unit overhang.

          Noted analyst Gary Shilling says that prices will drop another 20% from HERE.

          Business Insider suggests that there is a MASSIVE Second wave of foreclosures coming based upon an expose’ of the 41 page description of the underlying assumptions of the Case Shiller Index.

          Non of these analyses include war with iran.

          War with Iran on the Agenda, not yours or mine, but it is on the Agenda of the neocons and Dual Citizens who are determined to finish what they started; so those who attempt to profit from the green shoots of an early real estate recovery may find themselves in the same position has those from whom they bought their homes: submerged and underwater.

          Unless you can buy for cash and can negotiate a smoking deal.

          • A lot of truth in what you say is coming in the second wave of standing vacant homes that are going to end up as foreclosures. Every town in America has these. There is a $300,000. home in my neighborhood that has been vacant since June of 2009, and this area is not “the slums”. Title is still in the name of the former owner. He is long gone. Shrubs and lawn dying. This home is not an isolated case by any stretch of the imagination. Banks, credit unions, etc. will no longer make land loans….not even with 25-30% down, unless one goes to a hard money lender, forget it. Sellers carry paper or their land for sale or their land sits. I am a Realtor and have been in this business for 35 years. I have seen good times and bad. What I see today is people who walk thru my office door are still buying homes, i.e. USDA loans for example, 0 down, get the seller to pay all their closing costs, and literally have no skin in the game. They can buy cheaper than they can rent. The prudent 20% down buyer with a good job, good credit, no bills, is run through the wringer with a laundry list of requirements to get granted a loan. If the Frank/Dodd fiasco doesn’t/didn’t kill us, the next generation of these loans will.

      21. So much for the effectiveness of choking us with barium and aluminum dust chemtrails. And some of us actually thought that geo-engineering was meant to help us…NOT!

      22. Started my fall garden,a few weeks back.Just ordered more powered butter,powdered eggs,and dried potatoes.buying more rice and beans.Rice in 50 pd bag in freezer and beans in large bag(dont really know safe way and easy way to store. help?) .my smaller ones another 50pds in big jars with bay leafs.wood is already chopped and stacked,got water and six months of. canned food etc on top of new stuff..Got firearms and generator.water,two hank cranked wells..Im missing something…dont know what..getting very worried..oh yes got alot of OTC meds..
        .

        • loulou,

          do you know how to store in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers?

        • Try oven canning fill jars full with a little space at the top. Put in oven at 200 deg. for 1-1 1/2 hrs take out one at a time put lids and rings. They will seal and store for years. You can do thats to a lot of DRY STUFF, rice, beans, oats etc.

          • Thanks..will do that..so dont put lids on till after they come out? Will they make a ping sound when sealed?

            • YES

            • Make sure the jars and lids are sterilized. You can also use jars that held other foods for oven canning as long as the lids have a rubber type seal up iside of them.

          • Question for you dry oven canners –
            doesn’t heating the food to 200 degrees do one or more of these two things?
            1. kill the nutrients?
            2. make it go rancid sooner?
            I had never heard of this before this site and enquireing minds truly want to know more!
            And how can one aford to use thier canning jars for grain,
            and how do you store thejars after?
            Still cool ad dark?
            Didn’t the heat kinda make the cool part moot?

            • No it wont hurt the nutrients much,and rancidness is usually caused by fats and oils oxidizing…if its sealed in a can,its not likely to go rancid…I can lard and it lasts for many years,in fact I had some I kept in a fridge for about 4 years unsealed and it was fine(the lard that is)

              You can use other jars for this too besides regular canning jars…I use spagetti sauce type jars to can lots of stuff(dry and wet) and Ive never had a problem…dried goods are much safer and more forgiving if you do lose a seal,give it a try its a good way to ensure some long term supply storage.Oh and yes..cool and dark for any food item is a good idea! “Live free or die tryin”

          • flour, cornmeal, pancake mix.

          • I use this method all the time and highly recommend it. You can store nuts this way also. My sugar, corn meal, flour, and rice are all dry canned this way.

        • @Loulou…Girl, you are way ahead of the “Game!!” (And good 4 You!! Not sure but I put my beans in the freezer for 4 days, then packed in heavy plastic Milk bags….figure if I have to give some away, they only get 1-2 lbs.

          Where do you get your powdered eggs and butter….online? I am in Canada, wonder if shipping is expensive? Thanx in advance…take care CC

      23. CPI and inflation reports often segregate gas and food out of the equation. That is exactly why reports of inflation are muted. Last year beef contracts increased as much as 20% to mom and pop restaurants. Plus many could not guarantee supply. On the positive side we should see exports drop if QE 3 keeps dollar strong vs other currencies which will give price relief. Risk is gas prices eg freight.

        • Rdub, the USD is dropping and the other major currencies are very strong. It has seemed to me that the PTB encourage exports and that is one reason why the dollar is weaker.

          Everything seems aimed at eliminating animal protein from our diets.

      24. Do this mean my food staps are going up?

      25. A little off topic: Talked to a close friend who is in a high pay-grade. FEMA camps came up, he said they are all ready built and full, I said what. The cities, they will in circle them and nothing goes in or out and they will police themselves. As for the camps that are being built, they are for the rual hicks, they will be rounded up, (the ones who give them trouble) and looked after there. Seems simple to me. It’s time to do some thinking on that one though. So there it is, any idea’s?
        Prep long and hard, time is short.
        Live Free and Stand Tall

        • that story is the biggest crock of shit guy and you damn well know it……..i can smell the bullshit from your house to mine !!!
          everybody has an insider these days just like steve quayle’s GOLDMAN SACHS insider who said to get out of the market by septmeber 16th…..SCUMBAG LYING , PROPAGANDIST loser !!!

          • R99: Take it easy go down to the White House Kitchen and you and Barry can get a cup of coffee. Hey someone told me PeeWee Herman was one of your insiders.

            • I know cuz steve Quayle was right with his insider …….get a life …..everything into DOOM !!!

          • POOR RICH, YOU FUKN LOSER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LEAVE YOU MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET

        • That may be the plan. But will they be so easily rounded up? And if he that unconcerned about it, I would think twice before calling him a close friend. Sounds to me like he is ready to do battle for the enemy.

          • GC: He’s not on the payrole of the goverment and he is on our side. He is very concerned about everything that is going down. As for rounding up in the rual area’s he agree’s that will be tuff nut to crack.

            • Not in my rural area. We’ve got a crowd of educated idiots living in our mtn. community. They think the economic crisis/collapse talk is just a phase and it will pass and everything will be just fine by the time they cash in those stocks and bonds. Most will sell their granny for another share of stock or new toy in the garage. I see a group that will cave in to TPTB and their LE/enforcers as long as they feed them some more BS about “its just temporary”. Yea right!
              “Walk this way little sheeps and we’ll give you a hot meal and a nice comfy bed with TV and A/C. We’ll even bring you back home when we round up all the gangs and troublemakers so you will be safe at home again.”

