Article

2008-04-06 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Food riots fear after rice price hits a high

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Posted by john frum 2008-04-06 11:40|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 I don't care what China says, they lost most of the early rice crop to Global Freezing.
Corn hit $6 on friday, a new high. Many USA farmers decided to grow wheat and there isn't any more land.
Argentina Wheat crop caput.
Virus attacking Iran and Pakistan wheat crops. Could destroy 80% like in Egypt.
Western wheat belt in OK. KS. CO. TX. in sever need of rain. You can't eat oil, and the MEast doesn't have much food, or places to buy it. I predict chaos, and a good year for commodity traders.

Posted by bman 2008-04-06 12:02|| 2008-04-06 12:02|| Front Page Top

#2 In addition, traders who try to stockpile rice have been warned that they face a charge of 'economic sabotage', which in the Philippines carries a life sentence.

We need to look into the wording of that law, we may have a use for it here.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-04-06 13:00|| 2008-04-06 13:00|| Front Page Top

#3 Can we get George Soros to move to the Phillipines?

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2008-04-06 13:28|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2008-04-06 13:28|| Front Page Top

#4 It seems trailing daughter #2 deserves my apologies. Permitted to choose a menu, purchase ingredients, and cook dinner, she bought a 20 pound bag of rice because it was cheaper per ounce, then used two cups of the stuff. My freezer is 2/3rds full of rice now which, at our normal rate of consumption, might well last several years.

Interesting, bman, but why did so many farmers choose wheat over corn?

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-04-06 15:10|| 2008-04-06 15:10|| Front Page Top

#5 Too much rice? We can solve dat problem for you right here, cher.

Posted by Matt 2008-04-06 17:04|| 2008-04-06 17:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Rice Helper?

How expensive can it be? 2 weeks ago I bought a 25 lb. bag of Thai Jasmine rice at he local oriental market. That's shipped across the Pacific to middle America. All for $13.00.

Posted by ed 2008-04-06 17:15|| 2008-04-06 17:15|| Front Page Top

#7 "According to the World Bank's figures, the real price of rice rose to a 19-year high last month"
So, adjusted for inflation, it costs about the same as in 1989? The horror.

Posted by Darrell 2008-04-06 17:29|| 2008-04-06 17:29|| Front Page Top

#8 But with rice relied on by some eight billion people, the impact of a prolonged rice crisis for the world's poor - a large part of whose available income is spent on food - threatens to be devastating.

When did we get an extra 1.5 billion people in the world? The last estimate I saw said 6.5 billion. If this is any indication of the integrity of the article, I wouldn't go rushing out to buy rice.

TW: rice is one of the easiest grains to store, and will store nicely on the open shelf for several years. We eat more rice than the average family, but haven't worried about pricing in quite a while. Asia will be hit hardest, and as the article suggests, the poor will suffer most.

The rice-growing part of the United States (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida) has seen more rain than normal this year. Whether that helps or hurts is still to be seen. California also produces rice, but I don't know how much. Maybe the price of rice will finally force Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and parts of Canada to "go commercial" on the growing of wild rice.

The idiocy of burning food is lost on Congress, of course...

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-04-06 17:31|| 2008-04-06 17:31|| Front Page Top

#9 I don't think they can blame this on us. I found 2003 rice production figures that put the U.S. in position #11, even lower than tiny Japan.
http://nue.okstate.edu/Crop_Information/World_Wheat_Production.htm

Posted by Darrell 2008-04-06 17:43|| 2008-04-06 17:43|| Front Page Top

#10 The US is important because it exports much of its rice production. In addition costs are low. For example you can buy at retail a 25 lb. bag of medium grain rice (the kind Asians eat) for $10-12/bag.

Posted by ed 2008-04-06 17:50|| 2008-04-06 17:50|| Front Page Top

#11 Under Al Gore's ~~dogma~~ scientific ~~crap~~ ~~story~~ settled consensus, increased rain in the rice-growing regions is prognosticate, with withering desert drought/blight in the U.S. Perhaps the starving should purchase food credits from AlGgore LLP, redeemable in a couple years?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-04-06 17:55|| 2008-04-06 17:55|| Front Page Top

#12 2003 Rice Production:
China, 166 million Metric tonnes
India, 132 million Metric tonnes
Indonesia, 52 million Metric tonnes
...
US, 9 million Metric tonnes

We don't exactly control the market.

Posted by Darrell 2008-04-06 18:04|| 2008-04-06 18:04|| Front Page Top

#13 An article from Pakistan yesterday encapsulated the problem, which I was going to post with the following headline,

Higher oil prices = Higher fertilizer prices = Less fertilizer used = Lower crop yields = Higher food prices

Wheat yields may have dropped as much as 20% in Pakistan due to decreased fertilizer use.

TW, you can conveniently store rice for years in a plastic pail with a tight fitting lid. Scoop out enough for a meal whenever you need.

Posted by phil_b 2008-04-06 18:09|| 2008-04-06 18:09|| Front Page Top

#14 Many Chinese people are surprised to find out that the USA produces rice. It's a sort of unworldliness. I like cooking up a cup of Texas long grain rice for them.

Posted by gromky 2008-04-06 20:53|| 2008-04-06 20:53|| Front Page Top

#15 When did we get an extra 1.5 billion people in the world?

Exactly what I noticed, OP. Especially when the inference from the IMMEDIATELY preceding paragraph is that only 50% of the world's population heavily depends on rice.

Methinks this is one more of those "world ends, poor/elderly most affected" type articles. Yes, it my get nasty out there, as oil prices DO affect fertilizer (and thus, food prices, not even including shipping costs of that food), but as others have noted, relatively speaking, rice is still dirt cheap ($.50/pound).

Posted by BA 2008-04-06 21:28|| 2008-04-06 21:28|| Front Page Top

#16 This is the Guardian. They have never let facts interfere with a good story that advances their agenda. Don't know why any intelligent person reads their fishwrap.

Posted by RWV 2008-04-06 23:27|| 2008-04-06 23:27|| Front Page Top

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