Amidst the Campaign Trivia, Food Prices Rise

North Star Writers Group ^ | April 25, 2008 | Eric Baerren

[Invisigoth]

When is the last time food managed to become a campaign issue?

The answer is four years ago, when Republicans and conservatives made much of the fact that the “elitist, effete” John Kerry ordered a Philly cheese steak sandwich topped with Swiss rather than Cheez Whiz.

Campaign coverage has become more and more substance-free over the years, with this year’s obsession over ministers and Hillary Clinton’s experience with firearms ranking as the absolutely silliest display, probably ever. There was a day when American journalism had no standards, but even those – by comparison – were sobering, serious discussions of policy.

The question is how bad things have to get before the public simply ceases to tolerate it.

We could find out in a very negative way. It’s no state secret that the cost of food is headed northward. In fact, it’s evident to anyone who looks at the receipt when they’re done shopping. The prices of basic staples – eggs, milk and cheese – are all going up. So is wheat.

As hard as it is on the household budget, it’s still better here than overseas, where food line rioting has broken out.

Food riots overseas . . . just the thing to calm Americans already jittery over their grocery bills. Just in time, Sam’s Club and Costco, stores famous for selling in big quantities, have limited their sales of rice.

A shortage? Not according to industry insiders, who say that the U.S. is looking at a bumper crop. Plus, this is hardly Minute Rice we’re talking about, but exotic jasmine and basmati rice and long-grain white. Hardly the stuff typically whipped up in a household with two parents tired after working all day.

[hemogoblin]

Don’t miss the irony of people obsessed with weight loss now getting obsessed with food costing too much ...

[wendy1946]

Not sure aboutCostco but WalMart which is the same thing more or less as Sam’s Club restocks their entire store every three or four days; having people start to hoard rice or wheat products would mean the product not being there for others who came looking for it. There is no shortage of rice at Asian/International grocery stores, at least not as of yesterday.