102

Food in the Time of Covid

Demeter

Friday the thirteenth. According to this morning’s headlines, the US annual inflation rate is only 6.5%. The “core” inflation rate (excluding the volatile food and energy sectors) is 5.7%.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the price of organic apple juice at the local Walmart was $2.29 for a half gallon until a couple of months ago. Now it’s $3.27 for that same half gallon. That’s an increase of 43%.

On January 14, 2022 I bought a 25 pound bag of California grown organic brown basmati rice for $68.09. Today that same bag of rice sells for $90.53. That’s an increase of 33%. Fortunately, a long grain organic brown rice grown in Missouri is available for less. At least until they divert the Mississippi River to California.

As prices have gone up, quality has gone down.

I buy organic when I can, so my experience may not be the norm. I buy potatoes at the local farmers’ market and I usually have some available in storage until around Christmas. Last year, in January when I started to buy potatoes at the supermarket, they were wrinkled, rubbery and had eyes. They could not have been from the 2021 harvest. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, there was not a single potato available around here for months. Someone had bought them all up. I figured the ones offered for sale in 2022 were the ones purchased in 2020 and hoarded for two years.

Last summer, one of the farmers at the market told us he was selling a lot of potatoes to local restaurants. The restaurant owners were telling him they were paying $50 for a 50 pound bag of potatoes from their conventional sources and half of them were rotten.

When I made my first trip to the store after the “two weeks to flatten the curve” lockdown announcement, the only thing available in the produce department was 5 pound bags of carrots. The other departments were similarly desolate. Frozen food took a very long time to recover. I can’t remember whether potatoes or toilet paper reappeared first.

Back to the issue of quality.

I buy dried fruit in the winter. Last year it was simply not available. This year I bought one bag that was “rehydrated”. The fruit was damp and sticky and not very satisfactory. Then I bought some that were not rehydrated. The fruit is very dry. Now I know why the first one was rehydrated. I’m guessing all this fruit was purchased by a hoarder after the 2021 harvest and released to us peons a year later.

My preferred apple juice is organic and unfiltered with no additives. There is a brand produced in my home state of Pennsylvania that I have bought for years. Last year, it was unavailable from early July until early December. When I was able to buy it, some of the bottles had started to ferment, even though it was pasteurized. I could not find an expiration date on the bottles. This juice could not have been from the 2021 apple harvest. This year that brand is not available at the store where I usually buy it. I would wish for Biden to release some like it from the Strategic Apple Juice Reserve, but probably he would only release fermented bottles.

The orchard that produces this apple juice is in the eastern half of the state near the Maryland border. It’s relatively convenient to DC. I speculate that the government is buying it up. It might be stored in the Continuity of Government complex which is rumored to be in (or under) Greenbrier County in West Virginia.

And finally, there’s honey. I buy mine locally. Although the price has gone up, the quality is still good. But with Biden at the helm I’m confident there will be mandatory “vaccination” of honeybees by the end of the year.

Because your unvaccinated honeybees cannot be allowed to endanger your neighbor’s vaccinated bees.

And then there’s the reason that will never be stated. If Covid vaccine uptake through the shots has fallen to disappointing levels, we’ll just have to put the vaccine in the food supply. And we can’t let any uncontaminated honey slip through to people.

When the rule goes into effect, I guess I’ll stop buying honey.

So what’s the food situation like in your part of the world?

Demeter once worked in medical research and market research. She now finds fulfillment as a conspiracy theorist.

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ken
ken
Jan 29, 2023 3:06 PM

Here in the Philippines the prices have gone up and the quality has plummeted.
One example;Onions – normal price up to 2020 was between 70 to 100 Pesos it is currently between 500 to 600 in the market and 750 in the supermarket and as I said the quality is terrible some are rotten inside and they are half the normal size. it’s so bad the government is stepping in and starting importation. But nobody know why Pinoy farmers aren’t supplying the markets as they always have done

John
John
Jan 25, 2023 2:23 PM

US-China Trade Agreement is near the heart of the Covid-19 scam, supply chain interruptions, reduced supply of domestically produced goods and associated price increases across the board. “Worldwide pandemic” is to provide cover, an excuse, for all this.

NickM
NickM
Jan 24, 2023 6:28 AM

Watch “Why do Western Media go Batty about China’s Food?”
Cyrus Jansenn probes the food angle of China Bashing agitprop: not only did China create Covid-19 by eating bat soup, China is also weak because it cannot feed its enormous population, China is a Digital Dictatorship because they use their smartphone to pay for a bowl of street food.

