Food crisis in 2010 in U.S.?

[KentuckyThinker]

I've read some articles, similar to the one linked, that say we may be in for a food crisis because of the fedgov's intervention into the pricing of produce, and also because of low crop yields. In the interest of being prudent, I've began to stock up on items I normally use. Even if a food shortage doesn't happen, at least I can have an abundance of products at today's prices instead of at inflated prices that I KNOW will be coming. How do you feel about this?

2010 Food Crisis for Dummies « The Global Realm

 

[Oddball]

The only way I envision America having a problem with getting food is if the gubmint declares a need for "universal food".

 

[Truthmatters]

global warming will more likely be the cause of food insecurity

 

[Toro]

There is no food crisis coming.

If there is, the commodities markets sure doesn't know about it.

 

[strollingbones]

hmm i disagree....americans have handled the production of food over to large corps....midland archer foundation for one.....regional small farms and dairiers are rarer now....and if small farms have to pay the 500 buck fee.. most will go under....small farms cant afford that fee....

plus now you have food production centered in a few states....where are the gardens that use to exist....hell most people today dont cook much less have a clue about how to grow their own food.
yea i can see a disruption of food supplies coming to pass.....

 

[Valerie]

Harvesting Profits

For the Q2 of fiscal 2010, ConAgra earned 52 cents a share from continuing operations, up 21% on a comparable basis from the year-ago quarter. Even better, both sales and unit volume were up 3% and 2%, respectively. ConAgra continues to follow the trend set by the other large food and consumer products companies, namely General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Kellogg (NYSE: K), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB). These large cap blue chips have all reported profitable quarters along with generally favorable outlooks for the future. All of these companies have been operating for many decades and have developed strong, entrenched positions with the American consumer as well as growing exposure abroad. (For related reading, check out A Guide To Consumer Staples.) http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/consumer-staples.asp

A Sweet Place To Be

Companies like ConAgra are in an enviable position in this economic environment. Unlike most retailers that are struggling to remain profitable, companies like ConAgra have much to be thankful for. For example, ConAgra estimates that it has brands in approximately 97% of all U.S. households. These brands include iconic names like Hunt's ketchup, Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice and Orville Redenbacher's. No company is 100% immune from a severe economic recession, but when you are in the business of selling consumer essentials, the advantages appear in many subtle ways. For instance, ConAgra did not have to go on some dilutive equity raise when the credit crisis hit due to being over levered. In fact, weighted average shares are down by 1% year over year. That's not a major milestone, but it's meaningful when you look at the stock issuance that went on in other industries.

Going Home To Roost

A solid quarter, along with expectations for a solid year, could be the beginning of a very respectable period of years for these corporate giants. With valuations like 12 times forward earnings and a 3.6% yield to go along with it, there's ample room for share price appreciation. (For more, see The Value Investor's Handbook.)

ConAgra's Feeding Frenzy

 

[code1211]

I've read some articles, similar to the one linked, that say we may be in for a food crisis because of the fedgov's intervention into the pricing of produce, and also because of low crop yields. In the interest of being prudent, I've began to stock up on items I normally use. Even if a food shortage doesn't happen, at least I can have an abundance of products at today's prices instead of at inflated prices that I KNOW will be coming. How do you feel about this?

2010 Food Crisis for Dummies « The Global Realm

The only recent food crisis we have suffered was when the enlightened decided to save us from the Oil Cartel and started turning our food into gasoline. Gas efficiency drops, prices of everything from tortillas to Mountain Dew increase, the splash and dash laws allow the US to subsidize the price of gas sold in Europe and the Lagislators from the Corm Belt States get rich on the contributions from the Ethanol folks.

Yet another disaster sponsored by the know nothings in DC.

I hope I don't get sick after the Washington elite are in charge of healthcare. Very shortly, their stupidity really will be the death of me.

 

[jakerobinson]

I find it amusing that some folks on here think there is 'nothing' to worry about...

if you do watch commodities you would notice there are fundamental reasons why some crops are going to be scarce... many farmers will change crops when they no longer can make a profit growing something like rice - very plentiful now but will become more scarce as farmers choose not to plant... the price of that commodity will rise...

there are several ag commods that are in this situation...

