World Bank sounds alarm on rising global food prices

World food prices rose in the first quarter of the year for the first time since their all-time high in August 2012, driven by rising demand in China, drought in the United States and unrest in Ukraine.

According to the World Bank, internationally traded food prices increased by a sharp 4.0 percent. The leap was led by wheat and maize, up 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

As a result, international food prices in April were only 2.0 percent lower than a year ago and 16 percent below their record level in August 2012, the bank's quarterly food price report said.

"Increasing weather concerns and import demand -- and, arguably, to a lesser extent, uncertainty associated with the Ukraine situation -- explain most of the price increases," the report said.

World Bank economists said prices increased despite bumper crops in 2013 and continued projections of record grain harvests and stronger stocks expected for 2014.

Persistently dry conditions in the United States and strong global demand, particularly from China, partly explained the price rises.

- Ukraine has role -

But Ukraine, the breadbasket of eastern Europe, played a part, posting the largest domestic price increases for wheat and maize.

Ukraine, the world's sixth-largest wheat exporter, saw domestic wheat prices jump by 37 percent, driven in part by currency depreciation.

Overall, international wheat prices soared by 18 percent quarter-over-quarter.

"Such a steep price increase had not occurred since the months leading to the historical peak in the summer of 2012," the report said.

International maize prices rose by 12 percent, with Ukraine, the third-largest exporter of maize, experiencing a 73 percent rise in domestic prices because of delayed plantings and increasing costs.

"Geopolitical tensions in Ukraine have not disrupted exports so far, but might have effects on future production and trade if uncertainty increases," the report said.

Other countries in the grip of political and economic stresses also saw prices shoot higher. In Argentina, for example, wheat prices were up 70 percent from a year ago.

Sugar prices rose 13 percent and soybean oil prices gained 6.0 percent quarter-over-quarter.

The first-quarter price increases were offset by a 12 percent decline in rice prices and a 7.0 percent drop in fertilizer prices.

The average price of crude oil rose 3.0 percent to $104 a barrel.

The United Nations reported last month that world food prices reached their highest level for 10 months in March due to poor weather in major producing countries and the crisis in Ukraine.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said its monthly food price index in March rose by 2.3 percent from February to the highest level since May last year.

Experts are concerned that rising prices will hurt the world's most vulnerable and could foment food riots and other social unrest.

"Over the next few months, we must watch these prices carefully, making sure that any further increases do not put additional pressure on the least well-off around the world," senior World Bank official Ana Revenga said.

In 2007 and 2008, soaring food prices had sparked dozens of riots across the globe, including in Haiti, Cameroon and India.

According to the lender, 51 food riots have occurred in 37 countries since 2007, most of them linked to a jump in food prices and aimed at local authorities.

This was the case in the crises in Tunisia in 2011 and in South Africa in 2012, the bank said.

"Food price shocks can both spark and exacerbate conflict and political instability, and it is vital to promote policies that work to mitigate these effects," the report warned.

Chilly 1Q: U.S. Economy Contracts for First Time Since '11

The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs activity has since rebounded.

The Commerce Department on Thursday revised down its growth estimate to show gross domestic product shrinking at a 1.0 annual rate.

It was the worst performance since the first quarter of 2011 and reflected a far slower pace of inventory accumulation and a bigger than previously estimated trade deficit.

The government had previously estimated GDP growth expanding at a 0.1 percent rate. It is not unusual for the government to make sharp revisions to GDP numbers as it does not have complete data when it makes its initial estimates.

The decline in output, which also reflected a plunge in business spending on nonresidential structures, was sharper than Wall Street's expectations. Economists had expected the revision to show GDP contracting at a 0.5 percent rate.

The economy grew at a 2.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter. U.S. financial markets are likely to shrug off the report, given the temporary factors that weighed down on growth and the fact that economic activity is rebounding.

Data ranging from employment to manufacturing suggests growth will accelerate sharply in the second quarter.

Economists estimate severe weather could have chopped off as much as 1.5 percentage points from GDP growth. The government, however, gave no details on the impact of the weather.

Businesses accumulated $49.0 billion worth of inventories, far less than the $87.4 billion estimated last month.

It was the smallest amount in a year and left inventories subtracting 1.62 percentage points from first-quarter growth. But inventories should be a boost to second-quarter growth.

While the decline in exports was not as severe as initially thought, import growth was stronger. That resulted in a trade deficit that sliced off 0.95 percentage point from GDP growth.

A measure of domestic demand that strips out exports and inventories expanded at a 1.6 percent rate, rather than a 1.5 percent rate, indicating underlying strength in the economy.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 3.1 percent rate. It was previously reported to have advanced at a 3.0 percent pace.

