Good Investment in Nov 2010 “Real Food Investment Habbit”!!

Well, environment seems changing again.  Out of PIIGS (Portuguese, Irland, Italy, Greece, Spain) This time Irland is on verge of default and need money (bail-out). This can create some amount of disturbance in markets. Although “Next Euro bailouts” are designed to be least vocal and painless, they will still have same consequences as money has to come from somewhere. If no one pays then of course currency devaluation pays. Which means you and me have to pay more for gas, food, and everything.

Anyway while many people will be busy in figuring out on direction of stock, what happens to Ireland, credit default swap, ECB reaction, derivatives, and so on, I believe it will be good “investment” to stockpile rice, wheat, salt, beans, lentils, pigeon pea, coffee, tea, and other food items that you need on day to day basis for personal consumption. If possible for next 2 Years! Here are the reasons why I believe this.

# Baring few exceptions like India and China, Food prices are still relatively low in many countries. (Even in India and China, though they are high, 2-3 years down the line they will be possibly much higher)

# With amount of stimulus injections, everyone knows that there will be inflation for years to come so what you buy this year will always be cheaper than next year.

# Inventories of food are lowest in decade across the world and there are multiple reasons for the same.

            # Due to constant urbanization across world, labor is not available for farming.

            # There is no reverse flow of labor from cities to villages for farming.

            # Weather has turned unpredictable resulting possibility of very bad weather in any year.

# If the fear of hyperinflation turns into reality, 3-4 years down the line, people who maintain habit to stock “basic grains” will survive better out of situation.

Like every investment there are risks for this. E.g. grain that is accumulated can catch various pest, infections etc.. so we should learn some good techniques for the same. Also we need to consider expiry date / best before date for things we buy. On cost side if the cost goes down suddenly, we can buy from market for temporary consumption and keep our stock intact. Some grains like rice are in fact better when they turn older. One of the very interesting case I saw in one video over YouTube where American person explaining rice and bean as good combination. Reason it is interesting is rice is not typically consumed in US.

To add there is no need to assume we are doing this for preparing for war etc..:) but there is nothing wrong in being  planned for everything in life.