With the removal of Russia and Ukraine from the world food market, Wheat and cooking oil prices are going through the roof, so if you use flour or cooking oil in any form, such as coffee creamer or frozen bread products, it would be a good thing to stock up on those products. It will take a few weeks for the shortages to work their way through the supply chain, but prices will jump sharply even before that occurs, as wholesalers and retailers see the shortages coming. Russia and Ukraine combined are said to produce 20-30% of the world's wheat, and most of the world's supply of things like sunflowers seeds and oil. Just a heads-up if you are interested. Shortages of sugar are also predicted.
I made the mistake of over-buying flour during the Great Covid Hoard of 2020, so I won't be doing that again.
In regard to flour. Perhaps it is better not to buy wheat from Russia just so it can be killed for food. I’ll stick to just buying my flour from the store, And oil, why can’t we just drill for our own cooking oil?
I definitely agree that we are going to experience shortage in the coming months, maybe even back to fuel lines/allowances and possibly even bad enough to completely shut down the country basically. Already, it is about $1,000+ for a trucker to fill up his fuel tanks with diesel, and when the farmers start working in the fields next month, they will all need fuel, too. I was reading last night about farmers having shortages for fertilizer, and that will impact this years crops also. If ships can’t unload at the ports, truckers can’t deliver food and other products, and fuel prices keep going up, we are then looking at small businesses having to shut down even more than already happened due to covid shutdowns. I have been stocking up on storable foods that we eat , but I am not set for anything long term, and probably won’t be. By the time that happens, we will probably have looters taking food (and possibly even the government taking supplies) so anything I had stocked up on would be gone at that point anyway. It is a scary situation, but I do think that we will come back out of it, and things will start getting better before next winter.
I am more pessimistic than you, @Yvonne Smith. I didn't think it was possible to dismember the nation so quickly, and I thought more people would resist, but I was wrong (again!). The indicators I look out point to a severe recession/depression on the horizon. No one will be able to "police" the world, so China and other dictatorships will rule our lives, and, sadly, it appears most Americans will be okay with it until it is too late.
Thanks for the heads-up, Don. I've already been on this, but just bought some more oil, another bag of flour, and a fresh jar of yeast that I put in the freezer.
I think oil can be stored in the freezer as well to keep it from going rancid so quickly, but you can switch to hydrogenated fats, like coconut oil, lard, butter/ghee or Crisco.
I did not think about putting oils in the freezer (although I believe the expiry dates on the ones I just bought go out well beyond a year.) I really need to buy another freezer. I make ghee and know it to be shelf-stable (with a broad range of assumed shelf lives), and use lard when making refries for that authentic mouth-feel. So I think I got the greases covered. I really hope all this prep is for nothing more than an inflation hedge.
Who knows? If nothing happens, you will use them sometime. You should never buy anything for inflation or prepping that you will not use unless it is a high-demand item that you could swab to your advantage, such as alcohol, cannabis, or cigarettes...or sugar
Ya know John, it’s like this. Reviewing the present condition the U.S., if I don’t make light of some of the crap that we’ve gotten ourselves into, my brain is agonna explode into so many pieces that quantum theorists will use what’s left to proof or disprove DNA entanglement.
Yup. That's what the smarter-than-I-am preppers always say: Buy the stuff you use, and prep for the things that are most likely to happen in your life (weather event, job loss, etc)...NOT the glamorous-yet-unlikely Zombie Apocalypse. Regarding your general thread here: Here's a Daily Caller article on this exact subject. Russia has already weaponized it by banning grain exports to Europe through at least the end of August, in retaliation to sanctions. Ukraine has banned exports of wheat and oats so it can prevent starvation of its own people under Russian siege. I read that the U.S. imports very little wheat, but being a global commodity, the price will continue to rise...it hit a 14 year high this week. Then there's the cost to grow, harvest, process and ship as inflated by Biden's gas price hikes on top of all this...
I'm standing right beside you, brother. Besides, I read a comment this morning that made me wish I had pulled my sarcastic trigger elsewhere, but I didn't want to start that particular rodeo...things could get Rockies. And I knew your wife wouldn't get offended if I jerked your chain.