Spending was boosted by the Affordable Healthcare Act, which expanded healthcare coverage to many Americans. Consumer spending had increased at a brisk 3.3 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

Business spending on nonresidential structures, such as gas drilling, contracted at a 7.5 percent rate. It had previously been reported to have increased at a 0.2 percent pace. The report showed corporate profits after tax plunged at a 13.7 percent rate, the biggest drop since the fourth quarter of 2008. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Full Gut Bugout: Why Trapping Is Essential for Long-Term Survival

We’ve all seen those “survival” shows, claiming that one dude can wildly run around the woods, procuring all the necessities of sustenance through fashioning a makeshift spear from an old boat propeller and skewering a 10-point buck …but entertaining as that is, it just doesn’t work like that.

Securing meat sources is not one of those parts of bugout life you simply leave to chance “because we saw them do it on TV”, so thinking that we’ll be able to remain fat and happy only off an abundance of hares might not be productive. And, even if this were possible for the best of the backwoods experts, the rest of us need to consider the fact that we may not be that good. Being forced to learn such a craft during a survival situation is certainly not an optimal scenario.

However, even thinking that we’ll be able to make the tree line by the crack of dawn, carrying only ye olde’Ruger 10/22, and taking home enough meals to feed the mobile homestead may probably be a disappointing fallacy, as well. Depending on where you live and how abundant game may be in your area, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to throw out all the stops in your quest to feed you and especially your loved ones.

This is why learning the ancient art, wilderness methods, and backwoods traditions of trapping should be one of your top priorities. That is, if you want to sustain yourself on more than just the MREs you brought along for the ride.

Trapping Depends on Your Kit

It should be said right off the bat that not every type of bugout bag requires a comprehensive trapping kit. In fact, you might even be doing more harm than good if you load up your 72-hour emergency bag with heavy traps, depending on your fitness level and skill.

The reason I would not ordinarily advocate bringing along a long-term trapping kit in your 72-hour bag is simply because of the philosophy behind the scenario. Your 72-hour bag is simply meant for a temporary survival situation, in which you are hoping to be found and rescued shortly thereafter. Carrying along a large trapping kit doesn’t make sense, and that weight would better serve you if it were replaced by medical supplies, food, and signaling options.

However, that’s not to say that a modestly small trapping kit isn’t worth the weight entirely. Though, snares are considered a ‘low-probability’ trap, meaning that it is unlikely you’ll snag Peter Rabbit with one…if you set 20, you might just snag his brother too.

The strength of using lightweight snares is that these traps are nothing but rigged metal wires or cables (depending on what cable-weight suits your strategy). This shouldn’t take up large amounts of space and won’t weigh you down. In addition, they can also be used for other applications.

In the event that you lose your cordage, snares would do just fine in a pinch. They can be great for making shelter, trip cords, hafting, and if you were good enough to bring only stainless steel containers, you can use snares to hang your water bottle over the fire for boiling and cooking.

The weakness of using snares is their tendency to serve as a ‘one-time-use-only’, kind of trap. If the wrong critter happens to wander into the snare, which was set to catch a meal half its size, then you can pretty much say goodbye to that setup. Especially in freezing temperature scenarios, snares can even become brittle. When that happens, all bets are off.

Long-Term Sustenance and Heavier Traps

While snares are a great way to go in a short-term scenario, your long-term strategy should include substantially more trapping gear than that. Remember, even if you brought along 30 snares, depending on the kind of game wandering through your area (which isn’t always possible to know off the bat), you might tear up all your snares within a week.

One of my favorite kinds of traps is the Conibear, which is considered a ‘body grip’ trap. Fortunately for those of us who are lovers of the backwoods and of the creatures who dwell therein, Conibear traps offer one of the most humane methods of the craft, offering almost a total likelihood of instant dispatch for the critter. Simply put, it wanders into the trap, trips it, and our furry MRE wakes up in small game heaven.

In addition, these traps are considered a ‘high probability’ trap, meaning that if something wanders into it – well, then that critter’s goose is definitely cooked. Unlike snares, where the animal has a fairly high chance of escaping (or being taken by a hawk, who’s probably laughing all the way back to its nest), Conibear traps will kill instantly, and secure the animal until you come and harvest.

It is usually recommended that you carry an assortment of #110, #120, and #220 Conibear traps, as each number indicates its size and spring-strength. The smaller #110’s are usually good for little critters, such as squirrels and rabbits, but the heftier #220’s will even snag a beaver. Strategize accordingly, but be aware that the bigger the trap, the harder it snaps, which increases your likelihood of broken fingers and lots of cussing–if handled carelessly, that is.

Also, bear in mind that if you bring along a trapping kit for sustained wilderness self-reliance, then you will need to be mentally and physically prepared to carry the additional weight. While the #110’s are a pound, and #220’s only weigh in at 2lbs, that weight can add up quickly.

Trapping Beauty

In this glorious age of modern trapping methods and gear, we now have traps that are rather easy to set, will last two decades if maintained, and are far more reliable than in the olden days. Of course, we’ve all heard the legends of Davy Crockett-types, ramblin’ through the woods with a musket and moccasins–but even these guys trapped to survive and make a living.

