Do you believe food shortages are coming? (1 Viewer)

It depends on how you define specialty. I mean, it's not as simple as apples, corn, wheat, even bread. it requires cows milk to be processed to be more digestible, then added oils, minerals, etc. Some use soy, some are hydrolyzed proteins, then can be ready to go, concentrated, or powdered. So, there is some significant processing that goes into baby formula. That's what I meant by specialty. it's more manufactured than harvested. Just like wet cat food isn't all that special, but it comes in Aluminum cans, and that was in short supply for a month or so. Baby formula is more complicated than milk.

20% is substantial, but as I said, we also export a much more significant portion of our food supply. We do so, because some things are cheaper for us to import. However, we are one of a handful of countries that are considered to have food stability. meaning, we don't need food from outside countries to survive. We can make enough on our own. Russia, Canada, I think Mexico, and a few others are similar. As I and others have said, we use a lot of corn towards ethanol, we'd just stop that. There is plenty of food here.

And I did say we'd see price increases. Just not overall food shortages. Again, where is the OP going with this? Global food issues, or US food shortages? Is the expectation that we should all raise our own chickens and have urban farms? Should be go full "prepper" and have a 500 gallon tank of water in the garage, and a 50 day supply of MRE's?

I define specialty as something that's special. I don't think anything that is produced en masse that (under normal circumstances) I can find in supermarkets, pharmacies, 7-11's, gas stations, etc. is specialty.

Wet cat food has a lot of ingredients, each with its own supply chain. For example, the ingredients from Purina's One True Instinct (went straight to Purina's website, looked up wet cat food, and selected the first one I saw), none of which Purina grows/manufactures: Chicken liver, wheat gluten, salmon, pork lungs, natural flavors, potassium chloride, magnesium proteinate, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, corn oil, tricalcium phosphate, xanthan gum, taurine, carrageenan, choline Chloride, vitamins, vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B-1), niacin (vitamin B-3), calcium pantothenate (vitamin B-5), vitamin A supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (vitamin K), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B-6), riboflavin supplement (vitamin B-2), vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin (vitamin B-7), folic acid (vitamin B-9), vitamin D-3 supplement, salt.

There are many types of corn. The corn that is used for ethanol is not the same corn you get at the supermarket. Same with the corn that's used as animal feed. I guess we could eat it, but...
 
Aren't there currently food shortages? I think you mean "will I experience a food shortage?" Not only across the rest of the world but in our very own country people go to bed hungry.
 
No. The US supply will mostly be fine. Specialty items, like baby formula will be problematic here and there. Also, certain products, or things that need certain packaging may be an issue. It's hard for manufacturers to just switch packaging / containers.

We are pretty self-sufficient on food. We only import about 13 - 20% of our food supply. We also export a ton of food items, especially soybeans (which we probably won't eat a lot of). We also subsidize corn or use it for Ethanol, if we had a corn shortage, that would be the first thing to go.

To be honest, there is a lot of bull floating around crying wolf.
The truth. I'm a storeroom clerk at Keesler AFB. We still have shortages from time to time, but they are temporary. We
are pretty much up to 100% availabilty on all foods now.
 
I define specialty as something that's special. I don't think anything that is produced en masse that (under normal circumstances) I can find in supermarkets, pharmacies, 7-11's, gas stations, etc. is specialty.

Wet cat food has a lot of ingredients, each with its own supply chain. For example, the ingredients from Purina's One True Instinct (went straight to Purina's website, looked up wet cat food, and selected the first one I saw), none of which Purina grows/manufactures: Chicken liver, wheat gluten, salmon, pork lungs, natural flavors, potassium chloride, magnesium proteinate, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, corn oil, tricalcium phosphate, xanthan gum, taurine, carrageenan, choline Chloride, vitamins, vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B-1), niacin (vitamin B-3), calcium pantothenate (vitamin B-5), vitamin A supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (vitamin K), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B-6), riboflavin supplement (vitamin B-2), vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin (vitamin B-7), folic acid (vitamin B-9), vitamin D-3 supplement, salt.

There are many types of corn. The corn that is used for ethanol is not the same corn you get at the supermarket. Same with the corn that's used as animal feed. I guess we could eat it, but...
Then what word should I have chosen to make my point that certain items could be hard to get from time to time?

BTW, infant formulas ingredients are just as complicated.


Ingredients​

Nonfat Milk, Lactose, High Oleic Safflower Oil, Whey Protein Concentrate, Soy Oil, Coconut Oil. Less than 2% of: C. Cohnii Oil, M. Alpina Oil, Short-chain Fructooligosaccharides, Beta-Carotene, Lutein, Potassium Citrate, Calcium Carbonate, Ascorbic Acid, Soy Lecithin, Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Choline Bitartrate, Choline Chloride, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Salt, Taurine, Inositol, Zinc Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols, d-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Calcium Pantothenate, L-Carnitine, Vitamin A Palmitate, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Manganese Sulfate, Phylloquinone, Biotin, Sodium Selenate, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, Calcium Phosphate, Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Iodide, Potassium Hydroxide, and Nucleotides (Adenosine 5’-Monophosphate, Cytidine 5’-Monophosphate, Disodium Guanosine 5’-Monophosphate, Disodium Uridine 5’-Monophosphate). Contains milk and soy ingredients
 
 
Several ideas


Surprised none of y’all got a garden. It can solve many problems.
 
Please don't bring in politics here. You could have written that same idea in a very different way to make the same point.

The politics was the point of the post. It's the only reason the post was made in the first place. It's a pattern of attempting to hide political posts as innocent questions so there can be a political gotcha at the end.
 
Since this is tangentially becoming a baby formula thread…: (the answers to the rhetorical question are interesting as well



Except that claim is patently false. Off the top of my head I am pretty sure Nestle is the worlds largest.


ETA: quick google search of top 10 manufacturers of infant formula: only 2 of the top 10 are USA based

 
Except that claim is patently false. Off the top of my head I am pretty sure Nestle is the worlds largest.


ETA: quick google search of top 10 manufacturers of infant formula: only 2 of the top 10 are USA based


Americans can't buy formula made outside the US (well it's very difficult), so it doesn't matter what the largest manufactures in the world are... we can't get formula from them.

The original claim is true... the vast, vast, vast majority of all baby formula bought in the US comes from only 3 manufacturers.
 

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