Bare Grocery Shelves Coming To A Store Near You

Today's News

24/7 Wall St. - Companies Hit Hardest By Credit Crisis
by Douglas A. McIntyre
October 2, 2008
Safeway store front

Oct. 2 (24/7 Wall St.) -- Safeway (SWY) is one of the largest food retailers. As the AP pointed out, Safeway and its peers are struggling with changing shopping habits and how to price goods. Agriculture-based products are up, but that does not mean they can be passed to consumers. The profit margins at the company are already tiny. Last year, it made only $451 million on over $10.1 billion in sales. As of the last quarter, the firm had $4.6 billion in debt and $326 million in cash. There is some risk that Safeway will not be able to stock all the produce and products that it does today. Read the entire article.
WSBT Ch.2 News - Farmers Could Be New Victims Of Economic Crisis
by Troy Kehoe
October 6, 2008
Farm machinery planting crop.

Oct. 6 (St. Joseph County, Indiana) -- It was another wild ride on Wall Street to open the week, as the nation's credit crisis continues. Now there are new signs that the American farmer may be hit next.

Despair about a weakening global economy continued to sweep across Wall Street and around the globe. Investors worldwide have been selling off stocks, and experts say it's because they realize financial systems in the United States and other countries need more than a government bailout to turn things around.

Meanwhile, the nation's credit markets remain stagnant; a sure sign that banks are still too afraid to lend. Read the entire article.
Bloomberg - Iceland Running Out of Food
by Chad Thomas
October 13, 2008
Shoppers use the check-out at a supermarket in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports.

"We have had crazy days for a week now," said Johannes Smari Oluffsson, manager of the Bonus discount grocery store in Reykjavik's main shopping center. "Sales have doubled."

Bonus, a nationwide chain, has stock at its warehouse for about two weeks. After that, the shelves will start emptying unless it can get access to foreign currency, the 22-year-old manager said, standing in a walk-in fridge filled with meat products, among the few goods on sale produced locally.

Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed and the government abandoned an attempt to peg the exchange rate. Many banks won't trade the krona and suppliers from abroad are demanding payment in advance. The government has asked banks to prioritize foreign currency transactions for essentials such as food, drugs and oil. Read the entire article.


eFoodsDirect Commentary:
Steve Shenk photo

This is Steve Shenk, JMS efoodsdirect.com.

The big news these days is about our collapsing financial system. Each day brings another falling domino. Another bank is throwing in the towel. Some are allowed to collapse while most have been "bailed out" or bought out with the future earnings of our great, great, grand-children.

The pundits are all speculating what this will mean to investors and the stock market while some even point fingers at the bankers and our debt based system as being responsible.

The question that remains unasked, or perhaps is even purposely ignored in order to prevent wide-spread panic, is; "How will this global financial meltdown affect our food?"

You need look no further for the answer than your neighborhood grocery store. The now government owned banks are refusing to loan grocery stores enough money to restock their shelves. The stores will have fewer choices and will be forced to jack up prices to stay in business. Get ready for the bare market shelves and breadlines of the late Soviet Union.

Farmers too, are being rejected for the loans they need to harvest and plant crops. This short sighted practice promises to exacerbate the problems that we will be facing in the coming months and years.

Our elected representatives wanted a "good 'ol boy" bailout for the special interests, so they ignored your screams not to do it. They turned off their telephones and email, then voted to print $850 billion dollars out of thin air. This money now owns the American and European banks.

The exploding inflation that WILL result from these "bail-outs" will slash your life savings to nothing and blast the cost of necessities, particularly food, beyond your reach.

In pre-Nazi Germany’s super-inflation, the cost of a loaf of bread doubled every two days until it reached over 4 Billion Marks. Food prices are skyrocketing so fast that gold and silver are losing value to food. Super-inflation is about to show its ugly face worldwide.

During the "Great Depression", after the 1929 stock market crash, there was tremendous hardship, unemployment and, millions of Americans actually starved to death.

As more and more families became destitute, parents, who could no longer feed their children, would desperately search for relatives, acquaintances and ultimately even total strangers who could feed them and were willing to take them into their homes.

The parents, of course hoped and told themselves that the children would be okay. Unfortunately, in many cases the children were treated like unpaid servants required to do whatever was demanded of them and be thankful that they were allowed to have food and a place to stay.

During those years, over 80% of the population was closely tied to small family farms, so most of the people could actually get food. Food was available though many had no money to buy it.

Going into our present depression, less than one half of 1% of our population is connected to farming. Further, we are in the third year of a global famine. America will soon see food shortages, even for those who still have money. Credit markets are frozen so solid that grocery stores can't get credit to restock their shelves and farmers can't get the loans needed to plant and harvest crops. America is well on track for runaway inflation where $100 loaves of bread will not be unrealistic.

Before inflation hits and while there is still food, every one of us must get the supplies that we need immediately.

Note from Steve: For years people who bought bulk food were thinking about preparing for an uncertain future. Today, is that future. Those who understand what's happening are accumulating every bit of bulk food they can get because, for many, food is already unaffordable and there will soon be no food available, at any price.


SITREP - October 15, 2008

RED ALERT: The RED Level Alert is for food in general. Get all you can, as fast as you can!

Action: Go to eFoodsDirect.com and read the current news articles until you have convinced yourself that you must act immediately.

Tell everyone you care about to sign-up for this SITREP (Situation Report) so that they too can stay a step ahead of the rapidly deteriorating situation.

[shokdee]

Nice summary, thanks. This is one of the main reasons I decided to move to Thailand - there is food everywhere (not even thinking of rice, but edible plants of all descriptions). You can forge along any roadside and find enough to feed a family. No one will ever starve to death in Thailand.

Interesting thing too going on with soft commodities. Last year there were huge problems with wheat harvests all over the world, mainly due to fungal infections (wheat rust, I think it's called) and droughts/floods. Prices soared, as did the price of rice. Why just a few months ago the media headline was GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS. Now, farmers are claiming record harvests and wheat prices have dropped so low farmers reckon they won't be able to make a profit. Very strange!

I've noticed this as well, here in Tesco's in the UK..

Big gaps on the food shelves..BUT..huge amounts of XMAS tat!

Planted the cherry tomatoes today plus other things in pots up on the deck where the dogs can't get them. Some vegies can be easy to grow.

[Knightbk]

I am not too worried about this becoming a reality.

That isn't to say that I am not prepared incase, but I think the potential for us to see empty food shelves is very low.