Rice? What rice? What price rice?

Rice is a staple food eaten all over the world. The top producers of rice are:

China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Brazil and Japan.

Of these countries, only Thailand and Vietnam export (send out of the country) any measurable amounts. The third largest exporter of rice is the United States and by the numbers, is not in the top ten producing countries.

China and India consume much of their production. The Philippines cannot produce enough to meet demand and must import a certain amount of rice annually.

Rice is inexpensive, nutritious and filling. It can be used a main dish and augmented with other foods such as meat and vegetables to create a healthy meal.

And now the problem.

Because of demand, weather and costs, rice has become difficult to buy. Check out this story from Costco's CEO. This is taking place in the U.S. Not some third world country, but here.

The demand for rice is outstripping the supply. As I said, there are many causes. A healthier economy in Asia. A colder than expected winter in China and Vietnam. Higher demand from third world nations. Even commodity speculation.

With so few countries exporting, then the other shoe drops. India announces that they are curtailing their exports to keep prices low at home. Thailand, which usually holds a large surplus, has found itself with a three month supply and multiple customers including oil-rich, cash in hand nations like Iran shopping for a dwindling supply.

Food, once considered a boring commodity, is now a hot resource, much like petroleum and precious metals.

How does this affect us?

Rice, like wheat, constitutes a large part of our preparedness stores. At our home, we regularly keep 100 to 400 pounds of rice on hand in storage buckets. I recently checked at our Costco and found no rice in stock at all, save for the 10 lb bags of basmati rice which is not a big favorite at our house.

Rice, which used to be cheap and could be counted on as an everyday and emergency food stock is now hard to obtain and more costly when available. This can seriously hurt our preparedness plans.

What can we do?

First, we are facing a demand problem and not necessarily a shortage. Rice is available, but it might be hard to find.

Second, the time to buy was last year, but the time to buy is also now before the shipments stop and there are no restocks.

A few suggestions;

- Purchase smaller bags (1, 2 and 5lb) from your grocer.
- Check big box retailers like Walmart. Often they have the big bags like Costco or Sams.
- Check with Asian and Middle Eastern retailers. I would buy 25 and 50 lb bags from the Asian market near our house anyway. Also check the Hispanic oriented supermarkets if they are in your town.
- Keep an eye out at Sams and Costco. Ask the manager when shipments may arrive. According to the news, new stock arrives daily.
- Buy in reason. There is no need to snatch every 50lb bag you see. Buy what you can afford and reasonably store.
- Store what you buy, eat what you store.
- Consider other grains which may be in stock.

A note.

There have been a number of news articles about food shortages and riots. So far, this has not happened in the U.S. yet and I don't see it happening for some time.

Also, there is plenty to eat (real long term storage food) in the markets. I have not seen the all edged shortages of flour, sugar, salt or yeast some are hysterically reporting nor have my retailers placed any limits on purchases.

Finally, the government has not issued a statement on the rice demand. When the government issues a statement like "please limit purchases" or worse, "we have implemented price controls and rationing", then you have a real problem on your hand.

That does not mean to say that you should not continue to store food. On the contrary, we prepare for all eventualities which includes short term shortages such as what we are experiencing in addition to more serious events.

How long could you last at home?

Here is a neat quiz you might want to try today.



With the food I have on hand, I could live for over 200 days in my home. Funny, they did not ask about water or the ability to make more fresh drinking water. No water, you no live.

Prepare! Ultimate Surburban Shelter

Check out this place!

Ultimate Home Shelter!

1600 Square Feet underneath a neat, suburban home located in Washington State. Yes, this whole place was built by hand over a TWENTY YEAR period. Incredible.

And it is for sale. Only 575K with creative financing available.

Before you run out and mortgage your home, life and internal organs, be aware of the following:

A - You want this house for a daily dwelling and survival location for bugging in.
B - The house has been at this location for several years so the neighbors know well about it and the shelter.
C - The current owners have publicized the heck out of the property so everyone else in the world now knows about it.
D - When the poop hits the fan, expect a mob run on your property and that mob knows where all five entrances are.

Prepare! Realistic defense post-SHTF

I read a great deal of survival, end of the world fiction. Most includes this type of scenario:

Ted carefully approached the now defeated raiders vehicle. Checking the bed of the pickup, Ted saw several pelican cases stacked haphazardly. Curious, Ted took the two largest and carefully opened them both. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the contents. Not one, but two fully operational Barrett BMG .50 caliber rifles with all the needed accessories...

If you read survival fiction, you would think that Barret .50 caliber rifles grew on trees. The protagonist is always finding one, or purchasing a couple for his retreat or whatever.

