A post at Crucis’ Court this morning mentioned a report that FEMA had just ordered a billion dollars’ worth of dehydrated meals, disrupting normal supplies of these foods. This made me wonder, as I hadn’t read any reports of this in the mainstream media, who normally cover FEMA affairs fairly thoroughly; so I decided to read further.
Crucis’ post linked to an article at Examiner.com, which in turn linked to an article in the Beaufort Observer, which linked to an article at Forbes.com from October last year, and another article dated February 15 from Yahoo! news. Both the latter articles appeared to support the Beaufort Observer article’s contention that a food crisis might – might – be imminent.
In response, a Beaufort Observer reader responded with the claim about FEMA’s billion-dollar purchase of dehydrated meals. She alleged it had been reported in “Off The Grid News Letter” – but I haven’t been able to find that specific report on the Web, despite coming across any number of “Off The Grid” Web sites, newsletters and groups. However, a Web search revealed that the same rumor of massive government purchases of dehydrated meals was widespread.
Curious, I went to the Web sites of a number of manufacturers and vendors of freeze-dried and dehydrated meals, and found no shortage of supply. However, I did find this notice on the home page of the Mountain House Web site (bold print is my emphasis):
As you know we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily. The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment, but we must maintain capacity for our other market segments as well.
Currently we are able to meet demand for Mountain House pouches and most of these products are still available for purchase on our website. We do have a small number of dealers that we will continue to make and ship #10 cans to and you will need to contact them directly to place an order. For a list of dealers, please contact us at MH-Info@ofd.com
We want to clarify inaccurate information that is being said on the internet, news and radio. This situation is not due to sales to the government domestically or internationally. We do sell products to this market, but we also sell other market segments, including Ingredient and Private Brand markets. The reason for this decision is solely due to an unexpected sales spike in #10 cans sales.
We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future.
So it looks like the reader’s response to the Beaufort Observer article was based on misinformation . . . but how many people have been led astray by that misinformation? Look at how many other sites on the Web are repeating it!
There are approximately three hundred million residents of the United States. If only one per cent of them (three million people) believe such reports, and decide to stock up on (say) a year’s supply of emergency rations, that’s three million years’ worth of individual rations being taken out of circulation – all at once. It may be more than that, if they decide to stock up for their families as well as themselves. What will that do to already low stockpiles of food? Do you think this might actually manufacture the very crisis that rumor-mongers are talking about? Can you say ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?
Please note that I’m not criticizing Crucis in the least for his blog post. I think it’s one of our functions as bloggers to highlight interesting news that comes to our attention – matters that the mainstream media might not cover adequately. (Witness the current ATF scandal, which has been brought into the limelight almost exclusively through the efforts of two bloggers, the latter also a news correspondent.) It’s just that there’s so much ‘news’ out there that’s actually false, put out by people with a hidden agenda, that one has to be very, very careful about what one chooses to believe!
Peter
Peter, it is worth noting that FEMA has asked for bids on (senior moment – 160 million?) more than 100 million MRE's to be warehoused near the New Madrid Fault. The Fault is on a 200 year cycle, and it has been 200 years since the "Reelfoot" event sent church bells ringing in Boston.
And then a lot of us are stockpiling food, arms, and ammunition against TEOTAWKI. Something that given the current situation is certainly wise.
Regards
Stranger
My wife coordinates groups buys of emergency supplies for a church congregation. She regularly deals with about five sellers. A common theme is increased demand sparked by Glenn Beck touting the importance of emergency food. A secondary cause is decreased supply. One seller, for example, cannot get dent corn suitable to keep long term because the high price of corn is causing farmers to harvest before the corn has dried sufficiently on the stock. Government buys have never been mentioned in her talks with the companies.
You always have to be careful what you read on the internet. Even news articles can be misleading. I am always surprised how many times I have seen articles get discussed online and later see that critical details were left out of the original article or it was entirely one-sided.
Then there is always the tree octopus. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
MechAg94
"…and decide to stock up on (say) a year's supply of emergency rations, that's three million years' worth of individual rations being taken out of circulation – all at once."
Which is exactly what happened with guns and ammo when Obama became president. That started a cycle of gun and ammo purchases that is only recently returning to normal as people stocked up in preparation (of something!). Prices went sky high and certain ammo types were unbelievable rare.
…but if da gubberment did order that much food, they'd tell Mountain House to deny it, too. Proof!
Anyway, I hate freeze-dried food. I have a garden and a dehydrator for a reazon.
Add in folks who are planning for camping trips, scout outings et cetera thinking, "hmm, grocery prices are going up. Maybe I'd better get more freeze-dried/ tinned/ camping food before they raise the prices later this year." No need for a conspiracy. Plus we're getting towards storm and hurricane seasons, too.
LittleRed1
Peter, thanks for digging deeper than I. I was a bit rushed and only went down three levels of that report and all seemed to confirm the report.
I'll try to do better. Promise!