        • OK, state his agency, official job title, and pay grade. That’s public information, not attached to his name.

      26. Our local Walmart just put Tuna on for 66cents a can. Bought 5 cases and about to go back for more. Also tractor supply is now carrying some canned food and the veggies are less than at a regular grocery store.

      27. I do know the importance of piling up food. However, I am a graduate student attending school, and I don’t have my own property. Even if I have money to buy food, I can’t store a year-worth amount of them anywhere.

        Btw, I am attending school in Fairbanks, AK. Any suggestions to me?

        • Figue out how much space you have and fill it with the highest nutrition/calorie stuff you can afford to pack in rodent and moisture-proof containers (if not already in cans). What’s under your bed? If it’s a mattress on the floor, put boxes of food under it. Don’t forget some fats even if it’s just a can of crisco. A month’s worth is better than nothing. It may give you time to hire on with someone who needs help and has food to trade for it, like helping with security or fishing.

        • Bobby

          Fairbanks Alaska?

          I suggest buying a rifle and getting your protein from Mother Nature.

          • What about relocation? I seriously think of moving elsewhere (my uncle and his family live in Texas). Problem is, I only have enough $$ to buy a ticket to Texas. That’s all my saving now. One of the reasons I attend school now is because I get a paycheck every month from school, as long as I work for them.

            I don’t know how much time I can hang on. SHTF might happen before the end of 2012 (nothing to do with Maya Calendar), and I desperately need a plan B!

            • For the short term and with limited space; find someone to sell you some jerky venison/caribou. Anything dried/dehydrated. When you run out of space in the floors and walls, drive nails or long screws into the ceiling joists and hang bags full of dehydrated goods everywhere. Pretty don’t matter when you’re broke and snowed in and hungry. Every bag of dried pintos and rice is another week you aren’t having to beg,borrow or steal to survive.

        • buy a few of the super pail 30 day supply buckets they are 6 gal’s yes limited in variety but it will get you thru get a few pails roughly $98 each or so. make sure you have water you can put a years worthin a small closet 🙂

        • Bobby,go to a Ivy League school or use the money to be spent to acquire some decent land up there and get some training for a trade that has some value.Anything less than “Ivy league” in these times equates student loan slavery and no job.Sorry if that’s harsh,but it’s also true in these times.
          hope it works out for you.
          GFG

        • Bobby:

          I worked in Fairbanks for awhile, and you should definitely hunt. Caribou, moose,etc. A butcher can make pepperoni, jerky, etc. for you. You can trade or sell the meat (on the down low). Also game birds are plentiful and easy to shoot, and don’t forget fishing in the Tanana River! Good luck to you!

        • Bobby,

          First thing you should do is assess your situation and prioritize. I actually just posted about the Prepper Pyramid today:

          http://www.prepper-resources.com/the-prepper-pyramid/

          If you live in an apartment I recommend keeping a month’s supply on hand and getting secure off site storage locker for more preps. The fact that you are considering getting started is a great thing. Good luck with your journey and happy prepping.

          PJ

          Prepper-Resources.com

        • I told my concern to my classmates and they were like “you gotta be joking”. One of my classmates is from Alaska, and her family have frozen lots of fish, enough to feed her whole family for a winter.

          It’s ironic though I can’t work with my classmate (we both go to school now). I wanna drop out school and go hunting before it’s snowing here!

      28. Thanks for ur replies,going to try the oven method..got alot of jars..will flour freeze good for a few years?

        • Just my 2 cents…. I would opt to store wheat, and get a hand grinder. Store the wheat in Mylar with oxygen absorbers

        • I keep alot of flour in the freezer,or I did…problem is it absorbs odors from the freezer,it can get rather unpleasant tasting…if you can store flour in the freezer in a tightly closed glass container youre mostly gonna avoid that problem,Im doing some that way,some more I seal in jars to store long term and some I put in 5gal buckets,incidently so far the best method Iv found for flour and grains is a tight sealing bag inside a bucket with bay leaves in bottom and top,have used some several years old and no problems,that just my experience over the last 40+ years of doing it…hope it helps!

          • I store flour in 5 gallon buckets, nothing in but DE and bay leaf…and dry canned several quarts in the oven using that method.

      29. My neighbor likes to feed “his birds.”
        He recently got back from a trip to Sam’s.
        The suet he was buying used to be $16.
        Today’s price, $21.
        Can you say “corn.”
        Millions of people worldwide will perish
        because their countries will not buy corn.

        • I usually buy a least a dozen bags of corn or so from one of my customers, a farmer, who bags it up and sells it to the locals. Called him up and asked him what it was going for this year for a fifty pound bag-$10.00. I usually use this to put out around my deer stands to bring in the deer. Guess they’re going to have to forage on their own or suck on their hooves. Its going to go to the chickens this year.

          • If it’s warm enough in your area, plant a few black eyed peas around your stands. That’s what I’m doing since corn is so expensive this year.

      30. Copperhead, I’ve heard a similar story myself. It sounds plausible with regard to the cities, but i can promise you if they attack the “rural hicks”, they better be ready for a shooting war. Those people won’t go quietly into the night without putting up a hell of a fight, and that is exactly as it should be. Although I’m smack dab in the middle of a city, if anyone comes for me, they also better be ready for a war; I’m not going to FEMA’s or anyone else’s camps, period! I’d rather die standing up fighting than to die as a coward on my knees. LIVE FREE OR DIE!

        • bh: We will meet on the other side. I’m like you I’ll take as many with me as I can. You Live Free and Stand Tall

      31. Rich99, i sincerely hope you’re right, but these days I don’t take anything for granted; can’t afford to.

        • Are you kidding guy…..I have been right since August 2011 but who am I !!!!!!

          • Rich you will be right up until you are wrong. Problem is there no going back.

      32. When listening to people complain about the high prices of everything, it’s hard not to mention the prices are only going to go up. But people don’t want to face the reality of why the prices are going up. Most Americans have had relatively fat times most of thier lives, so it’s hard for them to comprehend what is happening.

        One individual I still converse with on these matters often has a “deer-in-the-headlights” look of fear and confusion which he has often tried to mask with smart@$$ comments. He’s not laughing anymore, and comments that things I told him about 2 years ago are now coming on the “MSM news”. I still mention to a few people they may want to consider having at least a few weeks worth of food, and despite what they see happening around them, just give me a blank look, and do nothing.

        Most people are totally oblivious to what is happening. They have been well brainwashed, and when TSHTF, they will be unable to feed or even defend themselves. If people are not awake by now, they are not likely to wake up at all. The parasites will feast on them.