Simply put, trapping offers the survivalist, backwoodsman, bushcrafter, and explorer the means by which to hunt… without being present. Set enough traps (the proper way of course), and you’ve increased your chances of harvesting meat from the land. Do this while hunting or fishing, and you’ve increased your chances even higher. If you don’t use traps and rely only on hunting, then you’ve left your survival to the hard chance that game will just so happen to blunder into your sights–within range–and present you with a somewhat clean shot.

By the way, it might also be worthy to mention: traps will kill silently. Food for thought.

The understanding behind trapping is that it’s based on the concept of residual returns through increasing your chances, elevating your probability of acquiring meat sources. The more traps you bring, the better your chances. If frontiersmen thought this was important, then it must have been. Of course, I’d trust a Davy Crockett over “survival dude” any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Cool Step-by-Step Guide Shows You How to Build an Awesome Pizza Oven in Your Own Backyard

It can cost upwards of $20 for some of those fancy — and rather small — wood-fired pizzas. If you are so obsessed with this version of a thin crust, crispy pie with a hint of smoky flavor, though, you might even be inclined to build your own pizza oven, for which kits and whole systems can cost between hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Or you could do what this couple did and build your own out of cinder blocks and concrete.

“We’ve made a TON of pizzas since, works brilliantly, best [three] tonnes I carried up a hill ever!” the pizza oven creator, who posted photos of each step of the process on Imgur, wrote. Note: a tonne is a metric unit for 2,240 pounds, while a ton in the United States is 2,000 pounds.

Image source: Imgur

Take a look at the whole process in this Imgur photo gallery:

It is unclear just how much it all cost.

Memorial Day - Members of the military return home to reunite with their families

The Process of Building a Mormon Temple

How To Sharpen Your Knife.

INDIANAPOLIS — Anyone who owns a good knife knows that getting it perfectly sharp can be as hard as bagging the elusive 30-point buck. And tips and theories on how to get the edge just right are about as numerous as stories about “almost” nabbing that 30-pointer.

So is there an easy way to get that awesome edge?

The folks over at EZ-LAP Diamond Products say yes. They took time during the 2014 NRA convention to show us how to get your knife perfectly sharp. Company representative Ralph Johnson told TheBlaze that with the advent of knife-sharpening stones that now integrate diamonds, there’s actually a better way to get your knife sharp — and you may not even realize it.

The trick? Swirl your knife on a diamond stone instead of using the straight strokes required when using traditional stones like an Arkansas.

(Source: TheBlaze

According to Johnson, the swirling motion takes advantage of the diamonds’ ability to cut no matter what the stroke, and the way your hand is positioned (the “wobble” as he called it) naturally ensures an even angle. It also helps prevent build-up of metal on the backside of the knife.

In other words, if you have a diamond stone (which is becoming all the rage lately), you may be sharpening your knife all wrong — or at least not doing it the best way.

The Meat Crisis Is Here: Price Of Shrimp Up 61% – 7 Million Pigs Dead – Beef At All-Time High

As the price of meat continues to skyrocket, will it soon be considered a "luxury item" for most American families?  This week we learned that the price of meat in the United States rose at the fastest pace in more than 10 years last month.  Leading the way is the price of shrimp.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of shrimp has jumped an astounding 61 percent compared to a year ago.  The price of pork is also moving upward aggressively thanks to a disease which has already killed about 10 percent of all of the pigs in the entire country.  And the endless drought in the western half of the country has caused the size of the U.S. cattle herd to shrink to a 63 year low and has pushed the price of beef to an all-time high.  This is really bad news if you like to eat meat.  The truth is that the coming "meat crisis" is already here, and it looks like it is going to get a lot worse in the months ahead.

A devastating bacterial disease called "early mortality syndrome" is crippling the shrimping industry all over Asia right now.  According toBloomberg, this has pushed the price of shrimp up 61 percent over the past 12 months...

In March, shrimp prices jumped 61 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The climb is mainly due to a bacterial disease known as early mortality syndrome. While the ailment has no effect on humans, it’s wreaking havoc on young shrimp farmed in Southeast Asia, shrinking supplies.

This disease has an extremely high mortality rate.  In fact, according to the article that I just quoted, it kills approximately nine out of every ten shrimp that it infects...

Cases of early mortality syndrome, which destroys the digestive systems of young shrimp, were first reported in China in 2009, said Donald Lightner, a professor of animal and comparative biomedical sciences at University of Arizona in Tucson.

The disease, which kills about 90 percent of the shrimp it infects, traveled from China to Vietnam to Malaysia and then to Thailand, he said. Cases also were reported in Mexico last year, Lightner said.

A different disease is driving up the price of pork in the United States.  It is known as the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, and in less than a year it has spread to 30 states and has killed approximately 7 million pigs.

The price of bacon is already up 13.1 percent over the past year, but this is just the beginning.

It is being projected that U.S. pork production could be down by as much as 10 percent this year, and Americans could end up paying up to 20 percent more for pork by the end of 2014.

The price of beef has also moved to unprecedented heights.  Thanks to the crippling drought that never seems to end in the western half of the nation, the size of the U.S. cattle herd has been declining for seven years in a row, and it is now the smallest that is has been since 1951.