Nancy
Nancy
Jan 23, 2023 8:38 PM

When the pandemic began we formed a group (anti vaxx anti masks)… 50 lbs org ruseetts $100, still able to find basmati, beans and peas, org. Coffee, milk and yogurt (unpasteurized) and 3 lbs local honey $28. Fresh org breads too. All local here in Maine. Surrounded by honorable organic farmers, able to get fresh foods. Yes, prices crazy but I stopped worrying about that aspect. Just glad I’ve access and can still afford to eat fresh nutritious food.
P.s. Artisana for delicious nut butters. Ooh their tahini ! Mail order.

niko
niko
Jan 23, 2023 8:13 PM
niko
niko
Jan 23, 2023 5:50 PM

I think of those who don’t exist, hidden in plain sight long before now by official lies of the ruling class, untold masses living on the edge of death and destitution by design in this best of all possible worlds, starving or eating austerity for the sake of those feasting on human flesh

I think of them because I’m one of them, subject to survival insecurity that any day again the bottom may fall out and I’ll be worse off than ever, just shy of begging for crumbs on the street, before the police come and take me away into forgotten dungeons of ‘our’ advanced ‘civilization’.

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” (Dostoevsky) or anywhere else the poor are shoved, out of sight for all who remain hungry for compassion from being fed lies of progress and prosperity. “The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don’t listen to it, you will never know what justice is.” (Howard Zinn)

Poverty has been a plague upon humanity since our species staked out foundations for social relations on class rule. At the heart of the present is the need for a radical reset of “this filthy, rotten system” (Dorothy Day).

And I think of folks here, thankful for others who share understanding in these times of struggle

Hank
Hank
Jan 24, 2023 2:22 AM
Reply to  niko

Klaus Swab said something like that at this years Davos.

sandy
sandy
Jan 23, 2023 5:34 PM

To avoid the TG donation ad i found one has to click on “donate once”, then backout to the page one was on.

sandy
sandy
Jan 23, 2023 5:31 PM

Is The Guardian forcing donations now? I could not get rid of the half screen donation ad when searching the bee vaxx article. NYT, WaPo, SF Chronicle, and many others are blocking free access.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/honeybee-vaccine-first-approved

The corral doors are closing…

Crusader Rabbit
Crusader Rabbit
Jan 23, 2023 5:26 PM

Hello Demeter. Fellow Pennsylvanian here in Bucks County. Prices have certainly risen much more than the official statistics indicate. Odd, no? Inflation was happening before the virus though. Perhaps not with rising prices but with smaller containers for the same price. Like ice cream. Now, standard bags of flour seem to be four pounds instead of five. I’m surprised there are still 12 eggs in a dozen! (Maybe the new math will kick in yet.) Although I do remember paying $2.50 not too long ago and now eggs are $4.10 at the small farm down the road. Black sunflower seed was $28.25 for 40 pounds, now it’s $40. We try to buy from all the small farms and businesses locally, hopefully to keep them in business until the next global emergency, faked or not, hits.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 5:26 PM

Eggs up 60% (since summer), when you can get them. Currently $5.39 for extra large. They were 99 cents for Jumbo 3 years ago. Regular suppliers don’t have them. Larger more distant suppliers are limiting shipment sizes to accommodate more customers. Eggs sell out in a few days because the shipments are smaller. Delivery dates are not regular making it hit or miss unless you know the grocer who will call when they expect some to come in. Currently out of eggs because of the shortage (Not tight enough with the grocer…..). Liquor prices are about the same and in good supply, however. Must be where the fresh potatoes are going………..

DavidF
DavidF
Jan 23, 2023 6:24 PM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

You can’t manufacture a fake egg so they can only fuck with the supply and liquor/alcohol is taxed so they ain’t gonna fuck with that.

Seansaighdeor
Seansaighdeor
Jan 23, 2023 4:45 PM

‘Meanwhile, in the real world, the price of organic apple juice at the local Walmart was $2.29 for a half gallon…’ – I take it I’m the only one who sees the irony in that statement?

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 4:32 PM

Gut wrenching laughter just pulled my attention completely away…….nice one!

At least until they divert the Mississippi River to California.

One giant aqueduct……

“Sky water. Better than rain.” I can hear the Pork Barrel slogan now.

It’s better than the current plan to pump Lake Superior to the Colorado River, I guess.

