Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I believe I picked up a cold at the gun show last week. I try to be careful at these things…I never touch my hands to my mouth or eyes until after I’ve had a chance to wipe ‘em down with some hand sanitizer, etc, etc. But somehow I managed to pick up a bug nonetheless. Since my sense of smell and taste are pretty much shot, Im going to have to put the Canadian MRE taste test on the back burner for about a week until I can start tasting things again. Fear not, I wont forget about them.

=-=-=-=-=-=

So the ‘rice rationing’ has, sorta, kinda, begun. CostCo and Sams Club are limiting purchases. Naturally what does this make people want to do? It makes them want to go out and stock up..which leads to..shortages, of course. Self-fulfilling prophecy. This bothers me not in the least. For one reason, because I’ve got a couple hundred pounds of the stuff squirrelled away..enough to take care of me and the girlfriends needs for a good long while. Secondly, rice just isnt that big a deal in this country. In Third World countries governments will be toppled over high rice prices, in this country no one really cares. I think your average American reads the news and figures food shortages and rationing are things that happen in other countries, surely they dont happen here. And, to a degree, theyre right. The US does extremely well in food production, however we are seeing that while food production doesnt change that much, food prices do. Theres food to be had, no doubt. Its just that the prices are going to keep climbing.

A quick search on Yahoo turns up article after article using the keywords ‘food prices’. It shuld be interesting to see what happens when people on fixed incomes, and especially welfare recipients, find that ‘their’ food dollar is going to be bringin in less food than it was before.  Hungry people are dangerous people.

I expect any day now the media will ‘discover’ this previously unknown facet of the current ‘crisis’…that those on public assistance cant feed their kids as well as they used to. Naturally, politicians will jump in and start going on about how the benefits these people receive must be increased to allow them to feed their families. At this point, the whole arguement will devolve into the usual class warfare battles with politicians talking about ‘fair share’ and ‘economic justice’ and all the other buzzwords that raise your taxes.

Theres no denying that food prices are going up. If youre smart, you’ll start buying in bulk, buying on sale, clipping coupons, and making space in your house to store large quantities of food. Learning to cook would also go a long way towards helping on the food budget.