LDS Freedom Forum

Cowboy wrote:Upon telling many of our member friends of this story, many of the younger ones admit they too eat out most meals and have very little on hand for any reason. Many do not even have their food storage. I forcefully tell them of the error of their ways, ha ha, but most have not wanted to hear it.
I hope that is now changing, but I still fear that even most in the Church view people like us that watch the signs as crazies and they always say.. " No one knows the time " and that is good enough for them. Everything is still a long way off in their minds.

InfoWarrior82 wrote:

Cowboy wrote:Upon telling many of our member friends of this story, many of the younger ones admit they too eat out most meals and have very little on hand for any reason. Many do not even have their food storage. I forcefully tell them of the error of their ways, ha ha, but most have not wanted to hear it.
I hope that is now changing, but I still fear that even most in the Church view people like us that watch the signs as crazies and they always say.. " No one knows the time " and that is good enough for them. Everything is still a long way off in their minds.

Exactly!

—“I come quickly,” “I come at an hour ye think not,” “My coming is at the door,” “I come as a thief in the night,” “I come in an hour when you are not looking for me,” and “Blessed is he who is looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” -Jesus

Freeze sending vegetable prices up

Freezing temperatures that made driving hazardous in San Antonio earlier this month now are driving up prices for squash, bell peppers and other winter vegetables, officials said.

The increase, which is likely to continue until spring harvest starts in more than a month, stems largely from freeze damage to crops in Mexico early in February. Texas, Florida and California growers, who normally would fill in for shortfalls in Mexico, sustained freeze-related losses as well, keeping the market agitated.

“In the near future, we'll see scarcity and prices will go up,” said Jose Peña, an economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Uvalde.

How much prices will rise is uncertain since losses varied by region and by the commodity being grown. Grocers and restaurants have a variety of sources to turn to for produce, but many are feeling the strain from what's being called the worst freeze to hit Mexico in decades.

Andrew McGregor, produce director for Sun Harvest and Henry's Farmers Market, said he has not had a problem with availability of produce, but prices have risen. A week and a half ago, prices for winter vegetables jumped about three times normal levels. Squash and cucumbers were the hardest hit.

McGregor said the retail prices then doubled on some items, but the full increase wasn't passed on to customers.

The spikes have plateaued this week, and a few items have dropped slightly, he said.

Officials with H-E-B, Wal-Mart and La Fiesta grocers didn't respond to inquiries about vegetable prices.

Jungmeyer said movement of the winter vegetables out of Mexico already has slowed, and the supply should stay below normal through March. The early February freeze damage seemed worse at first than it turned out to be. But for those who were hit, the losses are devastating, Jungmeyer said.

“In certain areas, it was 100 percent (loss). In other areas it may have been zero to 20 percent. It really is a mixed bag,” he said.

The freeze was particularly harsh in growing areas on the country's west coast and in its northern reaches, officials said.

Tomatoes growing in fields rather than greenhouses, green beans, squash, cucumbers and bell peppers were among the hardest hit crops. Melons generally were in better shape, said Jungmeyer.

Mexico's fate has carryover impact in the United States because it depends so heavily on Mexico for its fruits and vegetables, particularly those available in the winter.

John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association, said federal officials estimate that the country imports about half of the fruit product it consumes and about 25 percent of its vegetables.

“It's a pretty staggering number in my mind,” said McClung

In 2010, Mexico was by far the largest source of fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables imported into the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, the U.S. received more than half of its vegetable imports worldwide last year from Mexico.

The nearly $4 billion worth of Mexican vegetables imported to the U.S. last year was more than twice the amount it received from Canada, the country providing the second largest vegetable imports.

Saudi Arabia Raises Oil Output By 8% To Over 9 Million Barrels Per Day

As we reported yesterday, Saudi Arabia which following its latest recreation of Helicopter Ben's money parachuting experiment to buy its people's love, suddenly has found itself in a fiscal crunch, has no choice but to increase general oil sales revenues. Which is why as Reuters reports the kingdom, which many speculate may be next to see a spike in protests in early March, has just hiked its oil output by 8% to over 9 million barrels per day. The move, in addition to yesterday's margin hikes by both the CME and ICE, has forced oil prices to decline modestly, bringing some stability to an otherwise extremely jittery market, which would also further exacerbate geopolitical tensions. "The Saudi move follows reassurances from Riyadh earlier in the week that it was prepared to act to prevent shortages as a result of the rebellion in Libya against leader Muammar Gaddafi that has sharply reduced the fellow OPEC producer's 1.3 million bpd of exports." What is unclear is how Iran, an OPEC member, will respond to this unilateral action out of an otherwise "collective" oil cartel. We continue to expect that as a result of a widening political schism between the OPEC member nations, and the ongoing turbulence in Libya, that OPEC will be soon "restructured" materially.

Visual Atlas Of Distressed Oil Production

As recent developments out of Libya have demonstrated, when geopolitics and oil production mix, the resultant product is quite explosive. And as more protests are sure to spread to other countries in the region (with Saudi of course being the key domino whose potential fall would send crude well over $200), below we present a summary atlas of the key production capacities in both crude and gas, as well as proven reserves of all the countries in the MENA region. At this point, with Libya largely priced in, all attention should once again shift to developments in Bahrain, which contrary to the media black out, have not been put under control even remotely. The rumored fact that Al Jazeera may have allegedly received a "request" from Saudi Arabia to not cover recent events is a different story altogether.