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Got Rice, Bitch? A.K.A., Recent Food Shortages
Schrodinger
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Registered User regular
An Introduction:
So guys, this is starting to get pretty fucking scary. We already had a wheat shortage earlier, and now this. What's going on? Climate change? Overpopulation? Over-industrialization? Ethanol subsidies? It seems like there's a lot of different factors all going on all at once, and a lot of people are really suffering right now. Even if we come up with some sort of band-aid, it probably won't solve the underlying causes.
So, two levels to this thread. First, short term practical food options. I eat a lot of rice, and it's getting harder and harder to find in stores. Wheat prices are going up as well. Suggestions? What's the best way to make the most out of your food budget right now?
Secondly, we should discuss the long term solutions. What do we need to start doing on a worldwide scale in order to fix this? Can something be done? Aren't we all glad that Ron Paul isn't the one in charge of the solution right now?
I was going to joke that atkins might make a sound comeback now that carbs are getting harder to find, but it seems like we're entering into the realm of the Giffen Paradox. As the price of cheap food prices rise, you have less money to spend on the luxury food items. Which may cause demand of the cheap foods to increase. So what do we do?
Rice Shortage in Philippines May Mean More Trouble for Arroyo
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Myrna Lacdao used to eat two meals a day. Now she eats one and gives the rest to her two grandchildren.
Lacdao, 53, shares a 70-square-foot shack in Manila's San Roque shantytown with her husband, two adult children and grandchildren. After the price of rice rose 41 percent in the past year, only the youngsters get three meals a day.
``I just take coffee in the morning and then have lunch at noon,'' said Lacdao, who makes pillow cases for sale to neighbors, contributing to the family's monthly income of 9,000 pesos ($215). ``That's my first and last meal of the day.''
Climbing Price Of Rice Shows In Stores, On Menus
The price of rice is at a 34-year high and on the rise.
Big suppliers like Thailand and Vietnam are cutting back on exports. Figi and the Philippines are seeing supplies so low, citizens are being asked to ration servings. And in the United States, consumers are seeing higher prices on everything from pet food to sushi rice.
"We have rice brand oil that we use to make our tempura crispy. This week it was at $32 and it rose to $52," said Chef Ryo Sakai of Blowfish Sushi Restaurant in San Francisco's Mission district.
Ryo said he is seeing a steady 5% increase in the price of sushi rice. It adds up for a restaurant that serves 300 pounds of rice a week in Bento box lunches and gourmet sushi.
(Includes video)
Rice shortage threatens Asia
TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, Three billion people in Asia are the rice guzzlers of the world and they are facing a supply shortage. Production at about 420 million tons a year has been static for the past four years. In this period about 100 million additional mouths have been added, which are putting a dent in the supply-demand chain.
Prices of rice have shot up 30 percent in the two years from 2005 to 2007 and 40 percent since the middle of last year alone. These have reached a level, like wheat prices -- which are 130 percent up -- that have made governments nervous. India has banned the export of most varieties of rice, except the high-end basmati rice, to conserve as much rice at home as possible. Other rice surplus countries have followed suit. They are scared of shortages at home and the unrest that follows shortages.
So guys, this is starting to get pretty fucking scary. We already had a wheat shortage earlier, and now this. What's going on? Climate change? Overpopulation? Over-industrialization? Ethanol subsidies? It seems like there's a lot of different factors all going on all at once, and a lot of people are really suffering right now. Even if we come up with some sort of band-aid, it probably won't solve the underlying causes.
So, two levels to this thread. First, short term practical food options. I eat a lot of rice, and it's getting harder and harder to find in stores. Wheat prices are going up as well. Suggestions? What's the best way to make the most out of your food budget right now?
Secondly, we should discuss the long term solutions. What do we need to start doing on a worldwide scale in order to fix this? Can something be done? Aren't we all glad that Ron Paul isn't the one in charge of the solution right now?
I was going to joke that atkins might make a sound comeback now that carbs are getting harder to find, but it seems like we're entering into the realm of the Giffen Paradox. As the price of cheap food prices rise, you have less money to spend on the luxury food items. Which may cause demand of the cheap foods to increase. So what do we do?
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While I'm all for Americans eating less meat, what's up with the graph?
I am not implying anything, just providing you an overview of the scientific facts with according to which you can form your own assessment and opinion. It is a free country after all.
The only thing I will say is that you can't be an environmentalist and a meateater at the same time without being a hypocrite in every sense of the word.
I'm surprised that the Food Network doesn't have a vegetarian cooking show.