      33. Just in time for the aftermath of the election, and it doesn’t matter whom wins. You know to all those that call the prepper crazy for storing up all that food, all those preppers have just made a nice profit on all that food bought at the lower price before everything skyrockets in price. That is IF the world is still around next year as we know it now. The wise prepper again scores big having bought food at 3/4, 1/2 or less what it will be priced next year. All that food will likely be worth double its value. I don’t see too many stocks doing that too often. Plus having 24 hour access to your investment. Again score a touchdown in the preppers’ column and a big goose egg for the non-prepper.

        • Yup.
          I have some stuff that I bought that if i calculated the cost, I could eat a full and balanced diet for less than 5 bucks a day..yes you heard that right Five dollars(or less) for 3 full and balanced meals, all of my necessary claoric intake for 5 bucks

        • And darn if it isn’t the nicest looking investment, too.

          “Pantry art”

          • Zoltanne:
            Around here I’m accused of playing in my “girlfort” when I am re-arraging and doing inventory in the pantry. I live with three Men (husband, brother in law and my son). They just don’t get it. It’s like a Barbie townhouse for big girls. hehe.

            • Jen10, “Girlfort” is great! Love it! How many of us had “forts” as youngsters? Most of today’s kids barely go outside now…they have hand-helds and their thumbs are too busy to get off their butts.

              Thanks for sharing such a great word.

        • Be Informed

          Correct you are..once again..

          here’s a quick glimpse over 6 months for me
          1st price 6 months ago..2nd price now!

          all natural canned chicken 10 oz 2.50/ 3.79
          wild canned alaskan salmon 15 oz 2.99/4.25
          canned sardines 1.00/1.49
          all natural tomato sauce glass jarred 24 oz 1.00/2.09

          There is no inflation whatsoever discounting food and energy costs..lol

          possee

      34. The most valuable commodity in the short term when the fan rattles, will be potable water, if you haven’t got drinking water you will be dead within 1 week.Second most valuable food are seeds, you can survive on sprouted seeds,there are people that live on them full time through choice now. The real worry,for me, will be the decimation of Bees and other pollinators, Big Ag is slaughtering them by the trillion across the planet now,
        No Bees = Starvation. Be very,very lucky citizens,and remember,”Those that beat their guns into ploughshares will plough for those that didn’t”.

      35. You ASSHOLE….. I pulled my money from meryll lynch in 2008……IF YOUR GONNA SPEW SHIT FROM YOUR CUM DUMPSTER YOY SHOULD MAKE SURE ITS FACTUAL …..except the DOOM CLUB isn’t based on facts , only DOOM PROPAGANDA

        • ??

          • Don’t try to figure it out, not worth the bother

            😉

      36. Does anyone know about the protein powders that they sell in regards to them being a viable survival food to augment complex carbohydrates?

        The eastern blocks political problems stemmed far less from a lack of freedom and far more from food shortages as the USSR diverted more and more into the military with less going to aid in Poland and other pact countries. Empty stomachs bring down entire societies. Regarding your prepping take a 180 degree position from Madison Avenue and follow this suggestion, “It’s wise not to advertise”.

        • Ive got some in my preps, as supplimentary, I dont think it would be the only thing I would rely on, but not a bad idea to mix it up in one meal a days drink to add some Carbs and additional protein especially on days where your laboring hard.

        • K2 – If you decide to supplement with protein powders, read your labels very carefully.

          There are two basic types of p-powders that bodybuilders use – ones for building and ones for cutting. The ones for building would likely be your best bet for a survival product. They have more calories and also contain carbohydrates and fats.

          The ones for cutting are more “pure protein”. They often contain artificial sweeteners which are really bad for you, although you can find natural products that do not have artificial sweeteners.

          The issue here is the adage of using what you have. Most of us are not in the market for a whole bunch of empty calories at this point in time. If that is the case you aren’t going to want to use these high-cal building powders.

          I stock the low carb protein powders because I use them on a regular basis. I order from a company in California called True Nutrition, where you can build your own product. I get them with a multivitamin and some amino acids mixed in so it is more nutritious. The price is good too! I keep flavored and unflavored powders – the benefit to the unflavored is that you can dump a scoop into something simple like mashed potatoes, or pasta and cheese – and really increase the nutrition of it.

          Hope this information helps a little.

          • K2 & Daisy: There is a protein powder made in Canada that mixes PP and phyto-nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

            In addition to the V&M it has many fruit concentrates and specific herbs that are known to be beneficial. You can get it mixed or separate. Its great stuff. Expensive but GREAT!

            I’ll check the name and manufacturer and get back to you.

            • Anyone looking into chia seeds?

          • Daisy,

            Awesome tip. Got some hemp powder on the way 😉

      37. Meet your new best friend: the potato.

        Think of what Forrest Gump’s friend Bubba told him about shrimp. The same pretty much goes for potatoes. Potato salad, potato chips, french fries, shredded potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato soup…

        Corn is now 48 cents an ear at the local Kroger store. Potatoes are $1.99 a bag. Might as well stock up.

        • Mondo…You’re right about the potato. I will have to rethink my potatoes. My tower only produced about 5 pounds. Only a few large ones. Most were the size of golf balls…and then there were some little ones..lol.I didn’t buy seed potatoes but used eyes from other potatoes.Is this where I went wrong?

          • JRS, could be the variety of potatoes you are planting. Could be that you need more fertility in your soil. Read up on some varieties that will grow well in your area and order a few varieties to trial from a reliable potato grower. They won’t be cheap but you won’t need to buy seed again if you like them.

            Those that grow well can be grown-on for the next season or next year if you store them properly (dry, dark, cool). Depending on size and variety, we plant potato eyes or the whole seed potato. The smaller fingerling types go in as a whole seed potato. The larger varieties like Chieftan, Yukon Gold, and Augusta are cut, then planted.

            If you are buying potatoes from a grocery store, they’re sometimes sprayed with something to prevent sprouting.

        • If you have an Aldi in your area RED potatoes are 99 cents for a 5# bag this week. I got 50 lbs and am going to can the smaller ones whole and mash the rest for the freezer.

          Here’s the instructions I’m using:

          http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/canning-potatoes/

          http://momadvice.com/blog/2008/11/make-ahead-mashed-potatoes

          Another canning site suggests boiling them for 5-10 minutes (if they’ve been cut)and rinse really well before packing them in jars. This helps eliminate the starch even though it’s not harmful…just doesn’t look as pretty and later on when water is at a premium they won’t need to be rinsed.

          I bought the Presto canner last December and it is very easy to use. No need to be fearful!

          Also, last year I bought 6 turkeys before Thanksgiving, served one for the feast and canned the rest a month later. They were $6.50 each, not the best quality being Honeysuckle brand but probably not any worse than buying canned chicken and a lot cheaper.

          I hot packed them by roasting in the oven first and then picked the carcass clean. The messy bits got set aside and canned them up as cat food.

