food for thought

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I've done my best already to calm down any Nervous Nellie's who automatically assume flooding in the midwest means instant famine, death and 'Murica NOT being great again. I don't claim there won't be price and supply issues-I'm just saying that it won't be apocalyptic. Yet. This time. You do remember when ethanol became a huge thing, right? Everything with fake sugar in it seemed to double in price, then everything else doubled in price because X product farmland was turned into corn cropland so as to cash in on the bonanza. Hey, I don't blame the farmers-they get paid zero to negative most years.

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One result of that, because it takes years for a change to become the New Normal, was that the sugar from Hawaii and Florida suddenly wasn't an expensive luxury anymore. Hell, for the last six months Wal-Mart was selling cane sugar for 33% under everyone else. It was a lose leader ( well, I think so anyway, not being on the Wally board of directors ), but it just shows how much corn syrup had to increase that real sugar seemed reasonable again. But we don't see any more seasonal sugar sales anymore, so I wonder if beet crop land is growing something else.

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Now I'm hearing of canned vegetable shortages, specifically peas. The theory is that peas are being used in Fake Meat as protein. Perhaps there is a backlash against Poison Soy. Yeah, if I want Bitch Tits, I'll take real steroids and at least bulk up as I ruin my internal organs. Someone discovered peas as fake meat will make them money, and bought up enough of the little green turds to jack the price up. Until this unexpected demand produces more supply, canned peas are out.

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What happens if canned peas ( I don't know about frozen-this is just based on a snippet I heard ) suddenly double in price? Most people buy another kind of veggie, although I understand that to get to the level of legal child abuse peas represent, you'll have to use broccoli, cauliflower, okra or diesel fumed ditch weeds by the highway. Still, cash strapped households will save money on food before they drop their $1k a month family medical ( with $5k deductible ), because it makes perfect sense to get your kids sick on budget food, then take them to an expensive doctor, and hence pea substitution.

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Usually, instead of raising the price and turning people to buy generics, usually companies just embrace shortages. That way, if a customer buys generic and discovers how wretched the taste is ( one imagines a brand name company owns the generic, purposely putting subpar ingredients in, such as-true story-wheat flour rather than semolina in pasta, and creating future demand for the brand name ), they eagerly await the eventual return at higher prices of the real item. The shortage creates even further value, since the Jones' want brand name and that must have created the shortage.

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The pea shortages simply represent shifting demand, not food issues in general. Then there is mention of increasing jobber food prices ( the guys selling to restaurants-the big grocery chains surpass them ), but this is just a reflection of the long standing death of smaller businesses at the hands of giant corporations. This is not indicative of ( catastrophic ) food shortages, but the giants passing any increases over to mom and pops since the big chains have cost frozen contracts. And, we already talked about grain importation as part of the global food chain.

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HOWEVER. Although. Except! Here is a caveat. Your competitor for food is not Mother Nature, it is other customers. What I mean by that is shortages and price increases will of course be felt, to some degree, but if there is any hoarding of food by individuals, all bets are off. Then there will be huge price increases and long periods of shortages. Remember the 1970's Johnny Carson joke about toilet paper which caused a real shortage? Better yet, remember the five year long rimfire ammo fiasco? It is hoarding, not production shortages, that are the main problem.

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In a Just In Time Inventory world ( those little slant eye bastards made rice popular, also. And you know how I feel about rice! Kidding, mostly. They also are the last bastion of quality consumer goods, making even the Krauts look like feral fraudsters-and yes, I know an American started JIT ), the smallest disruption, such as a new niche company needing peas to make Vegan Burgers, and the system stalls, farts and sputters and sends out false signals to all the Paranoid Pete's. The reason rimfires are cheap right now is because there is only a fraction of demand compared to pre-Obammy.

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( I still say Chinese copper demand did more to create that fiasco than the no-gun-control President did [ of course, while he didn't give Deplorables an excuse to fight, he was busy implementing far more dangerous protocols such as Even More Open Borders, Black Get Out Of Jail Free Cards for killing Whitey, and the ever popular Quadruple Health Care Costs To Genocide working Deplorables. You think White Genocide is hyperbole on my part. Fine, everyone is entitled to delusion ]. But the price wouldn't have lowered even with zero demand without less demand from overseas ).

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Now, having given that example, don't think it applies to food. Someone can always delude themselves about ammunition, and in fact most of you do. “Well, I have twenty guns, which isn't enough, but by gum I think five hundred rounds each is way more than enough.” Or, “Well, I only plan on firing my semi-auto in a controlled manner, even under stress”. You all know my views. But ammunition isn't food. You can cut back on plinking by 95% and still remain proficient. You can go from semi to bolt action to need less ammo. But one thing most of you won't do is go on the Karen Carpenter Diet.

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And while non-preppers will, mostly, not stack cases of ammo in panic ( at most, pre-collapse amounts of hunting ammo- say, an extra box or two of shells ), EVERYBODY, prepper or not, will panic buy food. The fear of food shortage is primal. It is the only thing normal people will panic buy. Not your precious AR-15. Now, I don't discount completely panic buys of other supplies ( yeah, that rhymed! ). When the Oppressed Minority Youth rioted in L.A. there was a panic rush of the Perpetual Clueless to arm themselves.

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But that was a state already with disagreeable gun control. Normal people, in normal Deplorable Friendly areas, will focus just on food. After all, a box of shotshells and a scattergun is all they will ever need, crime being their only conception of violence. But everyone knows how bare the shelves get in a winter storm. Everyone knows some small level of hunger pains at the end of the month ( or when unemployed ), and know they must eat three times a day ( well, whatever is “regular” for them ).

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Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: we talked about the actor Rutger Hauer kicking the bucket.  If you want to watch fifteen films of his, including "Hobo With A Shotgun", go check out the channel Tubi.  Just put his name in the search.  They also have one I simply must check out ( but NOT with Rutger in it ), "Nude Nuns With Big Guns", because honestly, how can you not try that one just from the title? ( update:I thought it was a bit boring )
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note: Finally, the next Bison Book Batch is out, BBBno16.  For all those generous donors ( or those too poor to qualify ), it is free on my web page HERE ( middle column, scroll down ).  For those that want to make it a donation vehicle, it is on Amazon HERE.  Survival hermitage ( 51 pagers ) and Battle Rifle Book ( 60 pages ).
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note: free for today book.  It might just be supernatural, but it says post-apoc, so perhaps give it a shot HERE 
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