WALL STREET JOURNAL : Time to stockpile FOOD !

I think Al Gore is starting to make sense now. It really is an inconvenient truth. Global warming threatened the agriculture industry world wide. In rice producing countries like Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand harvest decreased dramatically. This is also the same scene in a lot of countries which economies are reliant on agriculture. Water sources are drying up because of the hot temperature. It is now harder to water their crops. Add this to the dwindling numbers of fish caught from the ocean. Extreme heat bleached the corals because of the oiling temperature caused by global warming. So it does make sense. It is true that food supplies are diminishing but then again stockpiling them is not a good thing to do. It would only inflate the price of food. It really is back to basics. The law of supply and demand would really kick in if people start stockpiling food.

his is totally insane. Are they talking famine here? Here in the US? How in the world can you even stock pile when you live on a budget of only some much per week to begin with. I agree with Sedel, who is spot on as you said. The alarmists are sounding the bell, and it is hard to make out truth in any thing you read anymore. To tell you the truth RedD it scares me.

Red, We may stockpile food but as you know, food has an expired date. For how long can we stockpile food? I am very concerned about the current economy, red. Sometimes, I wonder... are we going to be near the end of time as mentioned in the chapter of Revelation in Bible?

What's up? Demand is up and supply is down. Ethanol production is a major factor both here and in most other countries as ill-advised environmental agendas are being implemented at the cost of cropland. Food and fuel production are now in direct competition, and food is being considered less important than fuel. Add to that the increasing world population and as well as an increasing number of people who can afford better quality food and the strain becomes apparent in the form of rising prices. We are in the beginning of a major economic slowdown because of pending global warming legislation and treaties, pending Global Anti-Poverty Treaties, food loss in favor of renewable fuel, and a whole lot of other bad ideas that the government is about try in the next big social engineering experiment. I notice that the economic slowdown is not limited to the US.... it seems to be worldwide. The sad thing is that most of the coming problems could have been avoided with simple common sense handling of a bunch of no-nothing fear mongers and special interest groups who are set to make a lot of money at our expense ... such as a long stretch in prison as a minimum good start. Another good start would be immediate and total withdrawal from the UN and the world government ambitions, and the attendant man made global warming hysteria that the UN is responsible for. End ethanol subsidies and production immediately and food prices would begin to recede a bit as more food entered the system. What's up is we are all getting screwed by some long term ill-advised policies that should have been abandoned long ago.

Been seeing stories like this all month. I have to admit it has its points. Food prices are up due to multiple factors, and you have economists and world authorities claiming this will remain until next decade. Hmm, article you linked says it could accelerate... that fits some of the claims and projections I've been seeing. Could be a fear tactic on their part, but its still a possibility worth considering. All over the world the prices are really hitting home (though they've been hitting certain parts of the world for years without a care from anyone). Its production and delivery costs have increased substantially too for notable reasons: rising oil/energy, ethanol switching. I already keep some foods in stock. Nothing grandiose but just in case.

hello rybd, we should do that long ago. and stocking food, wisely, is a good thing. it means, you are conserving anything conservable and being practical, too.. don't hoard, digerati

When I read this "The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food." All I could think was if we would demand better products and stop outsourcing our jobs, we wouldn't have this problem. Yes, I know that is very very wrong.

Stockpilling food would only raise prices. I have an idea why Wall Street Journal might say something like this. If we all went out today and bought as much food as humanly possible, it would quickly raise profits for companies. Of course the down side is hugh, but for the short term it would help the economy. The hope would be it might jump start the economy, through spending.

I've heard the same. Personally I just get excited to be able to get this weeks groceries let alone stockpile for longer! LOL I feed 5 teenagers at this point so stockpiling is rather a far fetched idea for me!

I dont think this was written to be a doomsday report, or anything like it. It is a financial newspaper, and they are offering advice. Rather than putting that little bit in a savings account earning very little - buy food and save more. I have read similar articles about paying off the 15% interst loan rather than saving at 2% interst -- you save 13% interest. It is just financial advice.

Sounds a lot like Y2K. Different, but still a similar idea. I don't think stockpiling is a good idea for the economy. One main cause of recession is a slow in the flow of money (people reducing their spending) and that's how you get a cyclical problem. People hear that the economy is going down, they slow their spending and therefore cause the economy to slow much faster than it was. Instead, if people chose not to react it probably wouldn't be so bad, because when you think about it, if you don't spend, the clerk can't get paid, so he/she can't spend and the cycle goes on.