          I’ll do it again this year if we have a “normal” Thanksgiving and if not, I’ll have plenty of turkey and mashed potatoes to serve the family. Get yer fixins as soon as the sales start!

      38. Mondobeyondo

        Mashed potatoes, an egg and flour rolled out and cut into 1″ pieces boiled in water and covered in pasta sauce are called gnocchi. It sets you back $16 a plate in a restaurant while costing very little to make. Pasta fazole (beans and pasta soup/stew) brings top dollar too. They’re Italian peasant food stables that powered the likes of Rocky Marciano and Joe DiMaggio.

        Everyone should get an Italian food cook book and look at the cheap recipes. There is no sense sacrificing taste if it’s not absolutely necessary.

        • For a very good protein/nutritional supplement look into brewers/nutritional yeast. I like the Lewis Labs brand best. Google it, many outfits sell it. It’s tasty mixed with a liquid like tomato juice or added to cooked foods or even salads. OK, it maybe an acquired taste, but I think it is good tasting even alone. This is a supplement that has been neglected in the prepping community. This stuff can help keep you alive.

          orn. Out.

      39. Libya attack was ‘terrorist’ strike, but not planned, says U.S. official

        Ahh yeah right..like 9/11 wasnt planned either, oh and this just so happened on 9/11 too..yeah nahh it wasnt planned at all, they just happend to have all the stuff on hand to do this on the spur of the moment

        Who The Fuck are they trying to kid?

        • Hey Aminamood whatcha doing…nuthin myhamdid…whatcha wanna do..I dunno…HEY WAIT I KNOW!…you wanna go over and burn down the American infidels embassy?….yo man sounds great…naw man only God is great,but its a good plan anyhow… wait!… lets call call Hackamed,he has a RPG and he owes me for that goat I loaned him….okay see you there in five……ya..sounds like a “plan” 😉

          • @ REB:

            ROFLMAO !!!!!!!!!

      40. NOW WTF– The FEDERAL RESERVE given Police Powers, patrol cars, and Glock 22 40 S/W cal. and all the equipment that goes with it. Are they stacking the deck against us or what. But, I say BRING IT ON!

      41. “they” are puting those interstate cameras on I-40 now.

        F^CK YOU TYRANTS!

        So the cameras are on multiple locations on I-15, and I-40

        Chime in, where else are they people?

        • All over ohio..and been for years..
          also places in Michigan, saying they aare for controlling the traffic lights…yet the traffic lights dont sem to be any different, or in some cases worse

        • Been on the interstates here in Pa. for years now.The local traffic reports use the feeds every day.

        • All over I-70 through Colorado.
          I saw an accident on 70 a month or so ago.
          Tried to look at the camera feeds to see how badly traffic was backed up; EVERY camera that would have shown either the accident (which was no big deal, really) or the traffic was black. No image.
          Turns out, a truck had rolled going down the mountain; as luck would have it, it rolled in the “runaway truck” thing. (all that gravel & stuff they hope will stop a truck on a big downhill).
          Fire Department, Hazmat, police, etc.
          Closed the interstate for 5 hours.
          The road wasn’t even blocked, except by the emergency vehicles.
          The Hazardous Material?
          50 gallons of diesel from the truck’s tank.

          I swear, the Fire & Police departments main goal seems to be to fuck up traffic as much as possible. And get some overtime.

        • All over I90 around Buffalo
          All over Toronto and the surrounding 50 miles

        • all over WA state

      42. “The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts.”
        Talmud: Baba mezia, 114b

        • Oh, thanks for reminding me–Ann Barnhardt inspired me–I have a free Quran coming so I can burn it!!!

      43. “The Akum (non-Jew) is like a dog. Yes, the scripture teaches to honour the the dog more than the non-Jew.”
        Ereget Raschi Erod. 22 30

      44. NICE!!

        Hey Beck, what do you think about this?

        Sanhedrin 54b. A Jew may have sex with a child as long as the child is less than nine years old.

        • HE CHOSEN PEOPLE!! YEAH!!

          Hey isreali first people, PLEASE explain again WHY they are the chosen people?

          Dont bring up the new testement, just explain this and your support for it!T

          • Are you talking about the Ashkenazi Zionists? They are not the real Jewish people.

      45. Menahoth 43b-44a. A Jewish man is obligated to say the following prayer every day: Thank you God for not making me a gentile, a woman or a slave.

        • @ Kevin

          Those are not the real Jews. They are of the synagogue of Satan. God will do the sorting. Don’t worry about them.

      46. So is the dollar collapsing in 3-4 weeks or is food going to surge in price in early 2013? Make up your mind please.

        • Take your pick. The New Madrid fault is going to shift and the Great Lakes empty to flood the coast lines. The new Gulf of Mexico extends north to Memphis. With no land bridges the Food Warehouses in East America will be emptied in weeks. Mass starvation,disease and suicide.

          Who in the fark really knows which clamity is going to strike first? Does it matter? Prepare for all of them.

        • David…The dollar INDEX collapsing was what the article was titled. This means the dollar is worth less compared to a basket of other fiat currencies.When those other central banks “print” the dollar index will go back up.This means they will all be worth less.When the currency base is expanded this means prices of commodities (including food) will most likely go up. It’s entirely possible (and most likely) that both will occur.

      47. I am picking on the jews today(but am I picking on them, this is in their holy books?), tommorrow it will be the 7th day eventalists!!

        • Good Luck picking on the “7th day eventalists”, since no such group exists.
          Perhaps you’re thinking of the “Seventh Day Adventists”?

          fucking illiterate retard.

          • Nothing like an anonymous a$$ wipe!!

            Hmmm.

            10 inch!!!

      48. Looking at price records for stuff I bought for Y2K – – –

        If year 2000 is the baseline, I’d say we’ve already passed 175%.

      49. If you don’t raise chickens start canning some, because if the prices at Costco are any reflection on things to come, we are in trouble. $28 for 8 chicken breasts. I am thinking next year it will be $48 or more. Even Wally World moved their long term food storage suff right next to the front door which tells you they know it’s coming.

      50. Points I’ve taken from this article as a prepper

        1. It is my belief that food prices triggered the civil unrest of the Arab Spring. Am I as ready as I can be for civil unrest?

        2. Food prices won’t go down again in a hurry – to what extent can I decrease my dependency on money as a means to obtain food? (Do I have skills I can swap?, Can I grow it? etc. etc).

        3. Having just storage of 1 year or even the biblical 7 isn’t enough as civil unrest usually disrupts harvests and distribution for longer than the period of unrest. Things take a LONG time to return to normal.

        4. Do I need to adjust my diet now, to take into account those items that will no longer be within my reach and still remain healthy? Kids especially need treats, and hate abrupt sudden change in their diets, as well as having increased critical requirements of some expensive items to remain both physically and emotionally healthy and resiliant.

        5. Can I reduce my fuel requirements in order to set aside more funds for food? (This may be a UK specific issue, I don’t know).

