tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Jul 23, 2019 16:55:22 GMT 10
Imagine that it is later this year or early next, and food prices in the supermarket have at least doubled on most items. This could be caused by the drought, fuel cost increases (from a war stopping resupply) or a combination of causes. I’m keeping this simplistic. You have stored enough food to last you about a year.
Do you start using your stored food? Do you just use it a little? Or do you actively avoid using anything you’ve stored, thinking you’d better keep it as things may get worse?
How much of an increase in prices would you need to see to decide that this is what you’ve been prepping for?
|
|
|
Post by WolfDen on Jul 23, 2019 17:11:01 GMT 10
I think the question I'd want answered is, when do I stop purchasing food for preps after the prices start rising?
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Jul 23, 2019 17:41:43 GMT 10
I think the question I'd want answered is, when do I stop purchasing food for preps after the prices start rising? Yes. I think that might be a better question for the start of this sort of scenario.
|
|
tomatoes
Senior Member
Posts: 1,065
Likes: 1,089
|
Post by tomatoes on Jul 23, 2019 17:59:37 GMT 10
A lot of the “post apocalyptic” genre books tell stories that have a very clear start to the disaster - like an emp or similar. But some of them have scenarios that are much more grey - like the onset of a pandemic or an economic collapse. Reading these stories I’m always wondering when I would have realised the situation was serious. Sometimes I get frustrated because the people in the story realise that, for example, they need to bunker down because of a pandemic, but they keep going out and mixing with people! I think these scenarios that don’t have an obvious start are interesting to consider.
So although I didn’t paint the initial scenario very clearly, that is what I’m getting at. Considering when you’d realise things were really bad, whether there would be key things you expect would make you take some sort of action, etc.
An economic downturn/depression is particularly tricky because, no matter what the cause, it is impossible to predict how long it might last or how bad it might get.
|
|
frostbite
VIP Member
Posts: 5,464
Likes: 6,980
|
Post by frostbite on Jul 23, 2019 18:07:06 GMT 10
At the moment food is abundant and so cheap it's not cost effective to grow my own. By that I mean an hour spent in my garden would result in significantly less food than if I spent that hour as overtime at work and used the proceeds on food. My limited garden is just for educational purposes.
If food prices skyrocketed I would reassess that strategy, perhaps extend my garden or make use of the abundant free venison and fish on my doorstep. So in effect if prices go up I will probably spend less on food.
|
|
|
Post by spinifex on Jul 23, 2019 18:41:48 GMT 10
Keep buying food until it becomes restricted supply. The reserve supply is only for when all other possibilities are exhausted.
In the mean time get access to some land and water to grow some food. In rural areas that can be roadsides of little used back-roads in among the weeds/native vegetation if you plant things discreetly. A few spuds here ... a few peas there ... radishes somewhere else.
|
|
spatial
Senior Member
Posts: 2,196
Likes: 1,509
|
Post by spatial on Jul 23, 2019 18:42:43 GMT 10
Yip, will be time to get the veg garden producing, for possibly sale and income. I have rabbit cages and some chicken but no current animals except for a pet rabbit that is mostly in the house. Will get livestock in and start breeding. If prices double from what they are, I would start taking more action than currently
|
|
blueshoes
Senior Member
Posts: 608
Likes: 698
Location: Regional Dan-istan
|
Post by blueshoes on Jul 25, 2019 21:41:22 GMT 10
I had a reply typed out and it's gone! oops. Thanks tomatoes for the question, it's a good one and i hope it triggers lots of discussion. I want to hear what grumble thinks I agree with frostbite , spinifex and spatial Rather than having your "preps" as a separate stash of food in a cupboard, have it as part of your long term rotation; i.e. you just normally keep a long stash on hand of the things you normally use. You hopefully rotate through your stash etc. If tins [as an example] are suddenly really expensive, you'll start using them less instinctively - if a tin of tomato is suddenly $10, you won't throw six of them in a pot to make soup. You might use two of them and substitute for something else cheaper, pad it out with home grown potatoes or something. If something hypothetical happens that's a major everything-is-destroyed-at-once, all-systems-down mass extinction type event, you have 12 months of food stashed. After those 12 months, society isn't going to be better, but you're still going to eat... what? Food from your kitchen garden? Food from nearby farms, where you've cut a deal to trade work for food with a farmer? A recession that bites slowly over months and years - it's been slowly happening over the last year or three - isn't going to suddenly be cured in three weeks. In a ten year recession, the tins you started with will be gone after three or four years - if you haven't eaten them you will probably wish you had while you knew they were good, rather than running the risk of theft or dents or bad storage depriving you of the benefits of having stored them. In the first few years, we'll probably miss tinned foods more than after five or eight years when we've kind of forgotten what it was like being able to buy whatever you wanted If you have plans worked out for years 2 to 5, why are you waiting for 'later' to enact those? As food becomes more expensive, you will naturally move toward growing what you can and do a lot of those end-stage things, like dandelion salad and things they used to eat in the 30's. Tins are nice to help smooth the transition, but i'm guessing they will become treat foods as recession bites hard... on that note, i think our extended family will be getting veggie seedlings for christmas if i can propagate enough spares
|
|
frostbite
VIP Member
Posts: 5,464
Likes: 6,980
|
Post by frostbite on Jul 26, 2019 5:16:33 GMT 10
I read the other day that the world population has doubled since 1971, and is forecast to increase at an even quicker rate. There is currently estimated to be 7.7 billion people.
The big players know that in the not too distant future nations will be competing for limited resources of food and water. It's no accident China is taking over the resource rich South China Sea. As individuals, there's a good chance we will see much higher food prices or food shortages in our lifetimes.
So I've made hay whilst the sun shone. I own enough rural land, with good water, to grow enough food for my family if I need to. But apart from that, I'm stockpiling food whilst it's so cheap and abundant, which I rotate through my kitchen. The prepper's mantra of 'store what you eat, eat what you store'. I'm about to start filling a third 200l drum with rice, just as a long term insurance policy that my children, and grandchildren, won't go hungry.
|
|
Tim Horton
Senior Member
Posts: 1,764
Likes: 1,948
|
Post by Tim Horton on Jul 29, 2019 4:43:27 GMT 10
I'll add a little different prospective on this. Like said, new purchases still should be part of your rotation for best use and least loss.
We live on fixed retirement incomes. So that puts a whole new prospective on the break point of too high cost, verses using stores. But then our life expectancy at that point will be different than others still making a working income.
My 5 cents of opinion.
|
|