With all the 'stimulus money' being borrowed and spent on do-nothin projects that do not stimulate anything but voter payoff's and coming inflation, once the velocity of the money paid to banks 'too big to fail' eventually enters the system... you will see the price of food go up...

that's the price of food there is no a shortage of...

price of oil per barrel is on the way back up... and projected to rise to heights that also impact the price of food: the price of distribution...

Then add Gov't meddling like what happened in California where millions of pound of food rotted in the fields as the water was 'turned off' to save some minnows that are all dead by now (thank God for reproduction). This area of prime farmland is now barren and thousands of families are now bankrupt and scrambling to survive... This can continue to become a common occurrence... especially when congress is trying to expand it's powers to take over ALL WATER in the US... more regulation, more restrictions, more stupid miniature animals to save... more crops that won't be planted: - Congress Moves To Control All U.S. WaterNWV News - Congress Moves To Control All U.S. Water (add www) newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news167.htm

Then throw in our very, very fragile 'JUST-IN-TIME' distribution chain...
(add www) globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hsc-scen-3_pandemic-food-1.htm

from the article: "The difference between
civilization and anarchy is
three days without food."

why should your local grocer carry any more food than needs to be stocked on the shelf? They keep their inventory low - normally 3-5 days for very popular items and maybe up to 30 days for semipershible not as popular items...

it takes a very sophiscticated computer software program and fine-tuned distribution system to track 30,000+ items to make sure perishable items can be at the store when shoppers will buy them before they perish...

What happens when there is a serious power outage? Natural or manmade?

What happens when oil goes to $150 to $200/bbl?

What happens when a pandemic hits in an Asian nation during rice harvest? What if the crop can't be harvested? What impact will this have?

If Terrorists decide to target the vernabilities of our JIT distribution a 'food shortage' could be manifested - even when food is available perishing somehwere..

What happens if drought in one area, floods in another impact planting, growing or harvesting? What if multiple issues came together in a perfect storm?

I for one would rather be safe than sorry...

you guys thinking that global warming is a bigger threat or that this could never happen here - please know that I will protect my property with firearms...

sound kooky?

No worries, it will never happen, right? Since it won't then you wouldn't have any cause to come calling, right? So being prepared is of no threat to anyone...

cheers,

 

[Barb]

The only way I envision America having a problem with getting food is if the gubmint declares a need for "universal food".

Do you believe that life is an inalienable right?

 

[Barb]

If people need food to live, and they do, and life is a human right, and it is, then the right to food, the means to live, is also a human right.

Food is a life giving substance, not just another commodity. Treating food as if it was not special and deserving of special rules governing its production and trade has not lead to more just or safer world. World Hunger Notes -- The right to food 1998-2008: a casualty of the war on terror by Thomas J. Marchione

If everything has a price, and no one is entitled to the most basic of needs simply on ethical grounds, instability in markets have the potential to make famine a method of genocide. Is that an inappropriate phrase? There is a certain requirement for violence in the definition. However, it is hard not to connect the idea of exporting food while local people starve to death as anything less than an act of violence.



Daly, H. and Farley, J. (2004) Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications Island Press, Washington DC, US

 

[The Rabbi]

If people need food to live, and they do, and life is a human right, and it is, then the right to food, the means to live, is also a human right.

Food is a life giving substance, not just another commodity. Treating food as if it was not special and deserving of special rules governing its production and trade has not lead to more just or safer world. World Hunger Notes -- The right to food 1998-2008: a casualty of the war on terror by Thomas J. Marchione

If everything has a price, and no one is entitled to the most basic of needs simply on ethical grounds, instability in markets have the potential to make famine a method of genocide. Is that an inappropriate phrase? There is a certain requirement for violence in the definition. However, it is hard not to connect the idea of exporting food while local people starve to death as anything less than an act of violence.