Demeter
Demeter
Jan 23, 2023 4:44 PM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

I didn’t know about the Lake Superior plan.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 24, 2023 5:14 PM
Reply to  Demeter

The “National Mob” is working on that one. Gonna make someone “an offer they can’t refuse”. I am referring to Vegas. Lake Mead’s water level is dropping below the level of the intakes so they were/are drilling lake bottom intakes. This is real. Special grates will be needed to keep the 55 gallon drums stuffed with bodies from clogging the intakes. One of the MSM news magazines did a story about the expected water shortage in Vegas and interviewed a young and pretty woman hired by the city of Las Vegas to “get water”. And yes, they have a blueprint for conveying water from Lake Superior. They will be holding a gun to Trudeau’s head to force him to rescind the Great Lakes Treaty where the U.S. and Canada agreed to limit new withdrawls only to cities in drainage basin. Little do they know, only 1% of the Great Lakes is recharged and available for use. The rest is left over melted glaciers. California would jump for joy since the bulk of Lake Mead is diverted to the southern part of their state which supplies 80% of the U.S. winter vegetable crop. I can see some emergency declaration coming along to “temporarily” pump Lake Superior water to provide food for those not killed by the clot shots in the United States. I don’t know which would be worse. The culling or a water diversion. That culling is looking better every day……. Did I just say that? Meanwhile, John Kerry and Al Gore are working on a plan to build turbines and panels to save the world. Fucking clueless idiots. You would think that Gore would have figured out after a couple decades of screaming the sky is falling that the climate change crisis is a hoax. Must be dementia……. or a lot of money.

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 2:39 PM

You’ve already got insects in your food, as allowed by the FDA

1. Insect fragments – an average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams;*
or
2. Rodent Hairs – an average of 1.0 or more rodent hair per 50 grams.

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/cpg-sec-578450-wheat-flour-adulteration-insect-fragments-and-rodent-hairs

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 4:56 PM
Reply to  WillianHill

Not sure why you were down voted. Just the facts. Don’t forget the rat droppings………. It was a topic of funny discussion while getting stoned in college in the 70s. Where you have food production and processing, you have rats. Lots of them. Vat and insect farms will be not be any different. Fungicides and antibiotics in the vat food to combat fungus and bacteria will be of particular interest. Can’t wait. As advertised: Free of rodent parts. (Pay no attention to that stinging sensation on your tongue, throat, stomach, intestines and anus. At least we think the climate is stable.)

semaj
semaj
Jan 23, 2023 8:35 PM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

That stinging sensation in the arse is because people bury their heads in the sand and then wonder why they keep getting f….d up it!

Ananda
Ananda
Jan 23, 2023 12:39 PM

3 meals a day is sales propaganda.

Back in the day of real Christians and moslems.

Lent meant you overweight greedy fat fucks would actually fast, as in water fast and you may even meet god. within that statement is so much truth.

Ramadan meant the westernized overweight moslems actually didn’t eat for a certain period of the day and would not overeat when it was time to eat.

Today the Eman/Vicar etc will use any excuse from medication to low blood sugar and the believers cant wait to find a excuse not to gobble.

Any excuse and the greedy fat chopalots will gobble gobble gobble.

In the old world of Russia- DRY FASTING (no water or food) is still the cure
YES cure for anything.

In the old world of Christianity water fasting or fasting cured.

Mosloms should understand this.

What the f*ck has happened.? 

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Jan 23, 2023 2:53 PM
Reply to  Ananda

“Three meals a day” has been the advice given to overweight slobs by FDA, USDA, CDC, and corporate agribusiness conglomerates for decades. Obesity was rare when I was young, and obese persons were the brunt of ridicule by the majority of the populace. Obviously, two meals a day is more than adequate, and there are hundreds of studies which support intermittent fasting.

If one observes historical pictures taken prior to about the 1920’s, there are very few overweight persons in the photos. Drive down any modern city street. How may persons are even close to being fit?

The middle isles in grocery stores are loaded with boxes of chemically laden phoods I wouldn’t feed any animal I cared about. “Breakfast” cereals are sugar laden multiple poisons. Feed them to your kids!!! It’s sick.

mgeo
mgeo
Jan 24, 2023 4:50 AM

Also reduce the hours from the first meal to the last to 10 or even 8 hours.

Ref. 1920s, we have so much more propaganda and marketing now, and so many conveniences and fake/overprocessed foods. We are obliged to eat even when not hungry.

Howard
Howard
Jan 24, 2023 3:47 PM

Though I don’t think I have a stomach ulcer, and at 105 lbs I don’t come close to being overweight (5’5″ tall). Nonetheless I must eat three meals a day plus occasional snacks or else my stomach really hurts and I get light-headed. Of course, those are three small meals – snacks by most standards of consumption.

So there are times and situations where the three-meal regime is not only appropriate but necessary.

