A Wall Street Journal columnist has advised people to “start stockpiling food” and an ABC News Report says “there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some … locals are beginning to hoard supplies.” Now there’s concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for stocks of storable food.
“We’re told that the feds bought the entire container of canned butter when it hit the California docks.
(Something’s up!),” said
officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an advisory to customers.
Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of various products from one of the world’s larger suppliers of food stores, Oregon Freeze Dry.
He said a company official told him on the telephone when he discussed the status of his order that it was because the government had purchased massive quantities of products, leaving none for other customers.
That, however, was denied by Oregon Freeze Dry. In a website statement, the company confirmed it cannot assure supplying some items to customers.
“We regret to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10 can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily,” the company tells frustrated customers. “The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment, but we must maintain capacity for our other market segments as well.”
The company statement continues, “We want to clarify inaccurate information we’ve seen on the Internet. This situation is not due to sales to the government domestically or in Iraq. We do sell products to this market, but we also sell other market segments … The reason for this decision is solely due to an unprecedented sales spike in #10 cans sales.
“We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future,” the company statement said.
But Hopkins wasn’t backing away from his concerns.
“The government just came in and said they’re buying it. They did pay for it,” he told WND about the summertime shipment of long-term storage butter. “They took it and no one else could have it.
“We don’t know why. The feds then went to freeze dried companies, and bought most of their canned stock,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Oregon Freeze Dry, sales manager Melanie Cornutt, told WND
Thanks for this information. Are you getting any rain from Dolly? Hope so.
July 25, 2008 5:20 PM
Thanks for the info on the canned meat. I live in Indiana and will be making a trip to pick up some cases of meat.
July 25, 2008 7:10 PM
The Texan Yup, we are getting some of it, got one more band of rain coming tonight then it is supposed to taper off, may get 1 to 4 inches, we will wait and see.
Jackie Glad you can use the info, I thought it was a good deal, especially if you are going to be buying case quantities anyhow.
Wretha
July 25, 2008 8:15 PM
Hey Wretha, this is totally off topic, but here’s the link I