Daly, H. and Farley, J. (2004) Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications Island Press, Washington DC, US

Wow, real Leftist clap trap.
No, there is no "right" to food. No one has a right to food. The gov't may, and has, decided to make basic foodstuffs a privilege and does so under WIC and foodstamps.

This thread will be a good litmus test for sanity. Those who think we're going to have a shortage of food in the most over-fed society in history will reveal themselves as shallow thinkers at best, total whack jobs more likely.

 

[Barb]

If people need food to live, and they do, and life is a human right, and it is, then the right to food, the means to live, is also a human right.

Food is a life giving substance, not just another commodity. Treating food as if it was not special and deserving of special rules governing its production and trade has not lead to more just or safer world. World Hunger Notes -- The right to food 1998-2008: a casualty of the war on terror by Thomas J. Marchione

If everything has a price, and no one is entitled to the most basic of needs simply on ethical grounds, instability in markets have the potential to make famine a method of genocide. Is that an inappropriate phrase? There is a certain requirement for violence in the definition. However, it is hard not to connect the idea of exporting food while local people starve to death as anything less than an act of violence.



Daly, H. and Farley, J. (2004) Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications Island Press, Washington DC, US

Wow, real Leftist clap trap.
No, there is no "right" to food. No one has a right to food. The gov't may, and has, decided to make basic foodstuffs a privilege and does so under WIC and foodstamps.

This thread will be a good litmus test for sanity. Those who think we're going to have a shortage of food in the most over-fed society in history will reveal themselves as shallow thinkers at best, total whack jobs more likely.

So you do not consider life to be an inalienable right. I'm not surprised.

 

[Samson]

Oh My Freakin' Gawd!!!

Poor, Poor Americans, won't be able to gorge themselves on 4,000 calories a DAY!!!

Yeah, I'm worried.

 

[jakerobinson]

Rabbi,
then you are not a critical thinker... I, am a conservative... and I believe there can be a food shortage... not because food is necessarily scarce but for many reasons I have already laid out in my original post...

Barb,
no, food is not a right... A right is God-given - you are born with your rights - no gov't can 'issue rights' - they can only take them away or choose to recognize that you already have them...

if you have to 'take' something (in this case money or food) from one citizen to make sure another can have it - then you are 'depriving' the first to benefit the second... How can this be a right if a person is deprived of 'his property' he earned with his own labor? The bounty of your own labor is your own property and it is your right to own that property - if it happens to be money you earn to buy 4,000 calorie meals (Samson) or if it is the food you grew on your own land - no matter how the value of your labor is stored or converted it is no one elses right to take it from you...

Is this becoming clear?

Unless you choose to live in a communist country or unlucky to be relegated to such where 'to each according to his needs, from each according to their means" you can then claim your equal right to remain hungry since all food would be distributed equally... no matter how talented or hardworking you are...

and Rabbi, how is it in the most overfed society in history do we still have folks who do go hungry? But again, please feel free not to prepare, save, store or otherwise hoard up food based on your belief - that leaves it easier and temporarily cheaper for me to prepare...

 

[Oddball]

I've read some articles, similar to the one linked, that say we may be in for a food crisis because of the fedgov's intervention into the pricing of produce, and also because of low crop yields. In the interest of being prudent, I've began to stock up on items I normally use. Even if a food shortage doesn't happen, at least I can have an abundance of products at today's prices instead of at inflated prices that I KNOW will be coming. How do you feel about this?

2010 Food Crisis for Dummies « The Global Realm

The only recent food crisis we have suffered was when the enlightened decided to save us from the Oil Cartel and started turning our food into gasoline. Gas efficiency drops, prices of everything from tortillas to Mountain Dew increase, the splash and dash laws allow the US to subsidize the price of gas sold in Europe and the Lagislators from the Corm Belt States get rich on the contributions from the Ethanol folks.

Yet another disaster sponsored by the know nothings in DC.

I hope I don't get sick after the Washington elite are in charge of healthcare. Very shortly, their stupidity really will be the death of me.

Food was in mighty short supply in Soviet Russia, where it was pretty much treated as a "right", as well.