Realistically, unless you win the lottery or have an enormous sum of unallocated money, a Barret and most other high end firearms are out of your preparedness budget. Face it, while preparing for TEOTWAWKI, we also have to pay bills, buy clothes, food, etc. and a three thousand dollar rifle and five buck a pop ammunition is not going to happen.

Self defense and firearms are part of your complete preparedness planning. Keep your plan simple and arm accordingly. Experts generally recommend a few core pieces such as a pump shotgun, a center fire rifle and a revolver. Once obtained, along with an appropriate amount of ammunition, magazines and cleaning equipment, a rim fire rifle might also be useful to have in your basic armory.

Having the firearms is not enough. Ammunition is required and not a single box. Plan on a few hundred rounds minimum for monthly practice and another few thousand rounds for each weapon for use.

Next, practice, practice, practice is required. Regularly and with appropriate training and coaching. Select a range near home or work and visit often.

The defensive plan and strategy

Randy examined his work. He used the backhoe to dig a eight foot deep defensive moat around his forty acres. He filled the trench with a combination of claymores, napalm and pointed sticks. This was the first ring of defense. His three story retreat was made of impenetrable rock reinforced with rebar steel and featured another redoubt wall eight feet high with the top covered with concertina wire, high voltage strands and broken glass embedded along the flat surface. A dozen starving dobermans and rottweilers patrolled the inner wall twenty four by seven, yet Randy still slept with a Cold Steel fourteen inch fighting knife between his teeth and kept a loaded .45 tied to each hand...

Again, survival fiction. In the real post-apocalyptic world, you will be defending your suburban home, country retreat or possibly car or truck on some remote highway. Most likely, you will have a limited armory to choose from and a fixed number of people to assist in the defense.

Rather than invite a large scale attack, it is far better to maintain a "low profile" and to make your location as uninviting as possible.

For the suburban home, that would mean boarding up the windows and doors, hiding vehicles or leaving one out front on jacks, partial vandalized. A foreclosure sign on the front lawn and little activity could make your home appear abandoned and less of an opportunity for thieves and looters.

The rural home owner would close off the road to his retreat or hide the access road inbound with bushes and debris. Trips outside of the retreat would be done cross country, under the cover of darkness or in a round about, hard to follow pattern.

A round the clock guard, watching from higher ground nearby is necessary as is at least one other person watching the primary home from inside. Good communications are needed as well which can be as simple as a wired handset or a pair of walkie talkies.

Most important is to not attract attention to you or your home. Too many survivalists plan on making as much noise in the post-SHTF world as they would today. Don't plan on running loud generators or other equipment until you know full well that others with less than honorable intentions are not nearby.

Yes, in the fictional world, we all have military style weapons collections, dozens of trained helpers and a nearly impenetrable defensive location. In the real world, however, we have only ourselves, a few resources and our intelligence to protect ourselves and those around us.

Prepare! Friday useful survival links

Jerry D Young over on FalloutShelter653 has a new story posted. Jerry writes the better survivalist fiction out there. I read this sort of thing frequently and will feature regular reviews of good stories. See Jerry's story here.

How much food should you plan on storing for your family when the SHTF? I found a great food planner here courtesy of the LDS. After making my calculations, I realized I needed to stock up on a few things. Since running the calculator, I have picked up another 10 lbs of corn meal, 5 lbs of honey and always more rice. Check it out and don't forget about water!

Another neat blog to check out. Nice layout and good information.

Have a good weekend. Check your preps, check your vehicle and get ready.

Prepare! The Most Important Emergency Supplies To Buy Now

Go online to any of the survival themed forums.. TB2K, Frugals, etc. Check and see what the experts there have to say is the most important items to have on hand should a nuclear war break out, an asteroid strikes the earth, a mega earthquake or alien invasion should take place.

Guess what? None of them will agree. One survivalist will say proper firearms. The next will insist upon junk silver coins or cash. Another will say a preparedness retreat in the hills.

All of the above survivalist answers are wrong. The correct answer is food.



Try this. Go a day without eating. No, not breakfast, no coffee, no quick lunch, no sodas, no dinner, no dessert or snacks. Odds are you will either make it until 2 in the afternoon before you break down and go for that candy machine or you will feel so awful you will give up on the spot.



That is what hunger does to almost anyone. The adverse affects kick in quickly because our bodies are programmed to want three squares a day at regular intervals. When we fail to get food, our blood sugar begins to short circuit and the rest of our body begins to suffer.

Only after a few days will our body adjust and begin to deplete our bodies fat and muscle content for energy.

A starving individual, family or group will be unable to produce, to work or defend a home or retreat. So much for the firearms and gold bullion.




What makes food easy is that unlike weapons or precious metals, food is readily available to any survivalist at a reasonable price. The local grocery store contains enough products to fill a survival pantry several times over.

