In God We Trust

16 April 2008

Reactions

Posted by Terrie Soberg under: Emergency Preparation; World Affairs .

I sent an email out on Saturday to several people and some of my Yahoo Groups regarding the world food situation:

I wanted to share some things with you that may be of interest to you for your own personal preparedness or to use in teaching the children.

Friends in both Utah and Nevada told me that there are limits on wheat at their church storehouses. They are not getting wheat in every shipment and when it does come in, the wheat is gone within 2 hours. I was at TNT in Hopkins, Minnesota and heard the owner telling one of his customers that the price of a bag of flour went from $9 per bag in December to $39 per bag last month.

Worldwide, there have been food riots in 40 countries and the United Nations is warning that the riots will continue to spread unless something done. The mainstream media in the United States is reporting very little of situation because they do not want to disturb Wall Street. I have been finding news from sources outside of US. If you are interested in learning more about the world food shortage situation, here is a blog you can go to for more information:

http://ingodwetrustblog.com/

Here are a couple of responses I received:

I live in Utah and want to let you all know that, it is not that the storehouses have no wheat, the silos are full. There are many folks in panic mode and have been showing up purchasing amts of wheat such as 400-900 lbs at a time. That is the reason for limits, folks just need to relax and not panic. Each store house is different. Some are allowing 200 lbs per fam, some are allowing 200 lbs per person, and while some have not placed limits.

Alot of folks are using their tax refunds for wheat and other items as well. I am not suggesting that you do not go and get your supplies, nor am I suggesting that prices are not on the rise, just that we need to be careful of spreading info that may become rumours and get blown out of size.

I am part of another yahoo group called food-storage and it is great, but they have had too many folks with all kinds of crazy stories about that the church has no more wheat, which is NOT THE CASE! Remember, if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear!

thanks for sharing the information, B

and another:

I order flour and wheat products fairly regularly from a local mill and wheat and flour prices have gone up, but not to this degree. If we all panic and start buying large quantities of wheat, we will only contribute to the problem. The prophet has encouraged us to have a food storage plan in place and to work on that plan. The most recent guidelines encourage us not to buy large quantities of foods to store, but to buy reasonably quantities of foods to *eat*. M

I want to share my reply because I feel like it contains some pertinent thoughts:

What a blessing it is for the people who have been working on their food storage plans. I have as well, and I am certainly not panicking, nor is it my intent to panic others. However, it becometh he who has been warned to warn others, and I have done a lot of studying on these topics in order to be aware of the world situation. I am concerned that we are not being told the truth by our news media and the situation is more dire than they are letting on to. There is a continuing increase in the number of news articles around the world and finally even some in our own media. The situation is escalating.

The counsel of the prophets for years has been to have a one year supply of food and where possible, fuel. They have not changed that counsel. As with the people of Moses who were not able to keep the higher law, people now are being given a lesser commandment so that they can, at least to some extent, be obedient. Also, since the Church is focusing on the worldwide church instead of just the United States, they want everyone to be able to obey their local laws of the land.

The most recent guidelines do say to start with a three-month supply of food, but if you notice at the Bishop’s storehouse, the items available for canning are now all for long-term storage. They are not dry-packing items with a shorter storage-life such as Potato Pearls. There is also a notice at the storehouse that says, “For longer-term storage, avoid teaching people to ’store what you eat and eat what you store’.” Why would they give us these directives if they did not want us to have a long-term storage supply? It’s pretty safe to say that we haven’t been given this counsel just to test whether we will obey or not. President Hinckley gave a talk in Priesthood session of General Conference about the pharoah’s dreams of the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine. He gave the same talk seven years later. Is that a coincidence, or was he warning us that we are about to enter the “famine” period without trying to panic people? He who has ears, let him hear. Physical preparedness is essential, but so is mental preparedness. If people are not mentally prepared for the coming difficulties, they are probably not going to fare very well. Who will be panicking then?

It is often the nature of man to wait until the last minute. Many people are realizing that it’s time to put some food away. If they are spending their tax returns on food storage, good for them. My problem is how am I going to afford enough food for all of my family members who are not active and haven’t stored anything. Obviously I can’t do that for my mom, my dad, seven of my brothers and sisters, their families, and all of my husband’s non-member family. What about friends and neighbors? I don’t want them to go without. The best thing I can do is try to gently warn them, which is what I am doing now. Perhaps I am preaching to the choir, but if even one person is convinced, my efforts are worth it.

Blessing to all,
Terrie

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