"Retail chain Sam's Club will limit the sale of large quantities of rice amid a dramatic increase in the global price of rice. Sam's Club will limit customers to four 20-lb. bags of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice. The store will limit customers to four 20-lb. bags of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice, the company said in a statement. Its restriction mainly will affect businesses that buy rice in bulk, but the company said "a typical Sam's Club Business Member does not buy more than 80 pounds of rice in one visit."
Skyrocketing rice prices has Sam's Club limiting sales - CNN.com

While this will only affect businesses, it does talk about the shortage of food in the world as well as soaring prices. Here in America we are just feeling the beginnings of the pinch it seems.

Not to be an alarmist, but it is important to keep an eye on all this.

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Sorry to be Henny Penny but this to me looks like the beginning of food shortages. Scary. Stock up everyone while you still can! Rice is one of the world's staples we better not run out of that. I wonder if it has anything to do with Katrina. That was rice growing country down there. I could not find any articles online linking or even contemplating the connection so I don't know. But as I said in the food thread we are now a global country competing with people in third world countries who now have the desire and money to live more like Westerners. People who have every right after all these years of being denied the things they considered luxuries and we consider essential to everyday life, to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor. But now what? Will there be enough to go around?

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I saw that on the news last night..... Scary stuff....

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I agree, it's alarming. There have also been shortages of wheat and corn. Wheat prices have soared in the past few months as well as corn.

Rice, wheat and corn are all the main staples. Strange that this has been happening all at once. There is a scripture in the Bible somewhere that mentions in the end times people will pay a (week's??) salary for a loaf of bread. (I can't remember it offhand, feel free to correct me on this) It always seemed absurd to me but not anymore. Maybe not in the US but perhaps in other parts of the world. Interesting and a little scary.

I agree, it kind of makes you want to stock up. I wonder if this is going to set off a panic.

I believe that would be Revelation 6:5-6, which in the KJV reads as follows:

5And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.


This situation will not improve anytime soon. Several countries around the world have suffered droughts, causing demand to outpace supply. In addition, China and India's populations are exploding, so we are competing with them for food. Add in the fact we're converting a good portion of our corn crop to make biofuel and the supply is reduced even more.

People can flame me if they want, but I would highly encourage anyone who doesn't have their plans for eternity in good order to get it together. The Bible is very clear about the signs of the end of the age and I firmly believe this is one of them.

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I want to keep ALL of my paycheck and eliminate the pyramid scheme known as Social Security (there is no lockbox ). Do you want the same thing? www.fairtax.org

I don't know -- I think it's just a short-time issue. Every time something weird happens people start talking about Armageddon. If it happens, it happens.

I'm not going to flame ya deerekid - but if everyone would be good-with-God all the time, there is nothing to worry about.

How much you wanna bet the Sams, Costco and the sort get flooded with people buying huge amounts of rice. Sounds like a great marketing ploy.

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Mary

I don't believe there is a real shortage. Grain prices are rising in part to increased ethanol production but the spiraling cost is due to speculators trying to grab a quick buck ( or euro) and the plummeting dollar. The commodities markiet is being over bought ( think bubble ) and when we get the dollar under control, prices will drop and the bubble will pop. Some contries like India have stopped exporting trying to control prices but it won't help. We are in a panicky mood right now and this is just this latest thing to panic over. We may have actual problems though if people keep hoarding needlessly. Hopefully the Fed will get back on track and actually raise rates so the dollar will quit dropping and we can get inflation under control. It would also help if we could get some of these sub-prime mtg people esp those guilty of fraud arrested and prosecuted.

While this article doesn't mention Katrina, it does mention Tropical Storm Noel. Weather does affect food shortages thats for sure.


Food crisis in Haiti reaches critical point

"The riots in Port-au-Prince — which broke out earlier this month and left five dead with hundreds more injured — stemmed from several months of increasing food insecurity driven by dire economic and climatic conditions in Haiti......"

More articles like that are coming out from many places around the world.

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Very well-said.

Actually, corn was already being heavily subsidized. Further subsidies were added for encouraging biodiesel. Consequently, farmers are planting more corn. Farmers whoe used to grow other grains are now planting corn.

I read this morning that we have no rye flour in the country and only 27 days worth of wheat flour.

Also, because corn is commonly used as feed, the price of dairy products and meats has also risen.

I, for one, am not buying into this alarmist mode.
Check out the following:
Rice Shortage - Sams Club and Costco Limit Rice Sales - thedailygreen.com

Interesting about wheat. I wonder what the specifics of that stat are. I know we export an enormous amount of it. Also, wheat harvest should be starting before too long in Texas - probably in about a month.