Finally, food is available now. Once the stores are cleaned out, those with the supply of food will be able to barter and trade for the other things they need.

So, stock up on food now. Get to the market and start with the basics. No not beef stew and tang. But component foods; flour, salt, sugar, honey, baking soda, powdered milk, yeast, and oil. All of these products store well for a long period of time and are very cheap.

The survivalist stocks food first and all other items (with the exception of water) come second.

Prepare! Who will survive the end of the world

The other day, I was talking with my good friend, open survivalist and curmudgeon, "Dan'l Boone". Between "Dan'l's" rambling about fiat currency, black helicopters and Trilateral Commission hijinks, "Dan'l" opinionated about who would not survive Doomsday.

"Them rich folks are going first, followed by the welfare rabble and then a bunch of them politicians. Finally, it'll be all them hippies, commies and gun grabbers."

"So who will be left?" I asked.

"Good folks like us and a bunch of Mutant Zombie Bikers (MZB), convicts and raiders. After all, we got to have someone to shoot, don't we?" Dan'l winked.

I hated to disagree with "Dan'l" but his was wishful thinking.

Let's think about some real end of the world situations. Whether you call it TEOTWAWKI, Doomsday, the Apocalypse or the end of the world, some will be the first to suffer.

Addicts - nope, not the stereotypical heroin addicts portrayed in movies and fiction, but the everyday addicts around us. Those people you live and work with today who are hooked on cigarettes, Diet Coke and prescription drugs.



Studies have shown the first things to go in a crisis are not generators and match grade .308 ammunition, but more common addiction products: Cigarettes, soda, beer, ice (to keep that beer cold) and junk food. Many in the "prepper" community suffer from these same addictions and for some reason or another, think they will have plenty of time to stock up on Marlboros and Bud before they get to the retreat. Further, they think everyone else will tolerate their addictions and subsequent withdrawl after things really go down the toilet.

Moderately disabled - These are the folks you know (and may be one of) who tools around in their scooter, has a kitchen counter covered with a half dozen prescription drugs, and wears a "fighter pilot mask" at bed time to counter the effects of sleep apnea. So many of the survivalist crowd suffers from one or more of these symptoms, but for some odd reason, thinks they will survive the end of the world just fine thank you very much.



(Somehow the idea of seeing some 50-year old, overweight guy in a scooter toting an AR-15 at the bug out retreat does not inspire too much confidence).

Everyday entitlement dependents - Nope, not he inner-city queen with 15 children, but the other government dependent you know all too well. These are the folks living off Social Security payments, disability checks and government pensions.



I don't know how many preppers I have met who are financially dependent upon the government to provide for their day to day living expenses and then believe that they will magically survive economic and societal collapse.

The less fit or out of shape crowd - This is the overweight, 50-year old guy with a full gun safe and closet of Mountain House #10 cans, but who gets winded walking to his truck in the morning.



This is the same person who thinks the MZB's will stand still while he huffs and puffs around his retreat plinking them off like old beer cans... This is the same guy who thinks everyone else will wait for him to catch up while they walk to the bug out retreat after a dirty bomb has detonated in the city... This the same guy who is the first to complain about how bad his feet and back hurt, how he pulled yet another muscle and needs to take it easy on the couch today...

Dump this turkey from your preparedness invite list now.

The picky eater - The post-apocalyptic menu calls for rice, beans, gritty homemade bread, water and powdered milk. What is the picky, grown up eater suddenly going to do? Dig in with relish? I don't think so.



The picky eater is the middle aged person (perhaps you) who has to have meat three times a day. Needs crackers with their chili, white bread with butter at dinner and condiments on everything. This person complains if food is not prepared to his liking and mopes in the living room until his wife fixes his favorites just right.

If you know this person, remove them from your retreat list now. They will only serve to infuriate and bedevil you.

Afterwards, "Dan'l" looked at me like he was hurt and left the room muttering about needing to go inventory his preps or something. I hated to hurt his feelings, but I know Dan'l smokes, has high blood pressure and hates rice. (He has 321 cans of Spam, though). Oh well, perhaps he can find some MZB's who have an opening at their retreat.

Prepare! Preparing for the unprepared

Welcome to the 21st century! Will you survive?

Imagine a nationwide pandemic resulting in travel restrictions, quarantines, and funeral pyres. How about a Zimbabwe style economic meltdown which makes the Great Depression look like a bad day at the races? Or how about a handful of nukes going off in random cities across the U.S.?

Sounds depressing? O.K., so why bother? Only an idiot would prepare for some imaginary crisis the thought of which would be so unsettling who would want to survive?