 

[jakerobinson]

Dude,
very succinct and def proves the point...

 

[The Rabbi]

If people need food to live, and they do, and life is a human right, and it is, then the right to food, the means to live, is also a human right.



If everything has a price, and no one is entitled to the most basic of needs simply on ethical grounds, instability in markets have the potential to make famine a method of genocide. Is that an inappropriate phrase? There is a certain requirement for violence in the definition. However, it is hard not to connect the idea of exporting food while local people starve to death as anything less than an act of violence.



Daly, H. and Farley, J. (2004) Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications Island Press, Washington DC, US

Wow, real Leftist clap trap.
No, there is no "right" to food. No one has a right to food. The gov't may, and has, decided to make basic foodstuffs a privilege and does so under WIC and foodstamps.

This thread will be a good litmus test for sanity. Those who think we're going to have a shortage of food in the most over-fed society in history will reveal themselves as shallow thinkers at best, total whack jobs more likely.

So you do not consider life to be an inalienable right. I'm not surprised.

I consider stupidity to be an inalienable right. You've just exercised yours.

 

[code1211]

I've read some articles, similar to the one linked, that say we may be in for a food crisis because of the fedgov's intervention into the pricing of produce, and also because of low crop yields. In the interest of being prudent, I've began to stock up on items I normally use. Even if a food shortage doesn't happen, at least I can have an abundance of products at today's prices instead of at inflated prices that I KNOW will be coming. How do you feel about this?

2010 Food Crisis for Dummies « The Global Realm

The only recent food crisis we have suffered was when the enlightened decided to save us from the Oil Cartel and started turning our food into gasoline. Gas efficiency drops, prices of everything from tortillas to Mountain Dew increase, the splash and dash laws allow the US to subsidize the price of gas sold in Europe and the Lagislators from the Corm Belt States get rich on the contributions from the Ethanol folks.

Yet another disaster sponsored by the know nothings in DC.

I hope I don't get sick after the Washington elite are in charge of healthcare. Very shortly, their stupidity really will be the death of me.

Food was in mighty short supply in Soviet Russia, where it was pretty much treated as a "right", as well.

When anything is a right, it is provided as a minimum. Does everyone have a right to the best food? Are we talking Lobster with Drawn butter? Filet mignon? Are we even talking Big Macs?

Probably no.

Bread and water, recipe defined and cost dictated prison food or school lunches? Probably so.

Kind of makes one wonder about the "menu" for Universal Health Care. What might be the medical equivilant of "Ketchup is a vegetable"?

 

[Annie]

I've read some articles, similar to the one linked, that say we may be in for a food crisis because of the fedgov's intervention into the pricing of produce, and also because of low crop yields. In the interest of being prudent, I've began to stock up on items I normally use. Even if a food shortage doesn't happen, at least I can have an abundance of products at today's prices instead of at inflated prices that I KNOW will be coming. How do you feel about this?

2010 Food Crisis for Dummies « The Global Realm

The only recent food crisis we have suffered was when the enlightened decided to save us from the Oil Cartel and started turning our food into gasoline. Gas efficiency drops, prices of everything from tortillas to Mountain Dew increase, the splash and dash laws allow the US to subsidize the price of gas sold in Europe and the Lagislators from the Corm Belt States get rich on the contributions from the Ethanol folks.

Yet another disaster sponsored by the know nothings in DC.

I hope I don't get sick after the Washington elite are in charge of healthcare. Very shortly, their stupidity really will be the death of me.

Food was in mighty short supply in Soviet Russia, where it was pretty much treated as a "right", as well.

Pretty much how 'health care' as a right will be treated if Obama gets his way.

 

[Paulie]

You first have to ask yourself what, in America, does the average person consider to be a food "shortage"...

McDonalds has to erase a couple items off the menu?

Or bread is no longer available?

My guess would be that most would think the former is reason enough to panic.

I think we're going to be fine. That said, there's no reason to find it kooky that there are those who feel a need to stock up on necessities.

If for no other reason, inflation is a damn good one.