I am hunkered down in my bomb shelter with 300 lbs of lentils, waiting for this to pass

That's what they said on the Today Show today. That here in the U.S., there really isn't a shortage of rice, but that folks are trying to make a buck based on people's fears. HOWEVER, in 3rd world countries, there are 800 million more hungry people today than in January. They're making less than $1/day and can't afford the food anymore.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

Someone else can have mine. Rice resembles maggots to me!

Temporary thing going on I would be willing to bet. Goes in good with the current hoopla of green.

dl

I heard an interview with the CEO of Costco today and he seemed a little perplexed about what the big deal is. He blamed much of the frenzy on over reporting by the press.

Personally, I could stand to lose some weight ...

I'm with you. I don't really like rice. I will take the lentils.


Does anyone remember when we were coming up to the year 2000? People thought some of the same thoughts.

While perhaps the shortage is just "pretend" in the United States at this present time, there is a very real problem around the world and in this world economy, what happens around the world does affect us here in America. While we might not have shortages, we will face higher prices and perhaps some other problems in the future.

Haiti Food crisis in Haiti reaches critical point

India
ENN: World food shortages to stay, riots a risk: FAO

World Food Fears Mount as Rice Prices Soar
World food fears mount as rice prices hit record | Reuters

Senegal and Cairo and Malaysia
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/wo...as/18food.html

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Whatever it is it makes me nervous. Just tonight I was in WalMart and there was no rice. Pleanty of everything else, but no rice. Maybe just a marketing or press thing, but I still don't like it. I also don't like how crazy ALL food prices are . Every thing I bought, was at least a few cents more than it has been. That's not coincidence. I spent $200 + dollars, , and that was no meat except for sausage. Somethings not right.

Would someome tell me why the government pays farmers not to farm?? Wouldnt it be better to have the government to buy excess crops to donate to needy Americans ad people all over the world than to ppay them to not farm?? This perplexes me...

I have a client that is Hmong and they have huge bags of rice stacked up in their kitchen. I bet there is 20 50 lb bags of the stuff in there. how do they keep the bugs outa it? There is about 14 people living in that house so I know they go theough alot of rice but that to me is a bit extreme. none of the will speak english to me and I know they can so I cant ask them how they keep the bugs outa all that rice but I sure would like to know.

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Higher grocery prices??? That food has to get to the stores somehow. Looked at diesel prices lately? They're higher than gasoline prices.

I was at Sams a few hours ago and saw the signs posted near the rice. I'm diabetic and rice is one of the foods that really affects my sugar, plus my family aren't big fans of it so I won't be being any.

However, I was shocked at the people walking through the store with lots of the bags stacked in their carts or on their flatbeds. Craziness.

Maybe they all own restaurants, LOL. We love jasmine rice but we will do potatoes in a pinch.

There are a lot of reasons, some of them good and some of them questionable, IMHO.

One of the 'good' ones is related to wildlife protection. When every acre in an area is being farmed the ecosystem can get out of sync because the wildlife habitat, erosion rate, and other such things don't happen quite correctly.

I have some land that is in CRP (Conservation Reserve Program), and I'm paid about $750/year, net, after taxes to allow that land to lay fallow. CRP is something that is contracted out for a specified amount of time - ten years, I believe - and this particular piece of land was already in CRP when it became mine, so that decision was not mine. There are several more years left on the contract.

I have another parcel of land that is of equal size that I rent out to a farmer, and receive about $3,000/year thru sharecropping, which is 1/4 of his profit from the sale of grain, so that means he sells about $12K worth of grain.

So... the government pays $750 for land that, if improved, could bring in about $12K in crops. Definitely, it would be more of a money-maker to farm than to let the government pay us to *not* farm it.

As things stand, it's quite the deer/owl/pheasant/quail habitat. Areas such as that bring a slew of hunters to the area, and that helps the local economy in huge ways. Nobody would leave ground fallow if there were no incentives to do so to a farmer, personally.

One other point - part of the reason the government began to offer subsidies to farmers, if I understand this correctly, is directly related to something you mentioned. Because the government has programs that give the poor cheeses, milk, butter, and other dairy products for free, essentially the market for those things is decreased because there is a percentage of the public who doesn't need to buy those items. That means the free market isn't able to work quite as freely for dairy farmers as the government effectively took away some of their customers and impacted demand. So... the subsidy is to make up for what the farmer lost in revenue because the government tinkered with the market.

Those are a couple of the good/valid reasons for farm subsidies. Obviously, there are abuses of the system. I don't know that I agree with it, and I didn't go looking to be part of it - I'm in it by default since the land was already under contract and I'd have to pay a huge penalty if even a cow jumped a fence from the neighbor and were found to be grazing it.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!

Wowitsdark, thanks for explaining things to me