Spelt, Wheat and Food Storage

Would you like to know a really interesting fact? Let me tell a story to illustrate it.

Once upon a time in the future, we had a major world food crisis. War was going on, and life was not pretty. We needed food to survive and could not grow it ourselves. So? We took the world wheat supply and rationed it out to everyone. (Those who had wheat allergies could share their ration with whomever they chose.) You only got a little over 2 pounds of wheat. WHAT??!?!?! TWO POUNDS!!?!?! How are you going to live on 2 pounds? The world wheat reserves are not what they should be, they won’t last us very long if we each had to live on just over 2 pounds of wheat. How do you feel about that?

I just read a news brief from a few days ago saying that we should have a larger wheat crop this year than last year, but don’t expect prices to drop too much. Prices will be moderated, probably. The article suggests that prices will  not collapse. That is good because costs of production has increased a lot. And a lot of countries most likely will be wanting to develop more of a strategic reserve than what they have, so should be considerable buying from them - particularly if prices moderate.

What is the moral of the story? Don’t count on your government to bail you out - they do not have the food reserves. Maybe you want to become better friends with neighbors and divide the food storage responsibilities. (I’ll get the grain, you get the fats, someone else get the…. and so on.) Or if you are able, get your food storage ready - you never know when you are going to need it.

Do you realize that corn is not the major reason why there are wheat shortages? Do you know what the real reason is? (Remember, we grow and farm wheat. We keep up with the markets and the real agriculture news. Not just what major news stations want you to focus on.)
So, if it isn’t ethanol and corn, what is it? Are you getting anxious? Did I stall enough for you to get excited? The main reason wheat is in short supply is because of crop failure. Have you heard about the diseases afflicting wheat throughout the world? How about the droughts in the mid-west (part of Texas) or the flooding in other parts of the mid-west? Major droughts and major flooding - especially at critical growth moments - create crop failure. Either the wheat doesn’t produce a bountiful crop or it is just destroyed altogether.
It is not ethanol.

Oh - and just because wheat is in short supply, I am not recommending that you go out and stock pile it and hoard it in your storage area. Don’t make a made dash and buy out all the wheat or flour you can find. However, I do recommend that you should get some that you will use and maybe a little extra for food storage - especially if you have none. That way you will have some to use and add to your building food storage rotation.