[tmbchr]™

Is There A Global Food Shortage?



Brought up by Julia in response to my last post, worthy of further discussion:

bread-lines-food-shortage-depression.jpg

There are no food shortages. There is a money shortage. The money that was partially created by the artificial real estate boom here and elsewhere has left the real estate market and gone to the commodities market looking for a profit and thereby creating price inflation. The price of food was bid up to unaffordable levels thus being the direct cause of starvation. Exports were banned to provide a disinsentive to speculators.

bread-lines-food-shortage-depression2.jpg

She also posted some links to check out:

  1. India to Grow Record Rice, Wheat, Curbing Inflation
  2. Mexican retailers see no steep tortilla price hike
  3. Trinidad inflation causes concern
  4. “Zoo capitalism” and the left wing

Line of Workers during Depression.jpg

I’d like to collect more links on this subject for people who are interested in finding out what’s really going on. Going back to Julia’s points above though, I guess my main question is: would there be any practical difference on the ground between actual food shortages and what essentially amounts to the *public appearance* of food shortages? And if either one were to occur, what would happen next?







10 Reader Responses

  1. Big Elk Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 10:14 am

    Wall Street Journal, posted two days ago:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

    I don’t want to alarm anybody, but maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

    No, this is not a drill.

    You’ve seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they’re a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

    Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

    http://business.theage.com.au/japans-h...her-nations/20080420-27ey.html?page=1

    [via]

  2. King of Some (but not All )Snorks Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    If people are starving, then there is, in effect, a food shortage.

    Perhaps the question should not be “Is there a food shortage,” but “What is nature of the food shortage,” or “What prevents the food from going into the hungry mouths.”

    Grocery stores and restaurants throw food away by the dumpster-full. When you go to a grocery store, you see aisle upon aisle of food in plentiful amounts. Like puppies at the pound, not all of it finds a home, and therefore must be liquidated. In the U.S., we have engineered plenty so that people may have food whenever they want. The wasted food is factored into the price.

    This is part of the problem, but only a small part.

    A money shortage should never be a reason for people to starve, as they could have the food that goes to waste.

    But there is no desire or political will to feed ALL of the starving people. There is the perception, rightly or wrongly, that they would just creating more starving people to feed.

  3. Big Elk Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/10/2212941.htm

    A top United Nations official has warned that rising food prices could cause worldwide turmoil and global political instability.

    Food price rises of more than 40 per cent in the last 12 months have helped spark riots and unrest in countries like Egypt, Haiti and Uzbekistan.

    On Monday there were food riots in Haiti and there have been violent protests in Ivory Coast. Riots after price rises in Cameroon in February left 40 people dead.

    In northern Egypt this week, there have also been riots with people angry about food prices which have doubled in less than a year.

  4. Big Elk Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 6:48 pm

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pb...AID=/20080423/BUSINESS/868303815/1001

    Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.

  5. Julia Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm

    Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.

    This is one of the headlines on the MSN home page. It’s about Sam’s Club limiting purchases of bulk rice in American stores.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24278083&GT1=43001

    I can remember how I heard this strange story. I heard it in some conspiracy theory/retired military context and the guy was really furious which is why I remember it. It’s about the rubber shortage during WWII. There were all sorts of rules about not using rubber, turning in old rubber products to help the war effort etc. Rubber back then meant the product of naturally grown and harvested rubber tree sap.

    The way I heard the story was that there was never a rubber shortage. There were millions of tires that had been turned in during patriotic rubber shortage drives that just sat in a vast empty field somewhere and rotted.

  6. Big Elk Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm

    Yeah, I mean, the earth itself isn’t anywhere near running out of food:

    http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/09/14/the-horn-of-plenty/

    Also, this subject matter makes this other post feel a lot more relevant:

    http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2008...abandoned-buildings-with-urban-farms/

    Along with the line “grow some food and share your harvest” which I wrote into a song recently:

    http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2008...9/big-elk-dont-ask-why-chords-lyrics/

  7. Food Shortage Panic? - [tmbchr]™ Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm

    […] I guess my other thing with the whole global food “shortage” line of thinking goes like this: I work with dogs on a daily basis. One of the things I’m tasked with doing is making sure the pack (usually anywhere from 9 - 16 dogs) doesn’t go crazy and attack one another. Dog police work, basically. We have rest periods every twenty minutes, which helps everybody calm down and reminds the dogs on a very regular basis just who is in charge of the situation, and who is the leader of the pack. […]

  8. Web Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    We should not always believe what the media told us. Do we still remember Y2K and SARS brouhaha? There are news stories intentionally created to produce a selfish desired result.

  9. Ted Heistman Says:
    April 24th, 2008 at 12:05 am

    I really like that horn of plenty article.

    I have a feeling that if civilization could be likened to forest succession, then we may be pretty young. Eventually we will live in a rainforest type civilization. Surrounded by abundance and a high level of order and complexity.

  10. rebecca Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    Starvation is rarely a question of production, but distribution. “Food shortage” is totally misleading, and I think irresponsible. It’s not like people are gobbling up all the grains and there’s none left.

    Although what may actually cause a food shortage is the birds and the bees (and the bats, and the moths)



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