Over the past year, the price of ground chuck beef is up 5.9 percent.  It would have been worse, but ranchers have been slaughtering lots of cattle in order to thin their herds in a desperate attempt to get through this drought.  If this drought does not end soon, the price of beef is going to go much, much higher.

As prices for shrimp, pork and beef have risen, many consumers have been eating more chicken.  But the price of chicken is rising rapidly as well.

In fact, the price of chicken breast is up 12.4 percent over the past 12 months.

Unfortunately, this could just be the very beginning of this meat crisis.  As I wrote about recently, some scientists are warning that we could potentially be facing "a century-long megadrought".

And right now, there are no signs that the drought out west is letting up.  Just check out the map posted below.  It comes from the U.S. Drought Monitor, and it shows how the drought in California has significantly intensified since the beginning of the year...

And considering how much the rest of the nation relies on the agricultural production coming out of California, it is very alarming to see that the drought is getting even worse.

Right now, things are so bone dry in most of the state that it is easy for wildfires to get out of control.  In fact, Governor Jerry Brown has just declared a state of emergency in San Diego County because of the vicious wildfires that are raging there...

Officials ordered another round of evacuations early Thursday north of San Diego as gusty winds and near 100-degree temperatures offer little relief from at least nine fires that have consumed a 14-square mile area of Southern California.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for San Diego County, which frees up special resources and funding for the firefight.

The fires, coming earlier than normal in the wildfire season, are being fed by brush and trees left brittle by prolonged drought. They are also being whipped by a Santa Ana wind system that reverses the normal flow of wind from the Pacific Ocean and creates tinderbox fire conditions.

For the first time in its 14-year-history, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that tracks drought, designated the entire state of California as in a severe (or worse) drought.

If you do not live out west, you may have no idea how very serious this all really is.

For years, I have been warning about the potential for dust bowl conditions to return to the western half of the country.

Now it is actually starting to happen.

And we already have tens of millions of people in this country that are struggling to feed themselves.  If you doubt this, please see my previous article entitled "Epidemic Of Hunger: New Report Says 49 Million Americans Are Dealing With Food Insecurity".

So what happens if drought, diseases and plagues continue to cause food production in this country to plummet?

Those that have studied these things tell us that there is a clear correlation between food prices and civil unrest.  For example, the following is a short excerpt from a recent Scientific American article...

Since the beginning of 2014, riots have occurred in countries including Thailand and Venezuela. Although they’re different cultures on different continents, these mass protests movements may all have one commonality; increasing food prices may have contributed to their occurrence. The cost of food has been steadily increasing in both Thailand and Venezuela; last month demonstrators in Caracas took to the streets marching with empty pots to protest food shortages. According to Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam and fellow researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), events such as these may be anticipated by a mathematical model that examines rising food costs.

The events of 2014 aren’t without precedent; the price of food has provoked (and placated) throughout history, beginning in Imperial Rome when Augustus introduced grain subsidies. In recent years, the Middle East has been particularly affected by the cost of grain. Centuries after Egypt developed bread as we recognize it, the nation experienced a bread intifada – the country rioted for two days in January 1977 following Anwar Sadat’s decision to drastically decrease food subsidies. More recently, under the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the price of grain rose 30 percent between 2010 and 2011. Then, on January 25, 2011 a new revolution began in Egypt.

Could rapidly rising food prices cause civil unrest in the United States eventually?

It won't happen today, and it won't happen tomorrow, but some day it might.

Meanwhile, you might want to start carving out a significantly larger portion of the family budget for food for the foreseeable future.

Did you know our Missionaries LOVE LETTERS!!!

7 Survival Uses of Pantyhose that You Didn’t Know

OK, so it may be a bit weird for you guys in the crowd to buy pantyhose, but if you don’t have a gal-pal to do it for you, suck it up. After all, we’re talking survival preparedness, and this is not time to be shy. 

Pantyhose have awesome potential as a multi-purpose tool and deserve a place in your survival kit. There are a million sites all over the web that tell you the “normal” uses, but today we’re going to go out on a limb and discuss some unusual survival uses for pantyhose. 

Let me start by saying that for some of these uses, traditional, cheap pantyhose may not be tough enough to do the job, so I’d suggest picking up a few pairs of leggings, which are essentially pantyhose with a tighter weave. 

They’re stronger and won’t be as prone to tearing, but still have the stretchy, sieve-like properties that make pantyhose so useful. You can get them for a buck or two at thrift stores. 

Keep Deer Out of Your Garden 
Food may be scarce enough without feeding half of your garden to the local wildlife. Cheap, used pantyhose will work just fine for this task. Fill up a few pantyhose sacks with some hair clippings and tie them around the perimeter of the garden. Human hair is good, but dog hair is even better. Just put a few clippings in a short length of pantyhose and tie them around. 

Keep Warm and Prevent Bug Bites and Chiggers Wearing a pair of pantyhose or leggings is a great way to add a layer of warmth while keeping the bugs from eating you alive. No directions necessary here! They work well to keep off leeches or other water bugs as well if you’re going to be traveling through infested waters, though those are uncommon in most of the states. 

