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  • #31
    Re: Food shortages on the way?

    Wow, DNR, I have not yet found bugs in our brown rice, and hope I don't. Is it just one brand, you don't have to name it but is it just one brand you've had this happen with?
    Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

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    • #32
      Re: Food shortages on the way?

      Originally posted by DNR55 View Post
      ==============
      My experiences seem to indicate that the little brown bugs are already in the rice. So I do not purchase more than about 2 months supply at any given time. That way if I have to toss some infested rice, I don't feel too bad. Makes the birds outside my house happy too. Birds love bugs and rice...yum!
      I've had problems with bugs too. I don't remember what brand exactly I used. I tried putting bay leaves with the uncooked rice and I didn't have any more bug problems. However, I found the bay leaf tends to alter the taste of the rice and made dishes like sushi taste weird. Now I just refrigerate my rice and have no problems.

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      • #33
        Re: Food shortages on the way?

        Refrigerating the rice is defintely one way to stop bugs from getting in.

        I haven't had too many problems with bugs in my rice storage though.
        Eating my way through restaurants at http://www.nomnomfoodie.com

        Growing a local Hawaii food blogger community at http://www.hawaiifoodbloggers.com

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        • #34
          Doomsday delight

          X amount of years from now, (I hope we can) look back on this thread as the first sign of the trouble to come. It could become less than I envision, but this forum and others may be a major survival link for when the shit starts hitting the fan in forms nearer a mushroom cloud than merely a rice shortage.
          These forums can save lot's of lives to help head off worse situations as they unfold.
          The Government won't have much to offer, so it's up to us to save ourselves.

          These islands can self sustain, if geared up for it properly, and somebody better have plans for the inevitable shortages of everything and the societal breakdowns that will ensue. The time is now to take over cane fields and be ready to grow stuff to survive.

          It ain't fun to consider, but we need to get ready for the bad old times.
          Last edited by Ron Whitfield; April 25, 2008, 02:57 PM.
          https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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          • #35
            Re: Food shortages on the way?

            I just returned from Costco Iwilei where the cashier informed me that they'd run out of rice today! She was shaking her head over this panic buying. We agreed that the media is creating this stockpiling; well, if not creating it...enabling it! It's all over the national news. What say you, media folks?!
            Last edited by tutusue; April 25, 2008, 04:10 PM. Reason: typo!

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            • #36
              Re: Food shortages on the way?

              Ron, you of course speak pure wisdom and common sense on this. I think at least.....this news can serve us in the mid-Pacific to be better stocked up before any hint of a storm headed this way. We can use it like a drill. I don't know if it's true but have heard all of my life that one large church denomination tells its people to have a year's supply of everything they can, always on hand.

              How about no panic buying and no hoarding? I never have and don't plan to buy into any. How about just more of us admitting that investing in plenty supplies makes much sense and stocking up slowly?

              I know this.......when hard times finally do hit and I'm convinced they will in my lifetime, I won't tolerate anyone, not even someone in a uniform if they ever see that I am at that time "well stocked" and they dare to try and accuse me of "hoarding!" *(do ya see where I'm going with this?)

              Hoarding is definitely buying most or wayy too much of a PRESENT supply up. Hoarding is NOT having a lot of something if you bought it a reasonable amount, over time. If and when hard times hit, I can imagine pure human nature and with many in panic, that even some in authority will accuse others of hoarding that only stocked up.
              Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

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              • #37
                Re: Food shortages on the way?

                Originally posted by Karen View Post
                Wow, DNR, I have not yet found bugs in our brown rice, and hope I don't. Is it just one brand, you don't have to name it but is it just one brand you've had this happen with?
                ================
                I have seen this in Homai, calrose, some jasmine-type rice. But not all the time. Maybe once a year I might find a bad batch. When you wash the rice they all float away anyway. Or blend in some brown rice and have a pilaf!

                Refrigerating the rice works, but who has space for 40 lbs. of rice in the frig?

                About 2 days ago, I saw a guy at Costco with about 300 lbs. of rice on his cart and I thought, "Gee I hope this guy can eat all that in 2 months or he might have a colony of bugs in his closet soon!"

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                • #38
                  Re: Food shortages on the way?

                  Originally posted by DNR55 View Post
                  Refrigerating the rice works, but who has space for 40 lbs. of rice in the frig?
                  When you start refrigerating uncooked rice, let alone FREEZING cooked rice, that's when you know you've got problems.

                  About 2 days ago, I saw a guy at Costco with about 300 lbs. of rice on his cart and I thought, "Gee I hope this guy can eat all that in 2 months or he might have a colony of bugs in his closet soon!"
                  Um, isn't that what the likes of Costco and Sam's Club was originally targeted for? Bulk shoppers? As in BUSINESS owners? Not mom and pop, sistah and braddah just looking for a (supply of a) deal on two scoops of rice to go with their stew and mac salad.