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Jan 25, 2023 12:41 AM
Reply to  Howard

Hello Howard: Yes. There are always exceptions to any rule. I’ve known a few persons who were hypoglycemic. They ate small frequent meals, as low blood sugar would leave them weak and light headed. Large meals would make them nauseous, and they had to pay close attention to what kinds of foods they consumed. Pasta was a real no, no…

With the complexity of the human body, it’s a wonder the damn thing works at all. Take care…

Strapping Lad
Strapping Lad
Jan 25, 2023 3:46 PM

Obviously, two meals a day is more than adequate, and there are hundreds of studies which support intermittent fasting.

For years, I’ve been eating just once a day. I have a single large meal in the evening.

My BMI is usually around 24, so I haven’t exactly wasted away…

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
Jan 23, 2023 10:12 PM
Reply to  Ananda

Even modern-day proponents of intermittent fasting state that two meals a day is healthiest. I do this about 3-4 days in the week – eat after 11 am (brunch), then dinner. Frees up a lot of time too.

According to TCM, we have an inner “clock”, with certain bodily functions happening within specific time frames. The morning is the time for elimination / detoxification, so it’s best not to eat then. …

DavidF
DavidF
Jan 23, 2023 12:05 PM

OT but today’s Daily Mail in the UK reporting that more than 50% of working population getting more from the State than they are paying in taxes. “Covid convinced Brits they can have something for nothing”.

Heading nicely towards UBI.

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 23, 2023 4:22 PM
Reply to  DavidF

How about:

“Bill Gates convinced everyone they can have something for nothing”.

Howard
Howard
Jan 23, 2023 4:45 PM
Reply to  DavidF

The rich have always had “something for nothing.” So maybe it’s long since time for the rest of us to see how our “betters” live – and that IS their “betters”: they turn funny money to real assets.

Antonym
Antonym
Jan 23, 2023 10:43 AM

In India food inflation at present is back in the average area = ~ 5%. Harvests are good and politicians have a healthy fear the non(Inter)networked elections.

No climate change or Russian oil dramas here; even Covid is a dud due to a mix of natural and Indian made vax immunity, and a pretty heterogeneous population, with lots of youth.

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:31 PM
Reply to  Antonym

We are all victims of Dollar inflation in the west.

Edwige
Edwige
Jan 23, 2023 9:56 AM

“I buy dried fruit in the winter”.

The main agent used to dry fruit is glyphosate. I’m starting to wonder if the glyphosate story has been put about to discredit dried foods?

Ananda
Ananda
Jan 23, 2023 10:28 AM
Reply to  Edwige

It is actually sulfur…

wardropper
wardropper
Jan 23, 2023 1:55 PM
Reply to  Ananda

My understanding is that sulphur is used to bleach, say, apricots, into a nice orange colour that looks more appetizing than the unattractive brown colour the dried fruit would otherwise be.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 5:29 PM
Reply to  wardropper

Had some of those. Made me sicker than a dog. Threw the away and they were not cheap.

Demeter
Demeter
Jan 23, 2023 4:46 PM
Reply to  Ananda

I buy unsulfured fruit. I don’t know about the glyphosate.

Howard
Howard
Jan 23, 2023 4:48 PM
Reply to  Edwige

A lot of dried fruit (like apricots) comes from Turkey. Dr. Helen Caldecott strongly advises against getting any produce from Turkey because of the Chernobyl fallout.

mgeo
mgeo
Jan 24, 2023 4:55 AM
Reply to  Howard

I wonder who finances Dr. Helen Caldecott.

Howard
Howard
Jan 24, 2023 4:05 PM
Reply to  mgeo

I think Tepco.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 5:00 PM
Reply to  Edwige

Sulfur Dioxide. Very hard on the digestive system. Dry your own fruit………..

Eskil
Eskil
Jan 23, 2023 9:35 AM

All plant life is organic and to know where your food does come from,how it has been handled,its age,how much has it been contaminated by its surrondingsis difficult to find out.Just grow your own but check out the earth first.

banana
banana
Jan 23, 2023 9:31 AM

While we are all occupied with the WEF (FEW) ‘they’ are in your backyard:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11651493/Edinburgh-European-capital-meat-menu-schools-reduce-footprint.html

Edinburgh becomes first European capital to commit to taking meat off the menu in schools in bid to reduce city’s carbon footprint

Howard
Howard
Jan 23, 2023 4:53 PM
Reply to  banana

My rule of thumb is never to click on any link until it learns how to state itself coherently.

Or to translate my resolve into Linkage: Coherently-link learns-click-thumb-of-rule.