Hurricane Katrina was not an imaginary crisis. Some people who were prepared, those that had food, water, gasoline, reliable transportation, etc. either

a) got out before the hurricane hit or
b) successfully rode out the flooding and subsequent looting.

Others waited for any outside help. Help for a scenario which had never been imagined or prepared for. And those people who waited, suffered.

We all saw the images on television. Stranded motorists lining up for fuel. No food or water. People gravely ill for lack of basic medication and sanitary facilities. Most of all we saw the local, state and federal government paralyzed and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis. The individual "crazies" who prepared were at home or safely somewhere else out of harm's way.

So what can one do? I don't have a fortune to buy an underground complex in the Idaho mountains, a five year supply of canned food, an arsenal of weapons and a stash of gold coins.

And most of you don't either. Most of us work in cities and live in populated suburbs. Our homes no longer have basements, water from our own well, a tended garden, or chickens in the front yard. In our zero-lot lined communities, we are lucky to have a backyard!

However, any one of us can purchase extra food at the supermarket down the street. Water comes clean and ready to drink from the kitchen tap. What is to stop you or anyone else from storing a few gallons in reusable containers? Why not purchase a camp stove or outdoor bar-b-q grill for emergency cooking? Most of the supplies needed for the unthinkable are readily available and affordable to 90% of the population.

Your Mission: Success!

My philosophy is this: I don't believe in survival, I believe in success. Survival is cold oatmeal and water from the water heater three times a day. Success is three balanced daily meals, a comfortable and secure shelter with running lights, fresh water and heat. Make your goal the ability to successfully ride out any scenario.

Survival scenarios run the gamut from the inconvenient to the dangerous.

1) Minor inconvenience, non life threatening - Power outages, blizzards, ice storms. In most cases the above are non emergency if you have the basic standbys - food, water, alternative heat and lighting, and communications.

2) Limited or regional catastrophe - earthquake, flood, hurricane, volcano. In this case, the immediate area is affected but the majority of the nation is unaffected; i.e. Hurricane Katrina - the rest of the U.S. was available for refuge and to bring in supplies.

3) Break down with long lasting repercussions - war, insurrection, invasion, economic collapse. Although the framework (utilities, security, purchase and exchange) may be functioning in some parts of the country, the majority of the nation is affected and suffering from systemic dysfunction.

Even with all of your planning, you most likely are not going to be ready for item 3 tomorrow. However, you can get a good start today on item 1 if you start now.

Prepare! So why do it?

1999.

The dreaded "Y2K" is looming. On that day, computers will freeze when code is unable to translate the date "00" (short for 2000). Banks, airlines, traffic controls, water plants, power stations, ATMs and every other computer enabled device and system will fail and our system will crash to its knees.

When you wake up on January 1, 2000, your TV, radio, CD player, VCR, and DVD player will be silent. Your car won't start. The water, electricity and gas are off or barely functioning. Your refrigerator is idle and your shelves are bare. The local grocery store is without power, but is still functioning. Of course, all of your neighbors are thinking the same thing and the store has been stripped clean. Those with running cars have drained the local gas station of any available fuel.

The bank is closed and the ATM is down, you can't even get cash to buy black market goods. And those credit cards - useless plastic. The government is paralyzed. Law enforcement is stuck with non-running cars and no communications system. Panic and lawlessness quickly takes over the city streets. Your family is hungry, scared and cold and there is nothing you can do about it.

2008.

Thankfully, this never happened. January 1, 2000 was just another New Year's Day.

But what if you were one of the millions who worried and prepared for the worse? You sold your stocks in the fall of 1999. You converted your savings to cash and gold coins. You stockpiled food and other essentials. You planted a garden and stored propane and gasoline. You simplified your life in preparation of a future world without modern conveniences.

Were you a sucker and a fool for falling for the greatest non-event of the century?

Maybe. But consider the following.

You sold your stocks and other over-hyped investments.
In 2000-2002, the stock market plummeted. You may have very well preserved your principal while others lost their shirts.

You invested in gold.
Dumb. Not really. Gold has soared almost 200.00 an ounce since 1999. Compared to most stocks, this was a very prudent investment.

You simplified your life and stockpiled essentials.
Over reaction? Maybe not if you were one of the millions who lost their jobs in the following years due to the recession and the after shocks of 911. You were better prepared others for daily life with reduced income and job insecurity.

So what do we do now? Y2K is over, as Alfred E. Newman says, "What? Me worry?".

There is plenty to worry about. Avian flu, bio terrorism, dirty bombs, Iran, hurricane Katrina level weather events, economic meltdown and the list goes on and on. You can do nothing and wait for help to arrive or you can began working on your own to not only survive possible emergencies - but succeed.