                  There needs to be some re-adjusting and re-definition in thinking in what warehouse discount membership buying was meant for, beyond $1.50 hot dogs and a buck or two (or more) savings on 5000 lbs. of rice and a 3-lb. bag of poi for uncle and aunty on a budget.

                  Think about how often folks (as in single or less than 3 people per household, not in business) who buy things in bulk at the likes of Costco or Sam's in this fashion WASTE what they can't consume before it spoils, and add that up. Think about THAT. I see it happen all the time.

                  Wasting food is as much a tragedy as not having enough.
                  sigpic The Tasty Island

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                  • #39
                    Re: Food shortages on the way?

                    Originally posted by Ron Whitfield View Post
                    These islands can self sustain, if geared up for it properly, and somebody better have plans for the inevitable shortages of everything and the societal breakdowns that will ensue. The time is now to take over cane fields and be ready to grow stuff to survive.
                    As a farmer, I really don't think Hawaii is self-sustainable, in terms of growing the foods that have worked their way into the common diets of the islands' residents. A growing population of 1.2 million+ people, squeezed into just 6400 sq. miles of land, (of which relatively little is arable or available for ag use) that consumes a diet of foods not grown there in any significant quantities: wheat, corn, and rice, along with foods that require high quantities of forage land for livestock (beef cattle and swine), would make self-sustainablilty, in my opinion, a tough go.

                    Hawaii's diet, as it stands now, (as evidenced by the rice, pasta, and meat-heavy plate lunches, pizza, and the wheat/meat-based fast food I see commonly consumed all over the state) is excessively dependant on foods grown thousands of miles away and not agriculturally viable, at present, to grow in Hawaii : wheat in North Dakota, rice in California, corn in Iowa. Hawaii, at present, grows great quantities of what would be considered "non-essential foods", such as mac nuts, Kula strawberries and coffee, as well as fading crops that have seen their glory days pass them by (now grown far cheaper elsewhere), such as pineapple and sugar. (Positive note: Hawaii is a key producer of seed corn that is planted world-wide). Hawaii does have some viable ag operations ongoing, but I don't think they're are by any means ag operations that are growing the types of foods that are used in the great quantities used in the current diets of choice eaten by its residents.

                    Ron mentions that it is time to "take over the cane fields" and start growing crops that Hawaii could use to promote food self-sustainability. That's a good idea, but I'm not sure if one could grow, say wheat, in former cane fields, in order to quell a wheat shortage in Hawaii. Sugar and pineapple were grown on the Ewa and Kunia Plains because those locations were the perfect place to grow them. But I don't think wheat would ever be a viable crop out on those plats. Wheat needs the far-as-the-eye-can-see expansive prairies of the Great Plains and Canada, which unfortunately, Hawaii doesn't have.

                    Ag self-sustainability (if possible) in Hawaii would require so much more than converting cane fields into grain fields. I see many issues that would have to be dealt with: Stabilizing the growth of Hawaii's population, mandating a policy of building up (rather than horizontally) on former ag lands lost, and getting more people into farming as not only a career, but as a way of ensuring Hawaii's survival. Hawaii has more than enough people who want to work in an office cubicle, typing away on a laptop. If Hawaii wants ag self-sustainabilty, it has to start developing more ag workers now, and fewer mortgage underwriters, stockbrokers, and IT specialists. Get Hawaii and its citizens back in touch with its agricultural past. That may seem like a pipe dream, but if we're talking about ag self-sustainabilty in Hawaii, it's clear that a whole lot more of her citizens need to get involved with agriculture.

                    Foremost, I think Hawaii's citizens would have to re-think their everyday diets and eat what they can grow, like the ancient Hawaiians did. (They were not plate lunch eaters!) Forget the idea of eating foods that can't be grown locally in large enough quantites, simply to satisfy a want rather than a need. Eat what you can know you can grow, grow what you can that gives maximum yield per acre. Like the Hawaiians did through fish ponds, harvest the sea, where possible, through aquaculture.

                    The problem I see though, with so darned many people squeezed into the state, and the pressure on dwindling ag lands in Hawaii to become homesteads, is that I'm doubtful that Hawaii can realistically ever be ag self-sustainable, no matter how hard its good farmers might try. I see it being dependant on the produce of non-Hawaii farmers, growing food thousands of miles away, for decades to come.

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                    • #40
                      Re: Food shortages on the way?