      51. Ok,

        Here are some prices from local Super markets:

        1. Fresh pork 6,59 euros per kilo
        2. Greek cheese 9,66 euros per kilo
        3. Ravioli pasta 1,12 euros per pack of 250 grams
        4. Potatoes 0,68 euros per kilo
        5. Zuchini 0,89 euros per kilo
        6. Fresh chicken 4,89 euros per kilo
        7. Irish cheese (kerrygold) 6,76 euros per kilo
        8. Rise 2,35 euros per pack (1 kilo)
        9. Honey (vase) 6,86 euros per 400 grams.
        10. 2 Gillette rasors Fusion Proglide, 6,00 euros
        11. Bath foam Sanex Protector, 4,96 euros per 650 ml
        12. Tomato paste 1,11 euros per 410 grams
        13. 4 pieces of Mars or Snickers, 1,90 euros
        14. All Hellmanns dressings, 1,56 per bottle of 235 ml
        15. Ruffles potato chips, 3 bags of 120 grams, 2,40 euros.
        16. 4 pieces of sprite 500 ml each, 3,36 euros
        17. Gordon’s Gin 700ml, 15,75 euros
        18. Kellogg’s special K serial 375 grams, 2,31 euros per pack
        19. Fresh pork stakes with bone, 5,19 euros per kilo.
        20. Sweet corn, 0,81 euros per 340 grams can.
        21. Aim toothpaste, 2,36 euros per 75 ml item.
        22. Zewa toilet paper, 4,11 euros per 8 item pack
        23. turkey Ham, 10,63 euros per kilo

        • manos

          Could someone extrapolate these prices to dollars?..
          as I am woefully ignorant to currency conversions.

          That being said, glad to have you back on line manos!

          We ,as you, are incrementally being priced into oblivion ..period!

          It is not a freefall collapse, but a well planned death by a thousand as always.

          Stay well..hope that meeting went well.

          possee

          • Possee,

            Today’s ratio is 1,2956. This means that dollar is cheaper than euro by this 1,2956.
            so just divide each price to this.
            For the first price of the pork for example, it’s 6,59/1,2956 = 5,09 dollars per kilo.

            • sorry possee,

              the other way around. You multiply and not divide.

              Multiply 6,59 X 1,2956 = 8,54 dollars per kilo….

          • possee

            Being we use dollars and pounds do this.

            Pork as an example at 6.59 Euros per kilo

            Using 1.3 dollars per Euro

            6.59 X 1.3
            ———- = $3.89 / lb
            2.2

            It looks like prices in Greece are quite close to the current in the US.

            • @ Kevin and Manos. I was looking at honey, it would be $8.89 per 14 ounce jar, that is frightening cost. I can get honey at Safeway for $3.69 for a one pound jar, or about 450 grams. Toilet paper at $5.33 for an eight pack, that is expensive as you can get 12 pack for that price or a little less. Everything else is within the price range other than maybe Greek cheese that is about $5.70 per pound, as you would think that something processed in the country like this would be cheaper. Greek cheese over here is about $5.49 per pound. Honey is scary price, I wonder if there is some sort of die off of honey bees over in Europe.

            • Yes, because I stocked up on Fusion..about $15 for 4 was the best deal I found here.
              Your 2 are 7.75…same prices here.

          • Remember a kilo=2.2 lbs.

            Some of these prices are close to US, but all are higher, the toiletries by a lot!

            Big box store toothpaste (Aim)=5 huge tubes (last 4 months each) for $12. Baking soda is under .50/box and makes a good dentifrice.
            Aldi’s Willow brand TP: 18 rolls=$7
            Body wash, Dial or store brand=under $3 enough for 2 people/3 months.

            Locally, family pack (2 12+ lbs) ground round=$3.00
            Bone-in, skin-on large chicken breasts= under $2/pound
            Cryopacked tri-tip (sirloin tip)= under $4/pound in whole muscle cut, about $25/package. Provides 6-10 meals for 2, depending on recipe
            bone-in pork steaks=under $3 pound on sale (basically a sliced pork shoulder).
            8 5 oz cans albacore tuna=$12.00 (cheaper by $1 than big box store brand).

            Expensive by past prices, but still affordable to most.

            Cheapest sugar is .60/pound
            Flour around $1.60 for 5lbs.
            Evaporated milk @ Aldi’s .67/can
            Brand name potato chips=$2.50/bag
            Clancy’s chips (Aldi’s)=$2.00/bag
            Big box store brand best frozen veggies=$1.08/bag. 4 servings or more/bag.

            Cooking oil (canola) still $7/gal (lasts us 4-5 months)
            Even peanut butter is still under $4/pound for the best brand name, no oils or sugar.

            You can still eat well if you cook, add home grown/preserved veggies, even if you don’t hunt or fish.
            License to hunt/fish can cost $100 for the year. I figure anywhere from $1.50-$2.50 a meal/per person, with scratch cooking and use of all leftovers. Soups are less than that.

            Propane in my region is down .30/gallon to $1.60/gal. Filled tanks have stayed the same for years. Electricity has risen by .01/KwH per year for the past 3 years, with an additional 1/3 for fees, taxes. I can see it on the bill when we make tomato sauce or dehydrate anything in bulk. So, when canning and drying, factor in the power costs.

            Right now, we had one local soft frost and the peppers and greens in the greenhouse ($100 plastic model)are fine. The greens will do well in a sunny window most of the winter, especially the various types of mini bok choy. Since sweet red peppers take so long to mature, they can attract aphids indoors over the winter. We raise a lot in the summer and dry them.

            We live on about 3/4 of the so-called median US income. Even with physical labor, we older folks just eat less. Those with growing kids to feed are surely feeling a pinch.

            • family pack (2 12+ lbs) ground round=$3.00

              should read:

              family pack of 2 1/2 lbs ground round @ $3/lb

            • Water and a little dish washing liquid kills aphids in one day; in spray bottle.
              My neighbor had them on her petunias and couldn’t get rid of them—one spray and they are gone.
              A florist taught me that.

        • Here are some prices for similar products in ontario canada.

          1.fresh pork roast CA$8.80/kg
          2.feta cheese CA$25.00/kg
          3.catelli pasta CA$1.97/300gr
          4.potatoes CA$1.19/kg
          5.zuchini CA$1.94/kg
          6.fresh chicken breasts CA$13.21/kg
          7.cheddar cheese (old) CA$11.98/kg
          8.rice CA$2.50/kg
          9.honey CA$9.99/kg
          10.gillette fusion proglide razor(2 cartridges) CA$14.99
          11.bath foam CA$3.50/L
          12.tomatoe paste CA$0.99/150ml
          13.king size mars bar CA$1.69
          14.Hellmanns mayo CA$2.79/445ml
          15.lays potatoe chips CA$2.47/270 gram bag
          16.sprite(2L bottle) CA$2.50
          17.gordons dry gin CA$24.45/750ml
          18.general mills cereal CA$4.99/500 gram box
          19.pork chops CA$4.34/kg
          20.canned corn CA$0.69/341ml
          21.crest toothpaste CA$2.99/165ml
          22.bathroom tissue CA$4.88/24 rolls
          23.pillers ham CA$12.00/kg

          current exchange rates
          1 canadaian dollar (CA$)=$1.02(american dollars) or 0.73 euros

          • gas is currently about 1.30 a liter(regular), there are about 4 liters in one gallon i believe.