Prevent Blisters When You Walk 
Because pantyhose are slippery, wearing them under your sock will help keep shoes from rubbing blisters on your feet if you have to walk any distance. Preventing blisters will help keep you free of infection as well as make you much more comfortable when traveling. Just wear a pair under your socks. You can actually get the “footie” pantyhose for this in boxes that contain several pairs. 

Use Them as a Bait Net 
You won’t be able to catch larger fish probably, but if you stretch hose over a forked stick then skim it through the water, you may be able to catch some bait fish that you can use to catch bigger ones. You can also use a length of hose to hold your bait if you have nothing else. They may get gill-caught in the netting but at least they won’t get away. Just keep the hose hanging in the water and use the bait as you need it. 

Use Pantyhose as a Dust Mask 
They’re not perfect and won’t keep out toxins but if you have to walk through an area with heavy ash or dust in the air, putting pantyhose over your face bank robber-style will help keep out the larger debris so that you’re not sucking all of that stuff into your lungs. You can put them over your air filter in your car to keep it from sucking ash or dust into the motor, too. 

Use Them to Sprout Seeds 
Your seeds are going to be valuable and you don’t want to lose them to wind, etc.You also don’t want to waste dirt or containers on seeds that don’t sprout. Just put several seeds in the toe of a pair of pantyhose and wet it twice daily, then hang them up. Your seeds will sprout in a few days and you can remove them and transplant them. 

Use Them as a Crab Net
Crabs make an excellent meal but are difficult to catch if you don’t have your traditional crabbing gear. Just put chicken skins or other food that crabs like in the toe of the hose and dangle it in the water so that it’s sitting on the bottom. Crab will get stuck in the netting and you can just lift the hose up and remove the crabs. 

Other Traditional Survival Uses for Pantyhose 

• Filtering debris from water
• Tying up plants to keep them off the ground
• Bungee cords
• Mosquito netting, 
• Works great as an emergency fan belt if yours breaks. 
• Place it in the bottom of your planters to allow water to drain without losing your dirt. 
• Keeping your soap clean – just hang your soap in a length of pantyhose and hang beside the water source. 
• Drying food – tie your peppers, onions, herbs, or other food that you want to dry up in a leg of pantyhose and hang in the sun. 

Because they’re stretchy and allow liquids to pass through easily, pantyhose are great multi-purpose survival tools and we recommend keeping a few pair in your bug-out bag and even more in your stockpile. They don’t cost much, if anything, especially if there’s a lady of the house that wears them first. Finally, they take up very little space and are practically weightless, so make sure that you have a few pair handy!

Focusing on Dental Health & the Devastating Effects If You Don’t

Traditionally survival medical advice has sounded something like this: “Have a medical first aid kit and make sure your dental work is up to date.” This is very good advice. However, I believe the advice should instead be, “Make sure your medical and dental needs are up to date and have acomprehensive first aid kit.” No comprehensive first aid kit is complete without critical dental medicaments and instruments. What happens when there is a dental need and there is either no dentist around or dentists offices are not functioning? Is your first aid kit complete with the necessary materials for such a problem?  This article focuses on three main topics: (1) Why should I focus on dental health? (2) What dental supplies should I include in my kit? and (3) Where can I find a high-quality, dentist-grade supply kit?

Why should I focus on dental health?

It may surprise some, but until the last two generations, most people have needed all of their teeth extracted during their lifetime.  In England few dentitions remained intact much after age 40. Even George Washington was toothless- it hit all social classes. The main reasons for this were lack of proper hygiene, unbalanced diet, and few ways to fix and keep teeth. Modern dentistry has provided many ways to preserve, fix, and even replace teeth, as well as maintain systems for preserving dentition. All of this even in the face of modern diets that have a dramatically more negative effect on tooth lifespan than generations ago. So, what would a combination of generally poorer diets and lack of modern dentistry mean? The answer: dramatically more tooth decay than even in the 19^th century!

Dental medicament’s and instruments are unique in their function and critical to maintaining not only one’s teeth but also, in some circumstances, one’s life! Deaths from dental abscesses today are so rare, that it is difficult to fathom that only 200 years ago, this was a leading cause of death. What would life be like in a SHTF scenarios?  Would daily living be similar to 200 years ago? Very likely indeed.  Bartering, growing our own food, being self-sufficient, and, yes, suffering from toothaches, some of which can lead to death!

Search “dental abscess death” in your search engine and you’ll find a myriad of recent tragic, deadly stories. The most alarming part is these deaths are avoidable through modern dentistry.  The problem is, how modern will dentistry be if you don’t have access to its modernity?

If things couldn’t get worse, two of the main causes of tooth loss- periodontal (gum) disease and trauma, are likely to be a greater risk in a SHTF scenario. With regular cleanings unavailable under such circumstances, periodontal disease will dramatically worsen. With changing environments, more exposure to the elements, and more manual labor necessary, trauma will also spike in prevalence.

With the case clear that there will be dental needs when SHTF, what do we do about it?