                      Originally posted by Surfingfarmboy View Post
                      The problem I see though, with so darned many people squeezed into the state, and the pressure on dwindling ag lands in Hawaii to become homesteads, is that I'm doubtful that Hawaii can realistically ever be ag self-sustainable, no matter how hard its good farmers might try. I see it being dependant on the produce of non-Hawaii farmers, growing food thousands of miles away, for decades to come.
                      Post of the day. And a sad reality.

                      This as another "Gentry" project mows down yet another pineapple and sugar cane field, and more of those dwellers fight for single-occupant vehicle space on the H-1 morning drive to work in urban Honolulu to pay for a mortgage they can barely afford. Or that this state has barely enough room to afford.
                      sigpic The Tasty Island

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                      • #41
                        Re: Food shortages on the way?

                        Lower land mass fibre crops would be better suited than wheat fields, and diets would have to change and compromise back towards the healthier old Hawaiian, Japanese, and Mediteranian styles.
                        This only happens when things have reached a frightening level and everybody has planned well in advace to maintain civility.
                        Good luck.

                        The up-side is, we're forced to focus on the things that matter, good food, good music, GOOD TIMES.

                        Kinda like a lifetime HT picnic!
                        https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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                        • #42
                          Re: Food shortages on the way?

                          Originally posted by Pomai View Post
                          When you start refrigerating uncooked rice, let alone FREEZING cooked rice, that's when you know you've got problems.
                          [...]
                          I've done both for decades because bugs always found the grains in the pantry. Plus, as a very small household, when I cook, I cook in bulk, sorta...recipes for 6...then I freeze 5 servings. Makes sense for my lifestyle. No problems!

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                          • #43
                            Re: Food shortages on the way?

                            "I have seen this in Homai, calrose, some jasmine-type rice. But not all the time. Maybe once a year I might find a bad batch. When you wash the rice they all float away anyway. Or blend in some brown rice and have a pilaf!

                            Refrigerating the rice works, but who has space for 40 lbs. of rice in the frig?

                            About 2 days ago, I saw a guy at Costco with about 300 lbs. of rice on his cart and I thought, "Gee I hope this guy can eat all that in 2 months or he might have a colony of bugs in his closet soon!"


                            Your last, first. The guy with hundreds of pounds indeed probably runs an eatery. That's part of the problem that started in the news in Mt. View, CA....it was the people that buy bulk as in wholesale that started panic buying and can't blame them.

                            It is NOT just panic buying by people thinking there was or is a shortage! It is panic buying by people that need to make a profit and the panic is understandable when the news reports how much certain breeds of rice have increased. When do they raise their prices? etc....

                            Ahh....occasional bugs in your rice, I can believe that, and since we only eat rice 2 and 3 days a week, approx....we haven't found them IN our rice uh wait, when we did we thought it was our own storage problem and didn't know it may well have been from the factory.

                            Next Christmas when you see the metal, decorated tins of Popcorn for sale, buy them! The containers are worth the seven or eight bucks even if you hate popcorn. Keep the lid properly on and no bugs can get into your foods. We keep various flours, bread crumbs and corn meal in ours, as well as brown rice.

                            PS to Surfingfarmboy, excellent post so full of wisdom that I needed sunglasses to read.
                            Sadly because of human nature, what you speak of won't happen unless or until there are true food shortages in our country and then people of course will eat what can be gotten at local farmers markets and from backyards. I saw only a trickle of bees this year and yet we have two trees full of baby avocadoes, yet half the normal lychee, so we can and will all pull together and barter what food we have. We'll probably become healthier for it.
                            Last edited by Karen; April 26, 2008, 12:06 PM.
                            Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

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                            • #44
                              Re: Food shortages on the way?

                              Bad news for us rice lovers:

                              http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/23/news...e.ap/index.htm

                              Good thing I just got a bag and it usually lasts me a while.

                              I wonder if this means more Japanese restaurants will start charging for extra bowls of rice? It's already a pretty common trend with the newer establishments.
                              Eating my way through restaurants at http://www.nomnomfoodie.com

                              Growing a local Hawaii food blogger community at http://www.hawaiifoodbloggers.com

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                              • #45
                                Re: Food shortages on the way?

                                Yesterday I grocery shopped in Schofield Army commissary and there was only a couple of small bags of rice. In 14+ yrs. I have never seen the rice section that empty, I don't think. Then when checking out I heard a woman telling her checker how people had hogged all of the rice.

                                It's the news of the price going up, I believe that caused it. I also doubt anyone hoarded in the commissary because most of us know that's the place it would be least tolerated, thank goodness. Most likely....everyone did like me and bought one bag, even if they didn't need to buy it now.

                                Maybe this poor 'ole world is truly entering a time of corn shortage. We need congress to end all govt. subsidy of ethanol made with corn.
                                Stop being lost in thought where our problems thrive.~

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