NickM
NickM
Jan 24, 2023 7:14 AM
Reply to  banana

More daft bureacratic dimwits. And to think I voted Scottish Nationalist! Alec Salmond was just the appetizing bait on the hook.

Brian of Nazareth
Brian of Nazareth
Jan 23, 2023 9:22 AM

Until the industrial revolution, all farms were largely self-sustaining. Inputs were minimal and draught animals did the heavy work. The inputs of energy and chemicals that are required for modern industrialised agriculture are clearly not sustainable. Furthermore, industrial/chemical food is causing massive health issues for humans and ecosystems alike. I have been working in organic/BD farming in the UK for 25 years and my current concerns are around the rising cost of inputs, chiefly electricity, diesel, kerosene, steel and plastic equipment.

NickM
NickM
Jan 24, 2023 7:25 AM

Plant some Solar Trees to generate your own electricity. Whittle some wood to replace plastic spoons. Give the local blacksmith some meat and veg to forge your steelware. As they used to say in bygone days when Scots would tickle trout or hunt game:

“The local folk aren’t poor — they just don’t have much money”.

October
October
Jan 23, 2023 8:05 AM

Have put this in a reply below, but it stands alone very well:

As from tomorrow, IIRC, it will be legal to add insect flour to foods in the EU:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R0005&qid=1674460661343

Sean Veeda
Sean Veeda
Jan 23, 2023 9:29 AM
Reply to  October

Hmm. A 5-year exclusive deal for a Vietnamese company which received 7-figure funding in November 2020. I wonder who’s behind the funding?

And here is where you will find ze bugz (also posted below by October): multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits, dry stuffed and non-stuffed pasta-based products, sauces, processed potato products, legume- and vegetable- based dishes, pizza, pasta-based products, whey powder, meat analogues, soups and soup concentrates or powders, maize flour-based snacks, beer-like beverages, chocolate confectionary, nuts and oilseeds, snacks other than chips, and meat preparations, intended for the general population.

bunkin
bunkin
Jan 23, 2023 1:27 PM
Reply to  Sean Veeda

and crisps

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 5:38 PM
Reply to  October

MMM MMM Good! How is it disclosed in the packaging? Or is it listed as a “patented additive”.

Hemlockfen
Hemlockfen
Jan 23, 2023 5:44 PM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

Copied this out of the link: Everything will have it (if not already).

On 24 July 2019, the company Cricket One Co. Ltd (‘the applicant’) submitted an application to the Commission for an authorisation in accordance with Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 to place Acheta domesticus (house cricket) partially defatted powder on the Union market as a novel food. The application requested for partially defatted powder obtained from whole Acheta domesticus (house cricket) to be used in multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits, dry stuffed and non-stuffed pasta- based products, sauces, processed potato products, legume- and vegetable- based dishes, pizza, pasta-based products, whey powder, meat analogues, soups and soup concentrates or powders, maize flour-based snacks, beer- like beverages, chocolate confectionary, nuts and oilseeds, snacks other than chips, and meat preparations, intended for the general population.

Martha
Martha
Jan 24, 2023 3:25 AM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

…and they’ll release the safety trial data in 75 years.

October
October
Jan 23, 2023 5:51 PM
Reply to  Hemlockfen

As a “novel food”? That would be exciting.

NickM
NickM
Jan 24, 2023 7:36 AM
Reply to  October

How many times must you Townies be reminded? Insects are not “a novel food”. Passing swarms of locusts used to provide a welcome protein supplement for our bushmen ancestors in Africa.

“If it creeps, crawls, walks, swims or flies the chances are, you can eat it raw and the French can recommend a sauce to go with it.” — WW2 Instructions for Airmen Downed in the Bush.

John Pretty
John Pretty
Jan 23, 2023 9:25 PM
Reply to  October

Thank God we left the EU.

NickM
NickM
Jan 24, 2023 7:39 AM
Reply to  John Pretty

Too many EU Frogs smearing mayonnaise on snails and creepy crawly sea creatures with nasty claws?

Paul Watson
Paul Watson
Jan 23, 2023 7:17 AM

The quality of the food is a perfect metaphor for the political class..
Poor quality, far too expensive and many rotten.

Andrew O'Gorman
Andrew O'Gorman
Jan 23, 2023 9:27 AM
Reply to  Paul Watson

Quote of the day. Spot on. I will borrow it if I may?

Paul Watson
Paul Watson
Jan 23, 2023 6:27 PM

👍

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:33 PM
Reply to  Paul Watson

We are given administrators to rule over us in the Empire, they are viceroys of empire, not our leaders.

