Fema directs us in case of an emergency to have at least 3 day supply of food and water on hand in our house. I think it is more then reasonable why? For a lot of reasons, some of them would be a flu pandemic, trucker’s strike, with diesel that keeps going up that is not unreasonable either. Do you understand there is only about 3 day supply of food on the shelves of the average grocery store? With an emergency even less, have you ever seen what happens when it is going to snow, no milk, toilet paper, or bread can be found on the shelves. What happens if you loss your job? What happens if you lose electric for a week? Friend of mine lost it once for 8 days because of an ice storm and another family I know lost it for 14 days after a hurricane. Anyway here is a good article

Reality check on shopping for pandemic

A well-stocked pantry could save your life if a flu pandemic strikes. Lauren Wilson and Adam Cresswell report December 15, 2007

CRANBERRY or apple sauce? Cream or brandy butter? This is as close as many of us get to a food dilemma, especially as Christmas approaches. But if infectious disease experts are right, we could all be facing a rather more difficult food quandary sooner than we'd like.
The world is overdue for an influenza pandemic, and if one were to strike many people would be expected to bunker down at home rather than risk infection by going in to work or other places where people congregate.
It might be several weeks before the danger passed. But whose larders are already so well stocked that they could last that long?
And who would be able to hit the supermarket with a realistic idea of what they needed to buy to last a couple of months, and not end up with supplies so unbalanced that the crackers run out weeks before whatever has been bought to spread on them? Who has a good enough grasp of nutrition to ensure one's household does not begin to resemble some throwback to scurvy ravaged sailors?
Jennie Brand-Miller, professor of human nutrition at the University of Sydney, is concerned many Australians do not give enough thought to supplies needed to survive a crisis such as a global pandemic.
"I think it's complacency," Brand-Miller says. "I don't think people appreciate that something like bird flu would be terribly contagious, and I don't think enough people understand it would mean isolation."
Along with a team of nutritionists, including Norwegian food expert Anna Haug, Brand-Miller has assembled a "food lifeboat", which would provide an individual with the energy and nutrition requirements needed to survive three months in lock-down.
"We became quite excited about the possibility that we could come up with a food lifeboat, because the best way to avoid something like avian flu is to go into isolation -- so to continuously go out to buy foods would expose one to risks," Brand-Miller said.
The food lifeboat was measured against four principal criteria: it must be sufficiently affordable, not too unpalatable, cover all one's nutritional needs and be easily stored -- none of the products needs refrigeration, and all have a general shelf-life of around 12 months.
"It was important for us to be able to store the items at room temperature, in case the people who operate gas or electricity services have to stay at home rather than risk exposing themselves to the virus," Brand-Miller says.
Cooking could also be a challenge if gas and electricity supplies temporarily shut down, so many of the products on the suggested list require little preparation. And while a global flu pandemic is one emergency that could see us all home-bound, other scenarios, including natural disasters, could require sufficient stockpiles of long-life food.
The research, published last weekend in the Medical Journal of Australia (2007;187:674-6), also raises concerns about the concentration of Australia's food supplies, with supermarket outlets being dominated by two main chains.
This situation potentially renders Australia more sensitive to logistical hitches if a crisis were to arise, according to the report.
"Australia's food supplies are narrowly focused in terms of provision and at any one point in time, the major supermarket chains hold only a few weeks' supplies," the authors wrote. If the central supply chain broke down in an emergency, supermarket stocks would become depleted within two or three weeks. This could happen much faster if people were to panic-buy and begin to hoard food.
As a solution to this potential disaster, the panel of nutritionists are hoping their food lifeboat will become something that can be purchased at a supermarket, already shrink-wrapped for convenient storage.
But it may be a while before we start to see the package on supermarket shelves.
Brand-Miller says food suppliers have been hesitant to embrace the project. "I said to Woolworths 'Would you like to offer this as a package?', but they are not going to bring it in at this point in time."
Having a ready-made food lifeboat available for sale at one's local supermarket would take the guess-work out of trying to put together a three-month survival pack that covers a person's nutritional requirements.
Brand-Miller says most people are in the dark about the foods they would need to survive. Ingredients such as seaweed, for example, would not immediately come to mind for most of us, but Brand-Miller says it was a very important item on her list.
"The seaweed is there to provide the iodine, and iodine deficiency is certainly a serious issue. Hypothetically, if a woman became pregnant throughout this period and did not get enough iodine, the baby could be at risk of learning difficulties in extreme cases."
Vegemite is included as an important source of folic acid; Milo is on the list for its range of nutrients, while Spam and canned tuna are listed as sources of protein.
And while the food lifeboat is full of nutritionally rich items, the researchers are aware that being locked indoors for weeks on end without the occasional indulgence is torture for most people.
"We've included chocolate on the list because palatability is very important, and in situations like the ones we are preparing for, food becomes a welcome distraction," Brand-Miller says. (Chocoholics note: she's only allocated you 30g per day.)
The entire food list, which is expected to last one person 10 weeks, is estimated to cost between $450-$500. It provides an average energy intake of 9MJ per person per day, so while men may need a little more energy, women and children would require less.
If the food lifeboat becomes adopted within the food industry, Brand-Miller says the panel of experts would also look at putting together a series of food lifeboats suited to different cultural tastes.
So far the nutritionists are simply offering two packages as options for those interested in stockpiling for emergencies -- one with, and one without vitamin supplements.
While the food lifeboat containing vitamin supplements is more costly, it is recommended as the better alternative by the researchers.
"If you are talking about normal life, I would always say it is preferable to get all of your vitamin needs from food, but in situations like this taking vitamins is a preferable alternative," says Brand-Miller.
Either way, Brand-Miller says it is important just to be prepared and begin to think about how well your cupboards would fare in a global flu pandemic.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22920579-23289,00.html