So what other grains do people recommend? I might stop by Trader Joe's tommorow, should I try Quinoa out and see what that's like?
What about the population that deludes themselves it's alright to have 5+ kids? I always wondered why we think we have a 'right' to reproduce. Sure I wouldn't want to be the guy that has to say 'no you can't have anymore kids' but seriously, if we're getting into the areas of food shortage maybe it's time to stop popping out those welfare bonus', or sweat shop workers to be (yeah yeah these aren't the only families with large amount of kids but they do make up a majority).
As for being a herbivore, my dinner last night says otherwise, according to the dictionary that's enough.
The eggs will just sit there and rot.
Well, the difference is that pigs are raised to be killed, where as polar bears are just minding their own business. If no one ate meat in America anymore, it's not as though the pig farmers would leave their farmers behind and let the pigs roam free.
Nor should that, as George Orwell could attest to.
Cats are soft, pigs are yummy. I don't see what is so hard about this. If the situation was reversed where pigs were fun to pet and cats were yummy, well, that's how it rolls. Either way we're still an apex predator, we get to decide.
You can make a huge environmental (and personal-health) difference by eating less meat. you don't have to eat none unless you're cripplingly emo or suck at logic like Captain Planet up top.
I'd think that taking a lot of corn out of the system for ethanol production might be creating shortages and driving up prices - but that's really just a U.S. thing and not something done everywhere.
Maybe we're finally seeing the impact of U.S. and European subsidies and the reduced production as more and more third-world farmers are driven out of the market. If that's the case, the good news would be that production in the developing world should pick up as it becomes profitable once again - provided that the "solutions" to the current shortage don't screw over farmers through price controls or the like. Of course, farming isn't something you just turn on with a switch and there will be huge delays.
I'm also wondering if it isn't partly due to growing populations (though I don't really think so). The Green Revolution and the huge increase in grain yields was 30-40 years ago. Apparently those strains of wheat and rice have become slightly less productive, while the earth's population has doubled since then.
1) shittily-run supply-chains and market tomfoolery
Edit: And for thread's sake that's all I'm saying on the matter here.
The foodshortage in the world in general is more of an infrastructure / economy issue (IE we're not willing to pay to get food to these people, and they can't pay for it either, nor are we investing in permanent solutions to solve it, and they aren't able of that either) then a true shortage. There are still fields in europe where farmers get paid not to grow anything, in order to not go over quota.
That being said, the amount of meat consumed is creating real problems too, primarily enviromental. Argentinia and brazil are clearing huge amounts of rainforest to grow soja...... to feed to our pigs so we can eat it. Cows & Pigs especially create a lot of methane as well, a sizeable contribution to global warming (remember that CH4 is about 100x worse a gas in this respect as CO2). I've heard a contribution percentage of 10% of total for the agricultural indrustry.
Eating less meat is certainly healthy for most developed countries, especially the US. Eating some meat may be healthier then no meat (and easier, despite all the vegan alternatives, people enjoy meat and it's easyness to prepare, proposing to cut it altogether is a pipedream and more likely to turn everyone against you then to help your cause). Eating less in general is of course a good thing in general, I can't help but wonder how much food is "wasted" in the western world simply by overweight people (50% of the pop. roughly) who eat more then they need each day, regardless of the type of food.
Farming subsidies in general need to stop, but right now it's a mexican standoff, where every western countries says "The other guy does it, so if we don't, we lose jubz", even though almost everyone acknowledges that it's killing any nonwestern sustained farming efforts, creating crazy pricing situations, and is overall bad for the global economy.
On the water: Recent research shows that under normal temperature and humidity circumstances, drinking more then 2.5l of fluids (that don't dehydrate like coffee) serves no visible health benefit. Wether this comes from water or other sources has no impact either. Of course, it's impossible to get people to believe such a thing.
China is able to manage that, why aren't we?
The answer is that it's just culture. Nothing more.
But nobody cares about your stupid offtopic moral absolutism you see
Let them eat dirt?
Hey Cat, didn't you major in the study of soils or something?
I remember one of the LSAT questions asked about the whole "eat less meat so that there'll be more grains" deal, and the question asked, "The above statement would be weakened by which of the following responses." I guessed the one saying "If the soil used to grow livestock feed wouldn't work for human feed."
Anyway, it's an LSAT hypothetical, not a confirmed fact, but what are your thoughts?
as for drought here, its really more that 'drought' is the normal state of the landscape and our farmers have been in denial for 200 years. Its really silly to try growing peaches and cotton on the edge of a desert.
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm