Rice Shortage Threatens Asia

UPI Asia Online ^ | 4-22-2008 | Hari Sud

[steve86]

India is very capable of having localized shortages, due to inefficiencies in distribution and also fraud. But the main problem has been inflation, as I hear it.

[muawiyah]

The Japanese heavily subsidize the cultivation of the inferior grades of rice that will grow well in a temperate climate.

They keep down imports from the US to keep internal demand high for the inferior rice.

Problem with this article is that biofuels have no impact whatsoever on rice production in the US, and the US crop is still only 1/10 of the production of all exported rice in the world.

Increased demand combined with reduced rice production due to Global Cooling is the cause.

[Will88]

“Yes, the ones suffering are the net food importers- Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Arab “world” mainly, and not China or India”

Food exporting nations need to form an organization called OFEC and fix prices of food to OPEC nations at about 50 times the domestic price.

Not entirely joking.

[Sender]

As has been posted before, why don’t we offer the world one bushel of grain/rice for one barrel of oil? It seems a fair trade to me.

[Sawdring]

My uncle's neighbor farms Horseradish in Northern Minnesota, after a couple of years he floods the fields and farms rice on them to kill off the old roots and amend the soil. Perhaps he will produce more rice this year instead of Horseradish.

[do not press 2 for spanish]

Nicely done!

[RayChuang88]

At the rate things are going, the southern USA--especially near the Mississippi River regions--could end up being one of the world's biggest exporters of rice, since American farming methods mean high yields per acre/hectare and less farmers needed to make all that rice.

Interestingly enough, I haven't heard a peep about rice and wheat shortages in China, since they've learned the lesson of the ill-advised Great Leap Forward and made sure that they grow enough rice and wheat for local consumption. The price of Thai jasmine rice has gone up but most rice consumed in China is grown domestically, so....

[djf]

Can’t get a date.

Gotta do something!