In the USA, there is only 1 dentist per 1,597 people.[3] In large cities, they are a dime a dozen while in rural areas they are few and far between. When you take away the efficiencies of modern practice and the just in time supply chain of materials (limiting inventory of medicament’s and tools in a dental office) in a prolonged calamity, dentists will be in high demand. In addition, many will have their practices ravaged, ruined, or destroyed, stripping dental offices of all supplies and equipment.  During a sustained event if you, anyone in your group, or anyone around you is going to have dental care available it will be because you have the necessary equipment, tools, and medicament’s as part of your emergency kit to allow a trained professional to care for you.

Lest you think physicians, nurses, or other medical professionals will be able to fill in the gap, these professionals get no training in human tooth extraction and nearly no training regarding the oral cavity. Emergency Room doctors routinely consult dentists regarding where to place the needle to deliver local anesthetic inside the mouth because they do not get it in their training, even though tooth pain is one of the fastest growing reasons for ER visits. It’s not that tooth extraction couldn’t be learned by non-dentists, but it would take training and practice and currently these things are serious crimes under the law, where irreversible processes and potentially life threatening complications are possible.

Dentists will still be around when SHTF as much as anybody, but the supplies to perform their tasks will not. They will disappear just as fast as any medicine, bottle of liquor, or box of ammo. You will need to have the supplies to provide for you and yours if you have a hope of having that toothache dealt with.

What dental supplies should I include in my kit?

The first group of essential supplies are basic dental hygiene supplies:  toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste.  These products are readily available or can be homemade many different ways (seehttp://besttoothpaste.net/ for an example of homemade toothpaste).  Proper oral hygiene will do more than anything to prevent tooth problems than anything else.

After the basic hygiene supplies, it gets far more challenging because we move into professional supplies with specific indications based on diagnosis, supplies used exclusively by dentists. However, having the correct temporary restorative materials, dental cements, materials and matrixes to make intermediate restorations are all essential to preserving dentition.

Next it is essential to have the proper instrumentation. First, professional hygiene supplies- you know- the instruments the hygienists use when you get your teeth cleaned. These valuable tools not only help keep teeth clean, but prevent periodontal disease (tooth abscess) and dental cavities. They are critical. Second, it’s crucial to have the proper assortment of instruments and forceps for tooth extraction. The correct instruments are essential. You do not want to have an infected broken root that doesn’t come out- that doesn’t solve the problem, rather likely makes it worse. Having the proper instruments used by someone who knows what they are doing, could ultimately mean the difference between life and death.

Up to this point all the materials and instruments are available and can be performed under most circumstances. Worthwhile materials and instruments can be expensive but are within most people’s budget and can be legally purchased. If you have to use these instruments you may lose a few teeth but, the tragedy of death due to tooth abscess will most likely be avoided. More involved and complex dentistry such as, making crowns, doing implants, bonding and root canals all will require significantly more materials, dramatic increases in cost, and a controlled environment.

Where can I find a high-quality, dentist-grade supply kit?

There are thousands of makes and models of dental instruments and even more manufacturers of dental materials. Even dentists can get confused over the differences between economy and professional lines, with numerous varieties of grades and styles, all with their own claims. The costs of these materials vary greatly based on many factors. One suggestion is to talk to your dentist to see what they suggest but because this is an often overlooked area of one’s medical kit there are few resources as to what might be included in the dental segment of the comprehensive kit.  The book, Where There Is No Dentist, by Murray Dickson, is adequate for basic field triage dentistry for the untrained, but does not address what materials ought to be had for real, predictable dentistry performed by trained professionals in calamitous situations.

There are a few dental kits available on the web and a variety of selected instruments can be found on eBay. Until very recently, no kit has had the critical elements of required dental hygiene tools, assorted extraction instruments, and necessary materials, medicaments, and matrixes to place restorations. Those that are available are either completely lacking in proper supplies or the manufacturers are either unknown or untrustworthy. Either way, every kit currently available is not complete.

PrepperDental.com – High Quality, Comprehensive Dental Kit

However, there is a new comprehensive dental kit available that fulfills this need in everyone’s medical first aid kit. Dental Essentials, LLC has recently developed a kit that fulfills each of the requirements necessary to professionally clean teeth, temporarily and intermediately restore teeth, extract broken and infected teeth, and treat oral trauma. This kit can be found at prepperdental.com. All instruments arrive in pre-sterilized pouches ready for use by a professional. The kit comes in a custom cordura nylon case to house each material and instrument accordingly.

The last thing you want is to have the tools for a project, but they are of such poor quality that they do not work as they should. The kit bag and its primary line of essential instruments are all made in the USA of the highest quality and come with a lifetime warranty. The only thing this kit lacks is the anesthetic supplies as they are regulated by the FDA. (In full disclosure- I am a consultant for the kit and I chose the components because they are brands I use every day in my private dental practice.)