Berlin Beerman
Berlin Beerman
Jan 23, 2023 5:33 AM

Theres feeding at the trough and then theres dining.

Taking a drive out 30 mins from the city I encounter my farmers that supply me with vegetables in the summer months, roots and potatoes and cabbage in the winter, eggs from another, chickens from yet another, lamb and cheese ( unpasteurized).

I het my fish from a fish monger that flies it in on ice from Azores, Portugal, Boston and PEI. That goes all year long. These fish are caught by fisherfolk and families. Line caught and wild. Never frozen.

Beef is a struggle but it’s decent when you locate a butcher who just bought a cow and a pig from guys and gals he knows and trusts how they were raised and how they were put down.

I located a miller locally that mills her organic grains. Flour and butter. My friend has 3 honey homes and I buy unpasteurized honey from him.

Organic in the grocery store is a scam. Ive never been to a Walmart or a Costco. I buy laundry detergent from a grocery store.

If you may an effort and put some intelligence into it, it gets easier.

My farmers have not increased pricing. They don’t deliver and they down use herbicides and pesticides and GMO seeds.

I call them mine because I found them and I look froward to my one day per week were I go out to forage my grub.

I think they call this living life.

Sam - Admin2
Admin
Sam - Admin2
Jan 23, 2023 12:05 PM
Reply to  Berlin Beerman

Great comment, thanks 🙏 A2

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:40 PM
Reply to  Berlin Beerman

In Paris this can be achieved in one good street, or one good market, raw cheese and raw milk are very common. Direct from the farm shops are springing up allover. Although I’ve never heard of unpasteurized honey. Is it ever pasteurized?

mgeo
mgeo
Jan 23, 2023 2:32 PM
Reply to  Berlin Beerman

All small farmers should network, just in case they have to fight accusations of growing Genetically Mutilated crops, as happened in U$.

les online
les online
Jan 23, 2023 4:51 AM

A national supermarket chain’s local store carries some ‘organic’ veggies and fruits…
I’m suspicious, has ‘organic’ undergone a redefinition ? They rebranded some hens eggs recently to ‘cage-free’, which suggested they were ‘range free’ eggs, though it actually meant the birds were uncaged but they still lived, egged, and died inside huge barns…

les online
les online
Jan 23, 2023 4:35 AM

Recently the Australian government revealed its astonishing feat of having created “234,000 new jobs over the past six months”. But they didnt make a dent in the unemployment figures…Seems that whenever a full-time job is broken up to make two, or three gig jobs – that’s two or three New Jobs created (And remember: you’re officially considered employed if you do just one paid hours work a week)…
Meanwhile, in the background, repeated calls for MORE skilled migrants to be brought in…
Manufactured new jobs, manufactured low unemployment figure = manufactured need for MORE skilled migrants…(Australia prefers already trained & skilled workers to training our young unemployed)…

Fif Tynoses
Fif Tynoses
Jan 23, 2023 6:12 AM
Reply to  les online

Without it the Ponzi would collapse

Sean Veeda
Sean Veeda
Jan 23, 2023 7:19 AM
Reply to  les online

In reference to your next post, I think ‘skilled’ has also undergone a redefinition.

Demeter
Demeter
Jan 23, 2023 4:53 PM
Reply to  les online

The job situation is very similar here. Since Obama care passed, retailers for example do not create full time jobs. People have to juggle two or three jobs to get enough hours to get by. And we always need more immigrants.

Loverat 8
Loverat 8
Jan 23, 2023 4:08 AM

Agree about potatoes here in UK. Produce generally looks like its been stored for months. However, in my view by value shopping and being discerning you can grab many bargains on other items. Probably because there are so many stores and supermarkets to available still. My tip – grab a bit here, a bit there, use a variety of stores for certain things.

Edith
Edith
Jan 23, 2023 3:55 AM

Lucky me I live where lots of food is produced…both for movement South and consumption here….farmers have outlets through shops and markets…some organic…prices have increased though it is more noticeable on packaged goods….I have my own little veg patch where I get to wonder how anyone gets any produce between caterpillar, grasshoppers, fungus, rats and possums to name a few willing feeders on anything I get growing…

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Jan 23, 2023 8:50 AM
Reply to  Edith

Serious offenders- caterpillars, me too, add snails and pigeons who seem to be deserting farmland possibly because it’s so poisoned.

Hank
Hank
Jan 23, 2023 3:47 AM

When an onion costs $1 and 4 small tomatoes $6 and fruit has gone through the roof you know we’re headed for trouble.

