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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Food Shortages?

We must have an underlying need to fear possible, impending catastrophe.

Remember Y2K? You couldn't pick up a paper, or hear a newscast, that didn't reference the unavoidable doom headed our way when computers would be unable to roll over to the new date. Civilization was going to come to a screeching halt as we plummeted into prehistoric times.

I clearly remember a conversation with a fellow church member who speculated about what to do when people showed up at his door, looking for food. Should he let them in, or defend his home, wife, and baby? Really. That's how concerned he was.

Now, between rising food and oil prices, it's happening all over again. Food riots in other parts of the world are making Americans fearful in the same way Y2K did. Stock up, we're told. We might need to be prepared for disaster.

While inflation is definitely rising, and prices are much more difficult to swallow--how did spaghetti sauce go from $1.89 a jar to $2.29 a jar in 3 months?--we need to put the brakes on this panic and take a deep breath.

Don't build room-sized pantries; don't buy a year's supply of rice; don't stockpile 3,000 cans of tuna fish.

It's going to be OK.

Repeat to yourself as needed.

1 comment:

MInTheGap said...

And now, the latest, is that there's a fertilizer shortage. The problem for me is that although I'm not one to worry (I was one of the ones that said Y2K was going to be nothing), I don't think it's impossible to have another Great Depression.

However, panic will only succeed in bringing the worst to pass-- it won't help the situation.