In summary, when prolonged calamity comes, daily proper oral hygiene will be the most crucial element in preventing dental problems. However, tooth problems will occur causing significant pain and, in some cases, death. Having a complete dental kit gives you the peace of mind that you will have the materials necessary to avoid these tragedies and maintain your teeth through the difficulties. Having the proper dental materials and instruments is an essential component to any complete medical kit.

How to Make Gel Fuel at Home for Survival

Gel fuel is a relative newcomer to the portable fuel scene and is making quite a splash, mainly because if you knock it over, it DOESN’T make a splash. It’s safer to use than regular fuel because it won’t spill out and cause a fuel fire, and it doesn’t produce any noxious gases if burned inside with no ventilation, which makes it an excellent tool for survival. 

So let’s see how to make gel fuel at home for your stockpile.

There are a couple of different ways to make gel fuel at home and both are just a matter of preference. Regardless of which way you choose, the primary incendiary component is 90% isopropyl alcohol, aka rubbing alcohol. The other component, the gelling agent, is either soy wax or calcium acetate. The debate about which is better is basically the same as that over chocolate or vanilla: it’s just a matter of which you prefer. 

How to Make Gel Fuel with Soy Wax 

If you choose to use the soy wax, just follow some simply steps: Melt 6 ounces of soy wax in a pan. Add 1/2 cup 70-99% isopropyl alcohol (higher percentage is better if you can find it) and stir until completely combined. Pour the mixture into 6 soup cans or pet food cans until they’re about 3/4 of the way full then add a wick that goes to the bottom of the gel fuel. Cool in the fridge for several hours or overnight, and then it’s ready to use. If you’d rather store in quantity, you can put it in gallon jugs. Just make sure that you label it well so that nobody mistakes it for water or something else and store it away from children and pets. 

How to Make Gel Fuel with Calcium Acetate 

If you’d like to use calcium acetate, which is actually the more preferred method, you can either buy it or make it yourself. Making calcium acetate at home: You’ll need crushed chalk (calcium carbonate) and white vinegar (acetic acid). Combine 4 parts vinegar to 1 part chalk and the result will be carbon dioxide, which will evaporate, and calcium acetate and water, both of which will remain. This process smells like rotten eggs, just so you know. You’ll be left with a solid on the bottom and a liquid on the top. It’s the solid that you want, though you’ll need some of the liquid to make the gel. You’ll need to evaporate 1/2-2/3 of the water out of the solution. You can do it by placing the solution in the oven for a few hours, sitting it in the sun, or carefully evaporating it on “low” on the stove top. You can also strain it using a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Making the gel fuel: Combine 9 parts isopropyl alcohol and 1 part calcium acetate. Stir together and it will instantly begin to gel. Put it in the empty soup cans as described above. Add some water in if you’re using solid calcium acetate that you bought. The ratio, regardless of whether you’re making your own or adding water to store-bought, is about 1 part water to 3 parts calcium acetate. 

The Math Made Easy 

We hate translating “parts” to actual measurements so we’re going to put this in cooking language for you. To get the proper ratio of calcium acetate to water, use 3/4 cup calcium acetate and 1/4 cup water. Now, since it’s only 1 part of this mix to 9 parts isopropyl alcohol. There are 16 cups in a gallon so if you use 1 gallon of isopropyl alcohol, you need to add 1 3/4 cup + 1 teaspoon of the calcium aceate/water mixture to get the right ratio. After that, if the gel is too thick for your liking, just add a bit more isopropyl alcohol until you’re satisfied. 

Making it Pretty 

Many people like to burn fuel gel in the fireplace or in pretty pots for ambiance. If you’d like to do that, you can jazz up the fuel by making it crackle when it burns, so that it sounds like wood burning. To add this effect, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil to each gallon of alcohol (1 teaspoon per 12 ounces of fuel gel). If you’d like to get even fancier and make it smell good, pick up your favorite scented oil from the local craft store and use that in place of part (or all) of the cooking oil. We’ve talked about the importance of morale in various articles throughout this site, and we stand by that idea. If you’re making gel fuel at home for survival, making it sound homey or smell good won’t make it less functional but it may make you feel good when things look bleak. 

Words of Warning 

The measurements given here are just a jumping off point. If you want to make a huge batch, just follow the ratios. A word of warning though; just because gel fuels won’t spill like liquid fuels will, make no mistake that they WILL burn you. The fire is hot and it burns for a long time, so if you get the lit gel on you, it’s not going to be pretty. Take all of the same precautions with it that you would with any other highly flammable liquid. Label it well, store it away from heat and sunlight, and keep it out of the reach of children and pets. Now you know how to make gel fuel at home for your stockpile. You can store it for practically forever as long as you keep it covered, but you still need to be cautious. We like to seal ours in plastic zip bags to keep the moisture out, but that’s just our preference. If you’ve made gel fuel, tell us about your experience in the comments section below.

Increasing food prices spark trend of package downsizing!

The experts all agree on one thing: It began with coffee.

Coffee, says Edgar Dworsky, founder of Consumerworld.org and a former assistant attorney general in the state Consumer Protection Division, is “the classic example” of an insidious trend that has spread through every aisle of the grocery store: package downsizing.