Ever wonder why even way before convid cereal (full of sugar and crap) is less expensive than a banana or apple.

Feed your kids eggs or kippers on toast more than cereal.

Penelope
Penelope
Jan 23, 2023 3:06 AM

Remdesivir, which also turned out to be “not completely effective”, was renamed Run-Death-Is-Near by nurses in the US who saw its effects first-hand.

I’m afraid we may be applying the name to some of our food soon.

Rhys Jaggar
Rhys Jaggar
Jan 22, 2023 11:18 PM

I planned for the ‘Covid’ scenario by taking on a 185sqm allotment to grow vegetables. So I have three sacks of potatoes stored in my garage, all organically grown. I have 12 winter squash sat indoors ready to be used the next three months. i have parsnips and carrots still in the ground. Three Savoy cabbages still to harvest along with six big swedes. Still got 24 garlic bulbs left and plenty of onions too.

In the ‘shops’, I buy meat directly from entrepreneurial organic farmers who deliver to my doorstep and as such, only have to replenish every 6-9 months. When I replenished the ‘half a lamb’, it wasn’t any more expensive, ditto the ‘half a pig’. Not yet replenished the beef.

I’ve bought in plenty of flour to make fresh pasta and 10 litres of extra virgin olive oil too. We’ll see what prices they are when I have to re-stock (not too soon).

Tea bags have gone up 30%, so I am simply using each tea bag for more than one mug of tea. It’s maybe not to the taste of the middle class, but it saves 50% of costs, more than covering the inflation. I also drink fewer mugs a day, drinking more tap water instead.

Cashew nuts have increased by 20%+, so I’m using slightly more roasted peanuts and slightly fewer cashew nuts.

Clutching at straws
Clutching at straws
Jan 22, 2023 11:39 PM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

“Cashew nuts have increased by 20%+, so I’m using slightly more roasted peanuts and slightly fewer cashew nuts”

Rhys, We can only plan for the worst but hope for the best. All of our thoughts are with you.

We pray you make it to another, brighter day..

Paul Watson
Paul Watson
Jan 23, 2023 7:19 AM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

Tap water?

dom irritant
dom irritant
Jan 23, 2023 8:25 AM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

tap water is toxic rj, the effluent leftover from distilling tap water smells like death

Howard
Howard
Jan 23, 2023 1:33 PM
Reply to  dom irritant

Just about everything is toxic now. The amazing thing to me is that even though humans have managed to poison just about everything on the planet, they haven’t done a single thing to screw up the climate. Truly miraculous.

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:45 PM
Reply to  dom irritant

Depends where you live, which country and where. Reminds me of ‘curb your enthusiasm’ and the tap water dinner party scene.

Pakistanicream
Pakistanicream
Jan 23, 2023 12:10 PM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

The drawback with potatoes is that, just like with rice, bread and pasta, it is less healthier than other vegetables and fruit you could grow.

Strapping Lad
Strapping Lad
Jan 25, 2023 4:00 PM
Reply to  Rhys Jaggar

I also drink fewer mugs a day, drinking more tap water instead.

I always assume that tap water (even here in the UK) is potentially hazardous to health, and so I put it through a filter first. Not one of those cheap plastic Brita things, but a water-purifier — the sort of thing they ship to disaster areas so they can make ditch water potable.

It also tastes much better. So much better that I seldom drink anything else these days.

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
Jan 22, 2023 11:08 PM

Same here in Australia. The best of the crop is exported and often we get to pick over last year’s crop of fruit that has been held in cold storage under gas.

We had the best apples and pears during the hard lockdowns when international shipping was disrupted. That’s because the good and new crops were then left in our markets.

I’ve notice a slow deterioration of everything, in fact, not just food. And restaurant / cafe food is abysmal. Australia is not exact a gourmet paradise, even though every crop under the sun grows beautifully and plentifully here. But with soaring prices and layoffs, people being constantly sick or having died, restaurants find it hard to keep going at a profit.

Clutching at straws
Clutching at straws
Jan 22, 2023 10:28 PM

“So what’s the food situation like in your part of the world?”

Here in France prices have risen but Macron seems to know he is poking a sleeping bear.

EDF have limited electricity price rises to 4% but only until next year.

Chicken breasts in Lidl were €8 a kilo last year. Went up to €12 a kilo and now back to €10.

Potatoes are stupid prices and they change every 5 minutes

If you want the poncy French things they’re €4 /kilo

If you want Bintje (in season) They’re €0.80 a kilo. Perfect for roasting !!

Clutching at straws
Clutching at straws
Jan 22, 2023 9:59 PM

I suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Always have.

