Article

2011-02-18 China-Japan-Koreas

Prosecutors Office vows to crack down on food hoarding

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-02-18 04:59|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 If you need to hoard food it is best not to let anyone know. And also to hoard ammo.

Posted by Glenmore 2011-02-18 09:32|| 2011-02-18 09:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Oh, in Taiwan. I'm sure Obama would never do such a thing here, like FDR did.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-18 09:34|| 2011-02-18 09:34|| Front Page Top

#3 IIRC during the immediate post war period in Korea 45-50, they had similar problems. It wasn't individuals stocking up, but wealthy individuals trying to corner the market by buying up large amounts of the production and then withholding it from the market with the intent of driving up the prices. With world level of food commodities being stretched, it's not like the government could flood the market with imports to destroy the game.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-02-18 09:44|| 2011-02-18 09:44|| Front Page Top

#4 My point is, Taiwan is a first industrialized country to have this kind of trouble.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-02-18 09:57|| 2011-02-18 09:57|| Front Page Top

#5 Talking about fertilizer.

The US national fertilizer slurry pipeline, which transfers vast amounts of petroleum based fertilizer around America's farm belt, is both in less than ideal maintenance condition, and it is too small for the vast amounts of fertilizer that agribusiness needs.

Natural gas accounts for 70-90 percent of the production cost of nitrogen fertilizer ammonia. Thus, when U.S. natural gas prices increased significantly beginning in the year 2000, the cost of domestically produced ammonia also rose significantly. Average U.S. ammonia production costs doubled from 1999 to 2003, the latest year for which data are available.

As a result of high natural gas prices, 21 nitrogen fertilizer (ammonia) production facilities closed since 1999, because their low profit margins could not sustain them at those higher prices.

Sixteen of those plants have closed permanently, representing a 20 percent drop in US production capacity, while five plants remain idle.

So the US has 20% less fertilizer, a rickety, too small pipeline network to transport it, and no quick or easy way to increase production or distribution.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-18 10:28|| 2011-02-18 10:28|| Front Page Top

#6 Anonymoose - all that, and right now natural gas prices are LOW (relative to oil, at least.) There might be a good business opportunity there - everybody has to eat, and you can't eat gold, or oil, but you can 'eat' gas, after converting it to fertilizer and delivering it to farms.

Posted by Glenmore 2011-02-18 11:12|| 2011-02-18 11:12|| Front Page Top

#7 Got beans and bullets? Oh and water too.

Posted by Jefferson 2011-02-18 12:31|| 2011-02-18 12:31|| Front Page Top

#8 Water filters. Just because it is water doesn't mean it is potable. One of the best long term filters is a hollowed out block of limestone. It separates out all kinds of nastiness.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-02-18 15:08|| 2011-02-18 15:08|| Front Page Top

#9 Everbuddy gotta eat
Everbuddy gotta die

--bindle stiff at a soup kitchen from the novel, "A Walk on the Wild side"

Posted by Alaska Paul 2011-02-18 18:59|| 2011-02-18 18:59|| Front Page Top

07:29 Admiral Allan Ackbar
00:05 Zhang Fei
23:59 JosephMendiola
23:54 JosephMendiola
23:41 JosephMendiola
23:33 JosephMendiola
23:22 JosephMendiola
23:13 Old Patriot
23:05 JosephMendiola
22:59 JosephMendiola
22:56 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:46 JosephMendiola
22:35 USN,Ret
22:35 Barbara Skolaut
22:34 USN,Ret
22:26 Barbara Skolaut
21:50 Fred
21:33 swksvolFF
21:27 swksvolFF
21:05 Bright Pebbles
20:56 Lone Ranger
20:40 Nimble Spemble
20:38 Pheter Big Foot6839
20:27 JosephMendiola