Other articles that have to do with this feature article
http://www.newstimes.com/opinion/ci_9823773

http://www.cullmantimes.com/homepage/local_story_158223117.html?keyword=leadpicturestory

http://www.vtfoodbank.org/press_room/coverage/page205/ Vermont


Videos that go along with the feature article

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6AP9HPseH4





Now back to the economy, alot of great articles come out daily, but i want this blog to be about more then just the economy. It is important to me that we cover things that will help you protect you and your family.


Ambrose Evans Pritchard is probably the premere economist that is willing to write about the economy. So i will bring his articles to the forfront when i come across them. Here is another one of his good articles.


The global economy is at the point of maximum danger

By Ambrose Evans- Pritchard

It feels like the summer of 1931. The world's two biggest financial institutions have had a heart attack. The global currency system is breaking down. The policy doctrines that got us into this mess are bankrupt. No world leader seems able to discern the problem, let alone forge a solution.
The International Monetary Fund has abdicated into schizophrenia. It has upgraded its 2008 world forecast from 3.7pc to 4.1pc growth, whilst warning of a "chance of a global recession". Plainly, the IMF cannot or will not offer any useful insights.
Its "mean-reversion" model misses the entire point of this crisis, which is that central banks have pushed debt to fatal levels by holding interest too low for a generation, and now the chickens have come home to roost. True "mean-reversion" would imply debt deflation on such a scale that would, if abrupt, threaten democracy.

The risk is that these same central banks will commit a fresh error, this time overreacting to the oil spike. The European Central Bank has raised rates, warning of a 1970s wage-price spiral. Fixated on the rear-view mirror, it is not looking through the windscreen.


The eurozone is falling into recession before the US itself. Its level of credit stress is worse, if measured by Euribor or the iTraxx bond indexes. Core inflation has fallen over the last year from 1.9pc to 1.8pc.
The US may soon tip into a second leg of this crisis as the fiscal package runs out and Americans lose jobs in earnest. US bank credit has contracted for three months. Real US wages fell at almost 10pc (annualised) over May and June. This is a ferocious squeeze for an economy already in the grip of the property and debt crunch.
No doubt the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - $5.3 trillion pillars of America's mortgage market - stinks of moral hazard. The Treasury is to buy shares: the Fed has opened its window yet wider. Risks have been socialised. Any rewards will go to capitalists.
Alas, no Scandinavian discipline for Wall Street. When Norway's banks fell below critical capital levels in the early 1990s, the Storting authorised seizure. Shareholders were stiffed.
But Nordic purism in the vast universe of US credit would court fate. The Californian lender IndyMac was indeed seized after depositors panicked on the streets of Encino. The police had to restore order. This was America's Northern Rock moment.
IndyMac will deplete a tenth of the $53bn reserve of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC has some 90 "troubled" lenders on watch. IndyMac was not one of them.
The awful reality is that Washington has its back to the wall. Fed chief Ben Bernanke thought the US could always get out of trouble by monetary stimulus "à l'outrance", and letting the dollar slide. He has learned that the world is a more complicated place.
Oil has queered the pitch. So has America's fatal reliance on foreign debt. The Fannie/Freddie rescue, incidentally, has just lifted the US national debt from German 'AAA' levels to Italian 'AA-' levels.
China, Russia, petro-powers and other foreign states own $985bn of US agency debt, besides holdings of US Treasuries. Purchases of Fannie/Freddie debt covered a third of the US current account deficit of $700bn over the last year. Alex Patelis from Merrill Lynch says America faces the risk of a "financing crisis" within months. Foreigners have a veto over US policy.
Japan did not have this problem during its Lost Decade. As the world's supplier of credit, it could let the yen slide. It also had a savings rate of 15pc. Albert Edwards from Société Générale says this has fallen to 3pc today. It has cushioned the slump. Americans are under water before they start.
My view is that a dollar crash will be averted as it becomes clearer that contagion has spread worldwide. But we are now at the point of maximum danger. Britain, Japan, and the Antipodes are stalling. Denmark is in recession. Germany contracted in the second quarter. May industrial output fell 6pc in Holland and 5.5pc in Sweden.
The coalitions in Belgium and Austria have just collapsed. Germany's left-right team is fraying. One German banker told me that the doctrines of "left Nazism" (Otto Strasser's group, purged by Hitler) had captured the rising Die Linke party. The Social Democrats are picking up its themes to protect their flank.
This is the healthy part of Europe. Further south, we are not far away from civic protest. BNP Paribas has just issued a hurricane alert for Spain.
Finance minister Pedro Solbes said Spain is facing the "most complex" economic crisis in its history. Actually, it is very simple. The country was lulled into a trap by giveaway interest rates of 2pc under EMU, leading to a current account deficit of 10pc of GDP.
A manic property bubble was funded by foreigners buying covered bonds and securities. This market has dried up. Monetary policy is now being tightened into the crunch by the ECB, hence the bankruptcy last week of Martinsa-Fadesa (€5.1bn). With Franco-era labour markets (70pc of wages are inflation-linked), the adjustment will occur through closure of the job marts.
China, India, East Europe and emerging Asia have all stolen growth from the future by condoning credit excess. To varying degrees, they are now being forced to pay back their own "inter-temporal overdrafts".
If we are lucky, America will start to stabilise before Asia goes down. Should our leaders mismanage affairs, almost every part of the global system will go down together. Then we are in trouble.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/21/ccview121.xml