Many years ago, dear children, a 1-pound can of coffee contained 1 pound of coffee. Today, that can probably holds something like 11 ounces. A pound of hot dogs? At least one brand is down to 14 ounces. A ½-gallon of ice cream? Gone the way of the dodo, replaced by the 1½-quart container. A bag of sugar, weighing 5 pounds since time immemorial, is now 4 pounds.

As anyone who has set foot in a supermarket in the past couple of years can tell you, food prices are up — way up. To some extent, food manufacturers are facing the same challenges as consumers: Raw materials are more expensive, transportation costs higher, resources scarcer. “The reality is,” says Phil Lempert, editor of SupermarketGuru.com, “if you look at USDA projections, food is going to get more expensive. And as a result, food companies are going to do one of two or three things: Raise prices and keep packages the same, or reduce the quantity in the package. Or do a little of both.”

Consumers might be willing to swallow, albeit reluctantly, either higher prices or smaller packages (which in the end amount to the same thing). What many find objectionable is the seemingly deceptive, or at least sneaky, way that manufacturers go about downsizing. “Nobody begrudges the company making money,” says Rosemarie Lauria, of Braintree, a consumer who’s tired of seeing toilet paper and cookies shrinking at the store. “But the key word is ‘deceive.’ I find it underhanded. I would rather they were upfront about it and raised the price. Don’t they know we’re watching?”

“The whole transparency issue,” Lempert agrees, “is what people get upset about.” The shrinkage can also aggravate cooks who are using recipes that call for a certain size can or package — and find that size is no longer available. If your brownie recipe calls for 5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, you’re out of luck; a package of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate went from 8 ounces to 4 last year. The price per package went down a bit, but the price per ounce — surprise! — went up.

Dworsky has been tracking shrinking product sizes for years. The latest example to raise his ire is Chobani Greek yogurt, the ubiquitous little cups that have swept the category by storm. In December, those cups got a little littler: The 6-ounce cup shrank to 5.3 ounces. It might not sound like much of a difference, but as Dworsky points out, it’s about 10 percent less product.


Older Kashi on left 9 servings, newer, more dense on right 5 servings.

Peter McGuinness, Chobani’s chief marketing and brand officer, is adamant that the downsizing of the package had nothing to do with price or profits. “It is the established category norm; everyone is at 5.3 ounces,” he says. The larger size, he says, was creating consumer confusion, and that’s what drove the change: “Many of our consumers were confused at the shelf when comparing nutritional information. Many have sent messages clearly to us saying, ‘Why do you have more sugar and calories?’ We wanted to level the playing field so they were comparing apples to apples, yogurt to yogurt.”

Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the food industry trade group Grocery Manufacturers Association, refused repeated requests for an interview. In an e-mail statement, he wrote that if increasing costs faced by manufacturers “remain high for a protracted period of time, inevitably consumers will see the impact at retail in a variety of ways. . . . Each company makes its own decisions how to adjust and accommodate.”

The list of companies that choose to accommodate by shrinking package sizes is lengthy and only getting more so. Dworsky’s website features dozens of examples, from chips to peanut butter to mayonnaise. Consumerist.com, a website run by a subsidiary of Consumer Reports, features an ongoing compilation of products hit by what it calls “grocery shrink ray.”

“Nobody begrudges the company making money. But the key word is ‘deceive.’ I find it underhanded. I would rather they were upfront about it and raised the price. Don’t they know we’re watching?” said Rosemarie Lauria, Braintree shopper, who is tired of seeing packages of everything from toilet paper to cookies shrinking at the store.

Manufacturers have become particularly adept at concealing package shrinkage, says John Gourville, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School. “If you think about how you see products, they have height, width, and depth. If you want to shrink a package without making it noticeable, you keep the height and width the same and shrink the depth. On the shelf, it looks the same as always,” he says. Other common techniques include deepening an indent in the bottom of a beverage bottle or retaining a package’s size but including less product.

Because it isn’t always easy to spot a shrunken product, Dworsky says “you have to become net-weight conscious, not just price-conscious, and look at unit pricing” when shopping. Once you realize your old favorites have been downsized, you have a few options. “You can go to the store brand. Or you can write to the manufacturer, and you’ll get an answer that has a PR spin, and maybe some coupons for free products,” says Dworsky. Look for brands within a category that remain unshrunken. Häagen-Dazs downsized its “pint” to 14 ounces a few years back, while Ben & Jerry’s, as it proudly declares on the lid, is “still a pint.”

Lempert suggests thinking outside the supermarket. “You can go to a warehouse club, or to dollar store or drug chains, where you can find maybe older packages or cheaper prices.” He encourages consumers to do more cooking: “You don’t have to buy pasta sauce; you can buy crushed tomatoes for about a buck, make your own sauce, and save a fortune.”

For those who are buying pasta sauce and much more, the incredible shrinking package is here to stay.

“Unfortunately, it’s a way of life for shoppers these days,” says Dworsky. “But they need to be aware of it and monitor it. . . . Manufacturers are out to fool us if they can get away with it.”