Thailand Rice Prices Soar
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080424/bs_nm/food_dc

Sam's and Costco Ration Rice
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0424/food.html

Completely Unrelated? It's a stretch, I know, but according to this, a Kentucky National Guard Unit in Iraq has been having it's troopers skip lunch.
http://www.wmur.com/news/15982467/detail.html

Food Banks in Critical Shortages
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/us/30foo...QNp97WG8n2KlldA
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...1730475,00.html

World Food Crisis:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...0,00.html?imw=Y


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/20...cture=333553338
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007-2008_wor...od_price_crisis
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/360...shortage23.html
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4691282&page=1



Earlier, Cricket and others posted about internment camps and I laughed it off, but I got into a conversation with a coworker today, and we got on the subject, and now, with the food shortages, I'm not sure it's a laughing matter.

We could probably find more information. The problem isn't even about availability so much as distribution.

the reason is more farmers are being forced to produce ethanol,fuel instead of food.add that to the disrupted weather which has reduced crop production.we are now on the slippery slope,with the authorities at the top pouring oil down the slope.

THE SIGNS HAVE STARTED!!!!

check You Tube for "The Hidden Battle for the World Food System".

With the rising cost of food it becomes much more desirable to grow a garden again.
You may see a lot more of them this year and many more to come.

We've luckily got the old family farmland in Kyushu if times get tough, plus we've got a lot of friends with farms and orchards (who might welcome the security of our presence: I've heard in Thailand, farmers are starting to sleep in the fields because of theft).

I'M GONNA GO ON A DIET!

Sigh, food shortage is the very least of our problems. Nothing to worry about at all

Especially when we consider all the overweight people in the world.....clears throat...myself included.

i would say it is one of our problems,and with the cost of food rising quickly it will be hard for the poorest,and that is somthing to worry about.you can't hide in an ivory tower on this one,when you start having food riots in your own town.

It is just plain bullshit, there is NO food shortage whatsoever. Hell we could even feed poor people in third world countries if it where not for greenpeacers and other extremists ruining it for people.

We could have, and yes, we tried to, give third world countries gene manipulated food, it was a much more resilient food source, so it would be easier to grow it for them. But people from Greenpeace lied and said to the government in the country that was going to get it, and said that it was poison, the government believed them, and said no to the FREE gene manipulated food.

But we still eat it, and as long as we have that technology, we will never be hungry.

Wodan, there's one big reason the third world doesn't want our GM foods: it's patented.

The stuff is very strong, displaces the natural stuff, but the genetic code has been patented. If you grow it, even inadvertently, you have to pay royalties. GM foods are just another way to put the third world in debt.

There is no shortage in the supply of food, but anybody who says that distribution is not a problem is hiding their head in the sand. 16,000 - 18,000 children die every single day from lack of food.

http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/h...ernational.html
http://www.physorg.com/question90938708.html

So I have to it is NOT bullshit. Tell me, have food prices shown a sharp increase recently? They have in Haiti. If this is bullshit, why did they have food riots?

thanks kirin-rex.

No, it's all a bunch of crap. The whole rice shortage was brought on by the rice companies here in Asia hording the rice. Here in Philippine officials raided the rice warehouses and arrested the owners for trying to raise the price of rice. Remember, a huge percentage of rice in Asia doesn't come from Asia, it comes from the good ol' USA. The rise in gas prices has raised the price of food b/c of transport. So it's easier to say there is a food crisis than to say we need to tap into our own oil in the US that is a bigger stock pile than anything in the Middle East. Heck, the oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico (owned by the US) leaks more oil per day than man drills out of the Earth for the same period of time. In fact without the leak of oil into the ocean there wouldn't be nutrients for the Gulf of Mexico to thrive on. Remember, oil comes from the Earth, and is used by plants, animals, and microscopic creatures as food. Oil isn't a man made synthetic product. You can make oil today from animal and plant scraps in your back yard. Why do you think you can use peanut oil in a diesel engine? It's basically the same thing add or subtract some chemicals.

Then you may ask why would people allow all of this crap to happen. Two things, money and vengeance. The western world basically created modern civilization and introduced it to the Middle East b/c of their oil. The reason that there are different countries in the Middle East today is b/c the Western countries cut it up and let different companies control the oil in there designated country. Later the locals wanted these folks out after they had helped build the cities and social structure there. Now it has been a race to tap the Middle East out of their oil, so the world will have to go back to buying oil from the USA and Britain. Many Middle East countries realize what's going on, and are trying to rebuild their economies that do not rely on oil.

This post has been edited by JDorfler: May 3 2008, 03:04 AM

The law of supply and demand pretty much ensure nobody in the USA is going to go hungry. If there is enough demand for food, it will be profitable for farmers to go into overdrive, as well as new farmers. Eventually it balances out. "food shortage" isnt as accurate as "food inflation" Poor people will have to cope with the rising cost of food, as they do with gas. Its how things happen.

Jdorfler and cmdr, you both make good points. As I said, J, the problem is not supply but distribution. Yes, hoarding is a problem. Good note about oil reserves. Very interesting. Didn't know that. I don't know about 'introducing modern civilization' to the middle east. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but you ARE correct about the way the middle east was cut up. Look at any map and you'll see: we wanted to be sure we'd have access to the Arabian peninsula from the sea.

cmdr: you're absolutely right about the supply of food vs. food inflation. That's a good way to put it. We have an enormous amount of food in developed countries. We throw away enough food to feed all the hungry people in the world: but the problem is distribution and cost. Right now, the poor in the third world are having a tough time.

KR,
Actually the Middle Eastern society was much further advanced economically than Europe before Mohammad. It was after the writing of the Q'uran that certain new laws were enforced that caused basically a social and economic collapse of the Middle East. The people of the area were mostly reduced to Nomads following their sheep and camels through the desert from oasis to oasis. That's why when oil was discovered there by westerners it was so easy for them to carve up the land there to it's modern countries today. From there they hired to locals to help with the labor, thus creating small communities that grew into larger cities which were more or less styled after western cities in structure and economics. After the cities grew and some deals were made, the local shieks decided they wanted their oil back. Thus virtually kicking out the westerners. Ever since then it has more or less been a race to suck out all of the oil in the Middle East as revenge. At least that is what it looks like.

apparently fresh drinking water is becoming a problem in some areas,norway has to ship water in due to shortage and spain is said to be looking at alternative supply methods due to drought.its hard to beleive that in the 21st century people still go hungry and thirsty.