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation then by deflation, the banks and the corporations will grow up around them, will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." - Thomas Jefferson, from the debate on the recharter of the Bank Bill, (1809)

A friend emailed me the following article, it is worrysome.

Emerging Killer Virus Starts Like a Cold, But Kills Many

(NaturalNews) A newly discovered and highly lethal virus strain begins with symptoms similar to that of a cold but can quickly lead to severe respiratory crisis."This virus has the capability of causing severe respiratory illness in people of all ages, regardless of their medical condition," said John Su, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The virus was discovered by infectious-disease expert David N. Gilbert, who noticed that otherwise healthy patients were being stricken by pneumonia so severe that they would die without oxygen treatment. The dangerous symptoms developed within only one or two days of initial cough and fever symptoms.
"Mike Adams is the best health and natural products writer on the scene today."
- Ronnie Cummins, founder, Organic Consumers Association (www.OrganicConsumers.org)
"I wish that more people had the level of intensity that Mr. Mike Adams has to get the knowledge in our hands and help us get healthy and stay healthy. I have recommended ALL my friends to sign up for this important newsletter."
- Dr. Jack Singh, founder, the Organic Food Bar Company
"I'm so impressed with the work that you're doing and the information you're disseminating, it's just vital for people to get this sort of information."
- Michael T. Murray, author of The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods and The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine
"Mike Adams has one of the best websites on the Internet. His articles, podcasts and books will improve your life, and possibly save it. As a journalist he is relentless in his questioning, always asking insightful questions to expose the truth. Masterful!"
- Suzy Cohen, R.Ph., Author of The 24-Hour Pharmacist (www.DearPharmacist.com)
Since Gilbert's discovery of the virus in Portland, Oregon, outbreaks have been identified at military bases in Washington, Texas and South Carolina.The disease is a variety of adenovirus, the family that includes 51 infectious agents responsible for diseases such as colds, pink eye, bronchitis and the stomach flu. A mutation has apparently occurred in a virus called adenovirus 14, making it much more lethal. In the first outbreak examined by Gilbert, seven of 30 hospitalized patients died."That's an incredibly high mortality rate," Gilbert said.One of the patients who survived was 18-year-old Joseph Spencer. After experiencing severe, flu-like symptoms including chills, fever and vomiting, Spencer went to the hospital, where he was placed in intensive care and treated for 18 days."We told the family we didn't think he was going to survive," Gilbert said.Spencer was eventually discharged, but says he still feels weak and short of breath, and has had problems with his memory.Tests have determined that more 50 percent of adenovirus infections in Oregon are now caused by the new strain of adenovirus 14."That's shocking," said Paul Lewis, an Oregon health investigator. "It went from being imperceptible to being the majority."Health officials caution that while the vast majority of cold-like infections are harmless, patients whose symptoms continue getting worse should see a doctor.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023659.html