        • Manos,

          Good to see you are alive, I hope you are recovering.

      52. manos..

        Either way it is ugly my friend..

        and it’s only getting uglier by the week..

        Have 7 days vacation starting today..will be spending in ordinate time putting up food stocks..canning etc..
        Still enjoying that cook book btw..

        many thanks

        keep us informed as to your situation over there..

        Your timely warnings over the last year of it coming here are rapidly materializing..

        possee

      53. This is the first time I have posted here, but wanted to extend my gratitude to those who share. I believe we are on the cusp of an obvious collapse which has been slowly materializing. I wont speculate what it will be, far too many possibilities or combinations. Food prices are becoming rediculously high and given the employment and lack of COLA increases I am astonished how the hide the obvious inflation. Your not alone. Your not the fringe. 200 posted, over 11000 read this article. 3 years ago I was ridiculed for saying something big was coming. Many of those same people are now eating those words. Keep your heads up!

        • Lonestar..welcome!

      54. One more day depending on where your located in the world before massive earthquakes strike’!!!!

        • Huh??? Karen, What do you mean?

        • Karen,

          Are you delusional? Did God tell you this in order for you to make such a declaration? What do you base this definite statement on? One more day where? If this doesn’t occur then what, the next day, or the next day, or next week?

          Chicken little comes to mind.

        • @ Karen. I don’t know where you are getting your forecasts from, I would like to know. I personally take very little credence in anything “psychic” with earthquakes. I take animal behaviour very seriously as there is past proof of earthquakes to come. I use the past also, and I have proof that polar earthquakes mean big earthquakes to come of 6.5+, 77% of the time, 47% within a week and 30% of the time 8-15 days after the beginning of the cycle of polar earthquakes of 5.0+. Also the tiny ring between 55.0 to 56.99 degrees south means that an earthquake of 6.5+ is coming 78.2% of the time. This is 54.5% within 7 days, and only 23.7% of the time within 8-15 days after a 5.0+ strikes this area.

          Karen, do you have some sort of proof to back up what you are saying? Would like to see this. I use science to back up what I say, and I sent Mac the proof that anyone can see from 1973-2012 as this proof.

        • i have noticed ann morrison has not been on jr moores show the last while. havent heard john talking about these quakes. wonder if niburu is getting closer?

      55. Good day from the compound!
        A little off topic, but I don’t see too many folks extolling the virtues and cost savings of hunting. I know the permit prices and ammo continue to rise, but in my area, at least the bag limits are be going up.
        We can shoot 4 turkeys per person.
        If we archery hunt, muzzle loader, and rifle, we can take 4 deer per person.
        We can take ducks and geese and pheasant for ½ the winter.
        Add in the occasional squirrel and cottontail, our protein costs are almost nil. (We do like a nice steak once in a while.)
        Since I raise my own goats (Nigerian dwarf) chickens (Buff Orpington) and rabbits, we can get through the lean season just fine. (fyi most Americans eat too much meat anyway)
        The value of fur has dropped quite a bit in 20 years, but by trapping coons, and coyotes, along with the occasional fox, badger, muskrat and (skunk for scent glands and fur) , we can earn hard currency, for ammo and eat most of what we trap. (My son is a trapping fool…He thinks he is Jeddah Smith)
        I know it sounds crazy, but the wife will can almost everything my son and 2 daughters, (my oldest daughter is my best hunter, besides old dad) we get, and by the time you reheat it, add some homegrown dried onion, garlic, basil, etc… Let it simmer, throw together some greens, taters carrots, I tell you it’s easy to justify the cost of permits.
        Anyway, I agree, there is going to be a paradigm shift, and those of us who are laughed at by their peers will have the last laugh. I sell for a big firm and am looked at by most my peers as a nut. I am regularly used as the butt of goat and chicken jokes at quarterly meetings. Funny thing I am the number 2 producing (by profit) rep in the company, so I quietly go along living my “double life”.
        Preps and prepping…… it’s a lifestyle not a “plan” I have more redundant stuff than you can imagine, but it’s the way I choose to live or die whatever.

        • Doesn’t sound crazy at all to me. I can our deer meat,too.Roll it in flour, pepper and salt and fry it up in some lard. Melts in your mouth.Yes, I use lard, F… that Crisco bullshit.

          • Crisco is not food. But I hear it makes a good candle.

          • A little celery salt in the flour makes fried backstrap AMAZING! Makes my stomach growl just thinking about it.

          • JRS…
            I live for fall….Fresh Whitetail back strap, wrapped in bacon, grilled med rare over a wood fire…

            Damn I’m tellin’ ya..

            Or honestly is there a better bird than pheasant with wild rice and fresh morel mushrooms…

            Nope!!

        • Wally Dog

          When I was a kid growing up in the new suburbs with lots of surrounding farm land rabbits were frightened of people. Lots of people hunted back then. As I got older and development increased rabbits lost the fear of people as less were hunted and the rabbits went from wild to suburban. Their numbers also increased. I think with the advent of high powered air rifles and a worse case economic forecast those lawn rabbits are in for a big surprise.

          • Forgot this.

            After WWII ended they had to import pigeons into Rome. I think game laws will be routinely violated if TSHTF.

            • Kevin2
              I agree the hunting will go to heck quick, but for now!!! Son & I went dove hunting this weekend, He got 8, I got 15. Breasted out, garlic salt, cream cheese & Jalapeno between two halves, wrapped in bacon, grilled on med high till bacon crisp, baste with 1/2 Hz57 and honey…cool & eat..I’m telling ya it’s livin’!!!

            • Detroit has alot of pigeons…When out of towners ever asked me for directions to downrown detroit, I used to tell them to look up in sky for pigeons, then Follow birds straight line to detroit inner city areas.

              Can’t explain it but seems pigeons always prefere ghetto inner city dwelling. One gander at various statues there and you see proof galore! Pigeon crap all over statues!

