Imported Food? - Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness -Self-reliance, homesteading, survivalism, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, permaculture, possible collapse, disaster scenarios, shelter, stock piling food Near Me | Near Me Direct

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March 12, 2025

Imported Food? – Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness -Self-reliance, homesteading, survivalism, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, permaculture, possible collapse, disaster scenarios, shelter, stock piling food

02-19-2025, 09:04 AM

Location: USA

2,854 posts, read 2,538,821 times

Reputation: 3009

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With the possible tariffs and bans on imported foods what do I need to stock up on? I just bought 12 pounds of pinto beans. My wife also canned 7 quarts of pinto beans yesterday.

02-19-2025, 11:33 AM

13,503 posts, read 22,319,943 times

Reputation: 22523

The bulk (50% or more) of foods imported into the USA comprises fresh fruits and vegetables. Others items like beans, dried foods, frozen foods, meats, etc. all are under 50% of imported foods consumed in the USA.

The fact is the USA can produce enough food domestically for everyone's needs. The ugly reality is three things forces the USA to import food.
First, consumers are so picky they need their foods to look, smell, feel and packages a certain way that we throw away over 1/3 of domestically produced foods due to not meeting consumer expectations not related to quality or taste.
Second, it's cheaper to import some foods than for domestic farmers to produce that item. So long as we provide and fund welfare to farmers, they have a greater incentive to say they will grow something they can't sell because we don't need it all they while we end up paying them not to grow that unneeded crop.
Lastly, we often export our locally produced items so we come off as the benefactors. We sell or give away out locally produced items forcing the need to import.

You stock up now on what you will be needing without regard to trying to guess what may or may not be available. To have in reserve is what most will say is the goal. However, just remember that people have stocked rice, beans, oats, flour, TP, honey, you name it, since way before Y2K and most of it is just rotting away in some panty never used. Odds are any cost increase in the future caused by temporary shortages or hoarding has historically even out here in the USA.

02-19-2025, 01:59 PM

Location: Puna, Hawaii

4,585 posts, read 5,496,087 times

Reputation: 8401

Figuring out food imports involves a lot of moving targets. For example the USA exports a lot of wheat, but also imports it. For example, the PNW buys wheat from Canada because it's cheaper than shipping it in from the midwest of the USA. Do we need the Canadian wheat? There's 7 cents worth of wheat in a $5 loaf of bread. If the price of wheat doubles, bread doesn't become $10, it remains near $5.

Less localized, the U.S. produces and exports large amounts of hard red wheat (good for bread) and durum wheat (for pasta), but it imports soft wheat from Canada and other countries for specialty baked goods. Could the USA farmers produce these other wheats? Yes. Would it be more expensive? Maybe, but reference the difference in commodity versus loaf cost above. We also export high-quality food items and import lower quality of the same commodities and use it for livestock food. Then some of the meat gets exported to the same countries we bought the tariffed wheat from and they wind up paying the higher cost for it.

02-19-2025, 02:12 PM

12,321 posts, read 24,369,376 times

Reputation: 28034

I don't think the tariffs will have much impact on long term food storage, so stock up on what you eat. If food tariffs come to pass, I don't expect them to be long term. There is a lot of saber rattling going on.

02-19-2025, 06:47 PM

Location: Where the mountains touch the sky

6,820 posts, read 8,983,020 times

Reputation: 15331

Coffee.

02-19-2025, 07:14 PM

Location: USA

2,854 posts, read 2,538,821 times

Reputation: 3009

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Coffee.

I bought a lot of that already when it was on sale.

02-20-2025, 09:31 AM

Location: Forests of Maine

38,643 posts, read 63,898,542 times

Reputation: 31774

Quote:

Originally Posted by terracore

It is the same way with lumber.

I live in a state that is over 92% forest, however to buy a 2X4 they are all imported from Canada [where the industry to heavily subsidized].

I live in dense forest yet the only local-sourced lumber I can buy is Amish rough-cut.

02-20-2025, 09:58 AM

Location: WMHT

4,661 posts, read 6,037,726 times

Reputation: 6919

Not worth stocking up on a product that will degrade in quality before you can use it up I buy in bulk when it makes sense, but I also rotate my stock, I won't buy more than can reasonably be consumed within the real "shelf life" (freezer life).

When in the last decade have American consumers seen the non-sale price of imported foods trend downwards? (not counting corrections from spikes and seasonal shifts)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

Coffee.

Coffee is crucial. Roasted beans have a limited storage lifespan, grounds even shorter. A chest freezer (stable and very cold) helps.

You can learn to roast your own from green, but it's a lot of smoky, smelly work, not worth doing just to save a few dollars on an otherwise readily available commodity. We do one batch a year just to test the long-term storage life of canned green coffee beans, and to ensure we have the skills for when they are needed.

02-20-2025, 11:14 AM

12,321 posts, read 24,369,376 times

Reputation: 28034

You can always buy freeze dried or instant if you want long term shelf stable.

02-20-2025, 11:43 AM

Location: North Idaho

33,456 posts, read 51,250,353 times

Reputation: 81669

Beans are grown in the USA. Tariffs are no reason to stock up on dried beans.

The USA imports meat but it exports more meat than it imports, so I would not worry about any sort of meat. This country is capable of producing all the meat we want.

Shell fish is mostly imported. So you could worry about the price of shrimp. Shrimp is produced in America, but not a lot of it compared to what we eat. Tuna is all canned outside the USA, so canned tuna price might go up... or tuna canneries might reopen in the USA, because we actually have the live tuna fish.

Fresh fruit out of season, fresh veggies out of season , tropical fruit are all imported and would be difficult to produce in the USA. Hawaii can grow tropical fruit, but there is a limit to how much of it they could produce. The thing is that you can not stock up on that stuff and store it for later. If you want to freeze and store green beans, you can buy green beans grown in America, in the summer and early fall when green beans are in season.. You don't have to wait until February and buy fresh imported green beans from Chile before you can freeze green beans to store for later.

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