Last Friday I was half way between home and what we laughingly call a “town” when the overly jolly “presenter” on the radio announced that it was Friday 13th.

He didn’t actually say that because in France it’s no big thing.

It’s like having children with people you have known for a long time. (and so has everyone else in your family)

I froze.

Turn back ? Or continue.

I knew if I continued I might find comestibles that I needed. Maybe even some that I wanted.

The allure was strong.

It reminded me of a time a few year’s back when I hired a car in UK to go from Stansted to Brighton.

I had forgotten that it was a Sunday and I would be on the outside lane of the M25 at 1 o’clock when at Elaine Paige started her assault on sensibility.

We listen to radio two in France but EP doesn’t come on until 2 O’clock in foreign time so we are prepared and have the Humax switched to Heart or Smooth.

I did not know how to change the station as I had just picked up the car.

I made it back.

Sorry if you have been affected by any of the issues bought up in this post

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 22, 2023 9:44 PM

Up here in Covidonia there’s been variable supplies. I get a bag of dog mixer delivered. It used to cost £25. Now gone up to just under £40. Chemist supplies come and go. Solpadeine (“heroin for housewives” according to Jo Brand) comes and goes. More to the point, chemists now clearly function as doctor’s going by the queues that go slow because everyone’s looking for a diagnosis too.

George Mc
George Mc
Jan 22, 2023 9:37 PM

Demeter? You have Greek goddesses writing for you now?

Ort
Ort
Jan 22, 2023 9:50 PM
Reply to  George Mc

That, or a relative of a deceased ballplayer:

comment image

Demeter
Demeter
Jan 23, 2023 4:59 PM
Reply to  Ort

No relation. And I do my own research. Greek goddesses don’t help.

wardropper
wardropper
Jan 23, 2023 10:10 PM
Reply to  Demeter

Oh, I’m sure they have their uses . . .

Jeffrey Strahl
Jeffrey Strahl
Jan 23, 2023 12:37 AM
Reply to  George Mc

Or Konstantin Demeter, co-author of an article from 2 years ago this month (posted on this page)?

dom irritant
dom irritant
Jan 23, 2023 8:36 AM
Reply to  George Mc

demeter used to be a brand of health food (maybe still is) that was/is sold in the jesus army (another dodgy cult) health food shop in northampton

Brian of Nazareth
Brian of Nazareth
Jan 23, 2023 9:10 AM
Reply to  George Mc

Internationally, the “Demeter” brand is carried by foods certified as meeting the production standards for Biodynamic Agriculture.

wardropper
wardropper
Jan 23, 2023 1:56 PM
Reply to  George Mc

C’mon, George:
Everybody is welcome here . . .

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 22, 2023 9:23 PM

I’m not so sure buying Organic is as necessary in continental Europe, as it is in the US, since Europe has banned a very large number of the poisons the US citizens are subjected to in their food, And farming methods are better.

Rob
Rob
Jan 22, 2023 9:27 PM
Reply to  WillianHill

In the USA, even organics have glysophate residues from the water table.

October
October
Jan 23, 2023 8:02 AM
Reply to  WillianHill

But in the paradise that is the EU, they’re going to introduce ground insects into foods (multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits, dry stuffed and non-stuffed pasta-based products, sauces, processed potato products, legume- and vegetable- based dishes, pizza, pasta-based products, whey powder, meat analogues, soups and soup concentrates or powders, maize flour-based snacks, beer-like beverages, chocolate confectionary, nuts and oilseeds, snacks other than chips, and meat preparations) without informing buyers.

The extent to which this stuff is allergenic may be studied at a later date

You couldn’t make this shit up.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R0005&qid=1674460661343

Hector
Hector
Jan 23, 2023 8:52 AM
Reply to  October

Its just not crickets.

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:04 PM
Reply to  Hector

that link is only crickets.

WillianHill
WillianHill
Jan 23, 2023 1:04 PM
Reply to  October

Making it allowable does not mean they will put it in everything.
The levels of insect parts in US food is already very high compared to the EU. Thats the deregulation the US loves so much.

Howard
Howard
Jan 23, 2023 5:08 PM
Reply to  WillianHill

In the US, the “allowable” insect parts happen to primarily be roaches, which are almost impossible to keep away from any food sources.

But not to worry: the Insect Apocalypse will take care of that.

James II
James II
Jan 24, 2023 3:40 PM
Reply to  Howard

Here in Bangkok. Price for a duck egg is ฿6, not quite 20 cents, about a buck for 5 fat ones. Some food items have risen here but some not so much.