            • Game laws??…you mean they have game laws??? Durn it all…oh well…I didnt hear you say that,nananananana 😉

        • Wallydog, if my son and I hunt all three seasons, archery, muzzleloader, and rifle/shotgun, we can take upt to 36 deer apiece legally. My family can’t eat that many. My son and I do manage to put 12 to 14 deer in the freezer each year. We do our own butchering. My shop houses a 6ft.x6ft commercial walk-in box, stainless steel tables, electric hoist (800lb. capacity), Hobart bandsaw, two commercial slicers, commercial grinder, and a triple stainless deep sink with a hot water heater along side. Its a family event. I bust the deer out of the hides, debone and quarter. The chops and steaks are first then comes the grinding meat. My wife, son and I take turns adding suet and grinding, then the vacuum sealing. Later on prior to the start of the following year, all the prior year meat that hasn’t been consumed goes to dehydrating and canning.

          • I love the sound of your set up….

            I am still working on my final processing “man cave”.

            Right now we work in the shop with folding tables.

            My plan is to convert a building on my farm into a game specific processing center, I just have not had the time to devote.

            Seems there is always more to do than time to do it.

            Funny thing when I didn’t have the money, I had time, now I can afford it, but can’t find the time.

            I hate paying someone to do what I can, so things go undone…

            Oh well tomorrow is another day..

            Take care all!!

        • As a female in the great northwest, I agree with your post WallyDog! Our license and tags are still VERY cheap (120.00 for license and a tag for each of the big game), and Wolf is now on the menu! Along with Deer, Elk, Bear, Cougar, and Moose! Talk about variety in your diet. With a decent garden, canning, freezing, and a smoker we are covered! My husband and I both hunt, and seasons go for most of the year…
          My advice, if you don’t know how to hunt and track animals, the time to learn is NOW.

          • OK, I’m envious of you folks. Speaking of my northern American cousins. You have all this game to hunt and not to mention all the great fishing. I do my fair share and we make a lot of venison jerky. But, I need to move North.

            People sometimes forget about the children and getting them involved. Reading about WallyDog and his kids, reminded me of growing up with PaPa #2. He grew up poor and didn’t have a lot going for him all his life, but he raised six kids and always provided, with granny’s help. When I was six or so he would let me shoot his little 22 Rem. bolt-action. Sometimes he even let me go squirrel hunting with him. What a thrill. I was a little too figidty, so he got me started building rabbit gums. WTF?

            I was never told why they were called “gums”, but I figured it out when Pa found a hollowed out section of a Black Gum tree and brought it home from the slab pile where he was getting wood for the cookstove. Back then the sawmills were set up in the woods and the logs were milled where they were harvested; the slabs were the sides of the logs,left on site. Anyways, pa showed me how to make a trap out of the section of Black Gum and it turned out to be the best of all my rabbit gums.

            The thrill of building,setting,trapping,handling,dispatching and cleaning those rabbits was about as good as it got for a young country boy. It rated right up there with having my first girl sex.

            There was something about seeing the look on granny’s face when I brought her that first rabbit that I had fully cleaned and handed to her, for her to fry up. Granny did know how to cook and she was so appreciative to have fresh meat for the table during the fall and winter months.

            The anticipation when getting off the school bus to go and check my traps; priceless. The smell of the damp woods and thickets in the cool fall evenings was amazing and will be with me till the day I die. The things that most kids are missing out on could put so much more meaning into their lives.

      56. Jedediah Smith…I hate spell check..Sorry

      57. Food is getting more expensive but compared to my parents generation (born in the 1920s) and even post WWII in the boom times people today eat large. When I was a kid in the 60s ice cream in the freezer was uncommon in most households and saved for special occasions. My parents growing up ate a diet that was generally inexpensive by the standards of today. Nothing was pre made. Actually my Mother made most of what we ate in the 1960s from scratch.

        If one watches themselves you can eat plenty of very healthy food relatively cheap. For $10 my Grandmother could probably make a barrel of pasta fazole.

        My Grandmother would say, ” Il tuo pianto con una pagnotta di pane sotto ogni braccio”” (Your crying with a loaf of bread under each arm).

      58. Daisy,

        I have an old (1981) Ontario Fishing Guide by Hines Herringer and Jensen.

        Table of contents includes:
        Game Fish of Ontario
        Fishing Basics
        Lures and Baits
        Catching Fish
        Structure Fishing
        Fishing Aids
        Fishing Sciences

        And 5 more chapters including Fishing Maps of where these guys fished and this includes fishing structure and where they used to catch’em.

        Let me know some of the lakes you’re near and I’ll send you some images of those lakes. I know it’s old info but it sure beats knowin’ where they aint!

        Y’all Beware! Got an old Newfie joke for ya – later though.

      59. First time poster, long time observer – in fact I feel like I know so many of you! Thanks for all you have done to add your knowledge to the discussion, it has helped me so much! Anyway, for the last 2 years I’ve been learning everything I can about survival & prepping – didn’t grow up that way so it’s a big learning curve. I’ve loved every minute of learning and doing.

        My DH finally woke up about 2 months ago…kind of, but at least agrees we need to commit as much $ to this as possible and has put me in “charge”. Well yea okay, I have the food covered, bought the guns/ammo (which we are both familiar with btw), started gardening 2 years ago, dehydrating, etc… But, I can’t wake up anyone else around here, kids, neighbors, friends, anyone to form some kind of group for shared skills and security and I am getting really frustrated. How in the heck can 2 people survive in a SHTF situation alone in a sub. neighborhood (edge of town) in a population center of over 200k?

        The way I see it is that most the preppers are doing it alone so how is that going to work out when the PTB are much stronger? For me and my DH, I cannot imagine it will be good and even if we left for the mountains, them folk up there aren’t going to be real friendly toward us and living in the woods even though we are experienced tent campers isn’t a good scenario in the winter plus we have too many preps to haul.

        Had to get this off my chest and I’ve got to believe there are other people in my situation.

        Take care and continue on the path.

        • Welcome ON THE PATH !

        • Welcome! There are only, so many choices. You have to narrow them down. We have been at this for over ten years. It is a process, and by the grace of God we had time to discuss and look at all our options without being rushed or pushed. That is why I post here. It is out of compassion for my fellow man. Sometimes I get off topic and rant and rave and may even toot my own horn, but; the main reason I started posting after being just a reader and observer for a year, was to try to possibly be of help to others.

          We knew we would be isolating ourselves from some of our so called friends when we began talking about prepping and prophecy. We didn’t realize how much all of them were caught up in living their comfy,lustful,worldly lives to the point they would shy away from us at the hint of a conversation on prepping and our Christianity. It does go hand in hand, or should.

          We accept how they are and keep everyone at arms length now a days. We keep doing our thing and are friendly and share our garden extras, but we no longer discuss our game plan with anyone. When it comes down to it, we can’t trust anyone but ourselves. We don’t even trust our own parents. They are too caught up. We put our trust in our Heavely Father and He keeps our path clear of danger. That doesn’t mean we don’t use the commonsense and weapons He has given us.

          We wish you much success with your journey, wherever the path leads.

