Money Saving Wednesday…Food Prices Rising…Water Rights Disappearing

Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their Producer Price Index (PPI) report for March 2010 and it is frightening. Food prices in March 2010 rose by 2.4%, its sixth consecutive monthly increase and the largest monthly increase in more than 26 years. The bureau fears food inflation could be coming on a grand scale, and it will be devastating.

Prices increased during the past year as follows: fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1%, fresh fruits and melons up 28.8%, eggs 33.6%, pork 9.1%, beef and veal 10.7% and dairy products up 9.7%. Last year prices were similarly increasing at alarming rates. Many did not notice these extreme price increases because manufacturers reduced packaging sizes or, in the case of dry good such as cereals, they just reduced the number of ounces of food in the packages.

We have talked about food inflation the last several months and lack of water in California’s central valley causing some of these price increases. Now there is a new water threat. Have you heard about this one? The Clean Water Act gives the Federal Government the authority to control all navigable water ways in the country. The administration is attempting to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2009 (S787). This new act would amend the 1972 Clean Water Act and replace the words “navigable waters” with “waters of the United States.” These waters would include:

(A) all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;

(B) all interstate waters, including interstate wetlands;

(C) all other waters, such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds;

(D) all impoundments of waters of the United States;

(E) tributaries of the aforementioned waters;

(F) the territorial seas;

(G) wetlands adjacent to the aforementioned waters.

Why do we care? How will this affect food prices? We need to care because we have seen what the federal government did in California and food from California increased in price and over 30,000 people were left unemployed. This could happen to you. If you decide to stock a pond on your property with fish as part of your food plan and an environmentalist complains that it is disrupting the life cycle of a feeder fish or water bug the government could force you to remove the fish. The government could decide a stream needed to be damned or undamned to protect a fern. Farmers whose farms are watered using a stream or pond could be denied access to those waters. Those who have cattle grazing and drinking from ponds on their own property could have access to those ponds denied. The Great Lakes will be affected by this change and some fear they could be pumped to provide drinking water to drought ridden states. You need to be concerned.

What has this to do with Money Saving Tips…nothing and everything. If we can see a threat to our economy and especially food prices, since we all need to eat, and we do nothing, we can be sure the cost of living will increase in our own homes. Sometimes saving money means acting before an event. It’s time to let Congress know we are aware of what they are trying to do and that we will remember them on election day if they make this change. Again, this appears to be a democrat vs republican issue but I have not seen a complete list so please write or call your Congress men and women and get involved.

If you have not completed stocking your general store with food I suggest you concentrate your efforts there. You may still want to add some of the non food items we are adding this year, each Monday, but you may only want to add a few and use your budget to get your food shelves full. Now is also the time to get your garden planted and to talk to friends and neighbors about sharing produce from gardens and trees. Food prices will increase and we will eventually eat our stored food and have to replace it but if you replace foods when they are on sale you will always be eating cheaper than those who failed to prepare.

I feel so strongly about this that for the next two weeks I will send any new subscribers to the Totally Ready Newsletter a copy of our March issue which includes the information you will need to store a nutritionally balanced three month supply designed for your family’s needs, not the generic list you find other places.

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