Adventures in...figuring portions, etc.

Well, using my best source (aka Mom), if you have no food storage in your house today, and decide to get a 25 lb. bag of beans and a 25 lb. bag of rice tomorrow, you will have approximately:

Beans 325 3/4 cup servings of beans (13 servings per pound)

Rice 300 3/4 cup servings of rice (12 servings per pound)

Pasta of any variety will give you 8 decent servings per pound.
Wheat will make a loaf of bread per pound--you will need other ingredients as well, and learning how to make bread is something that I need to do. If you have an easy recipe that you're willing to share, please leave it! :)
Probably everyone has heard about the price of rice and wheat going up. What I was not aware of until earlier this year is that there is a type of stem rust called UG99 that was discovered in Uganda in 1999, hence the name. It did not stay in Uganda, and it is spreading to other countries on the wind. I read about it in these articles:

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1206043974240.xml

http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2008/03/13/ag_news/production_news/pro10.txt

and other places,and it affects oats and barley as well. What it comes down to for me is this: It may be difficult to afford wheat now, but if this rust hits the crops, there may be none available to buy at any price.
Just a couple of notes--1. Please google UG99 for yourself and find out more about it from sources you know and trust. I cited the two articles above because I thought they were informative, but I really don't know about the publications themselves, and I realize you have to be wary on the internet. I remember reading a blog where someone told the author some really negative information about a source that was used, and the author had no idea about said information. I would never knowingly cite such material. Believe me, if you look, you will find a lot of information on UG99.
2. One of the kind people who left me a comment made a great point, and I hope that she doesn't mind that I echo what she said. The things I have learned and continue to learn about food storage and that I write about here I have learned from wiser people than me. I am just trying to share them with others.
There are so many reasons that someone might need food storage--disaster, unemployment, the economic situation in general, or even something like UG99. Isn't kind of comforting, though, that there are that many servings in 25 lb bags of beans and rice?