      60. Heres a Hidden Tax most folks are not even aware exists!

        KOSHER Fee/Taxes(jewsih pharise rabbis)

        It is bad enough that you’re spring water and diet Coke have to be kosher, but how many Goyim know that their Clorox toilet cleaner has a kosher label hidden on the bottom, that their Tide laundry detergent has a kosher label, that any aluminum foil they buy has a kosher label and that their Glad sandwich bags and trash bags have a kosher label on them? Kosher steel is also in the works now! (These are just a few of the thousands of NON food items subject to this scam.)

        The kosher dietary laws are just superstitions created ages ago to give the rabbis yet another form of dictatorial control over their flock and to provide a symbolic assertion of jew divine superiority.

        In the 20th century this idiocy was turned into a multi-billion dollar extortion scam. The original idea behind this stupidity is that the Goyim are prone to all sorts of diseases and filth that could infect the Jew if no rabbi is present to oversee the production of the food product. The rabbi must ensure that the food is “fit for a Jew to eat.”

        There are only a few of these “laws” to my knowledge.

        1. A Jew cannot eat meat from an animal that does not have split hooves and chew its cud (e.g., a pig has split hooves but does not chew its cud so it’s a no go, but not because it is “unclean”).

        2. No mixing of milk from different species, something that the unscrupulous, money worshipping Goyim did to deceive their divine, peace loving Jewish neighbors.

        3. No meat for at least six (that number 6 again) hours after drinking milk. 4. Animals must be hung upside down on a hook and fully conscious of their torture, with their throat being sliced from ear to ear because this cruel method supposedly pumps every drop of blood out of the animal.

        This is necessary because “no blood can touch a Jew’s lips.” Their “religion” thus requires a horrific blood sacrifice/torture ritual before the murdered animal’s meat is “fit for a Jew to eat.”

        Less than a million Jews in USrael eat kosher, and I would bet that less than zero clean their toilet kosher. I would also bet that the only Jews who look for the kosher label are in West Palm Beach and are just supporting the extortion racket for the tribe.

        The practice whereby the rabbis “persuade” these companies to submit to kosher inspection clearly fits all state and federal extortion laws, as well as RICO, laws which were specifically enacted to target organized crime.

        We have an FDA full of M.D.s and Ph.Ds which we all pay taxes for, yet we also have to pay a higher overall tax to rabbis who know nothing about the products they are “inspecting”: these sidelocked wackos are not nutritionists or chemists. And kosher slaughter is inhumane and unsanitary.

        Kosher has nothing to do with quality or purity. The use of the word “kosher” as a substitute for “okay” in everyday dialogue is offensive and disgusting. The word “kosher” should instead be used as a synonym for fraud.

        The kosher dietary laws have nothing to do with 99.9% of the food products they are stamped on. And they definitely have nothing to do with the production of any non food item.

        Additionally, every individual ingredient that goes into any “kosher” product must also be kosher. So, the disodium phosphate supplier must also be kosher before it can sell its chemical to Kraft or whoever.

        We are talking about dozens, perhaps hundreds of different companies having to be kosher in order for their specific ingredient to be used in a single product such as Tide laundry detergent.

        This pyramid scam runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide. This scam is dumber than the Nigerian 401 letter fraud, yet almost the whole world falls for it. What does that say about us as a people and why this tiny extremist minority rules over us in a manner the Caesars would envy

        This kosher extortion nonsense is without a doubt paying for a good portion of these Zionist extremist ops around the globe as well as the propaganda supporting the back stories and the often staged protests.

        The kosher scam is a very large tentacle of the worldwide Zionist octopus and is perhaps the most revealing display of the level of power they possess and why their agenda is dominating at every level.

        I mean, if we have to pay a tax to a rabbi before we can clean our toilets, what chance do any of us have of standing up to this nonsense. Even the IRS can’t charge you a fee when you have to take a dump

        ORIGINALY Posted by “Goys in the Hood”, from Realjewnews dot com website.

        • Thats hilarious! I was just saying to my “Lady” this morning while looking at a pack of canning salt…”Who in the heck gave these jokers the right to kosher my salt,I want heathen salt but NNNOOOOO,I gotta use kosher salt in my divine pickles and holy salsa,ticks me off!…She giggled at my rant,which was only half joking…it does tick me off when some group…any group messes with stuff I gotta have(like salt)and puts their mark on it! 😉

          True story…concerning the kosher butchering rituals…used to work in a slaughterhouse,big one,owned by a jewish guy,the rabbi would come into the kill floor and go through this ritual while they butcherd the cows….theyed take the cow and throw a chain hoist around the rear leg then hoist that cow off the ground till the head was shoulder high to the rabbi…hed then take out a small blade and cut the cows throat(main artery I think) blood would run like a river down the head to the floor whilst the rabbi slowly cut more and more,all the while chanting some thing from a little black book he held in the other hand,then hed take some blood on his fingers and flick it on the cow as he finished up his ritual( this was done only to certain cows for this kosher thing they did,all the rest we used a bolt on),now Im not a bleeding heart in any way shape or form but I was raised on a farm and taught how to kill an animal properly or humanely…you put it out of its misery as fast as possible!….now imagine this scene as an 18 year old hillbilly farmboy saw this for the first time…there was fear in that old bassturds face when I was done telling him where that baby knife was going to be if he didnt get out of my sight, I was in his face and needless to say I worked in a different department following that incident,had several things like that happened all those years ago,but I still remember to this day the terror in that cows eyes and in that rabbis,one still bothers me one still makes me smile,you guess which they are :)…I was hot…incidently that rabbi got stopped by security one day on his way out and was busted havin several “very not kosher hams under his skirts”…go figger…but ya when you said that it all came back like it was yesterday! “Live free or die tryin”

        • Great story REB. AM, I agree with the “kosher” thing being a scam. Where I have a problem is; swine are unclean animals and bad for you to eat. That isn’t just a jewish thing; thats in God’s words.

          I know all you pig farmers and pork eaters don’t want to hear it, but it is true. I still eat some pork, all the while knowing it can make me sick.

          Swine have no sweat glands and every toxin they injest from an embryo stays in the meat; especially the fat and blood. We raised pigs on table scraps and leftover garden cullings, etc. Not a whole lot of toxins getting in but still, none coming out.

          My mother-n-law says, ” awh that was all nailed to the cross”; while knawing down a chunck of ham. She works for a county ham processor business. Sorry, but no it wasn’t. The only thing nailed to the cross was blood sacrifices and the sin of believers.

          I think about what I’m injesting everytime I bite into that delicious BLT with homegrown maters.

      61. In the world after the shtf the hunters will be the lords of the land. The few of us that still have the art and skill of hunting and fishing will be like gods who can provide life to the unskilled and unprepared.

      62. I was just wondering. I can’t remember exactly what food prices were like 12 years ago, so how much will they go up compared to LAST FEW YEARS prices? 12 years ago doesn’t really matter to me today.

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