Right Thinking From The Left Coast
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Grain Pain
by West Virginia Rebel

It looks like that chicken and rice dinner will have to wait.

Rice prices jumped 30 per cent to an all-time high on Thursday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest across Asia where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5bn people.

The increase came after Egypt, a leading exporter, imposed a formal ban on selling rice abroad to keep local prices down, and the Philippines announced plans for a major purchase of the grain in the international market to boost supplies. Global rice stocks are at their lowest since 1976.

The Egyptian export ban formalises a previously poorly enforced curb and follows similar restrictions imposed by Vietnam and India, the world’s second- and third-largest exporters. Cambodia, a small seller, also on Thursday announced an export ban.

These foreign sales restrictions have removed about a third of the rice traded in the international market.

“I have no idea how importing countries will get rice,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. He forecast that prices would rise further.

No war for...Rice-A-Roni?

Posted by West Virginia Rebel on 03/27/08 at 03:54 PM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments


Posted by HARLEY on 03/27/08 at 05:34 PM from United States

hmm
in the Early 80’s movie DOGS of WAR, with Christopher Walken, the CIA man that hires Walken to do a Coup, mentions that one day resources will be stretched to the point that we will go to war for rice.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 03/27/08 at 05:36 PM from United States

If Africa would stop opposing GM crops, this problem could be ameliorated.

Posted by on 03/27/08 at 07:25 PM from Japan

Japan has millions of tons of unsold rice sitting in warehouses. At the same time, it has to import rice to meet WTO regulations.

It has started to turn the rice into biofuels because it can’t sell it (Asian countries generally don’t like each others’ rice).

Does anyone see a problem here?

Posted by on 03/27/08 at 07:27 PM from Japan

If Africa would stop opposing GM crops, this problem could be ameliorated.

Africa actually produces enough food to more than support its population. It’s a distribution/price problem (i.e. people don’t have the money to buy the food they need), more than anything else.

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