Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World (USA)

Rationing allready taking place:

"MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

"Where's the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous."

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99."

http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994

Also cooking oil!

...and trains and ships.

And any other vehicle used for transporting goods from one place to another.

Oh, because no one can afford the price of oil.

I wonder if someone will come in at the last minute and save us from this man-made catastrophe?

in Asia, and the drought in Australia.

Only two major rice exporters still exporting, US and Thailand, other exporters have banned exporting their product, and importing countries are buying like last day from the still remaining open markets. Similar development taking in place in wheat and cooking oil.

No shortage of anything up here, not even rice, and about the only thing were producing right now is parsnips.

Shortages have to start somewhere and then they spread onwards. They started in Asia and in poorest countries and now they spread to US, starting apparently - judging by the article - where consumption and demand is highest and stocks move at highest speed, in places with high Asian populations.

But trust me, nobody get's spared when rationing starts, all of this is happening at incredible spead that even the hardest doomers and gloomers could not imagine. How long untill official national level rationing and food coupons in US, any guesses? Not before Obama-time?

Time to hord up, if you like rice, flour and cooking oil, and especially if you like them cheaper than tomorrow. Strictly only for personal consumption, let's remember that, fellas! :)

See: Shock Doctrine

Buy why?

We don't eat rice, it is too high in carbs. We eat mostly green veggies and we can grow our own. We have a vegetable garden this time of year. Doesn't have to be very big. We have had to can a lot of food in the past because we grew more than we could use. We also give away lots of tomatoes and peppers. It is so easy to grow your own food, and grains are not good for you, they make your blood sugar spike up way too high. And In California the growing season is almost year round, so you can always have something growing. You can grow your own citris, avocadoes, almonds, grapes, make your own wine and beer. Don't be a slave to the grocery store for everything. Don't give them so much power over you!

Just think if you grow your own spinach, asparagus, green beans, peas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, nuts, citrus, lettuce, avos, etc. If you can have enough land you can produce your own eggs. Doesn't take much land to raise a chicken or two, if you are outside city limits. You can have a cow or two if you live outside the city, and then you have your own milk, cream, butter, cheese. Be resourceful. We are. And it tastes SO MUCH BETTER!

I preach more self sufficiency, organic farming, ecovillages etc and you show good example. I just don't live as I preach, I don't have the chance... and this is not about me me me but all of us :)

It is much easier to be self sufficient out here than it is in the city. I grow virtually all of my own produce, can it, freeze it, dry it. I'm growing an orchard for fruit, my own mushrooms, grains, and get my beef in bulk from my neighbor.

Next projects are putting up a wind turbine for energy self sufficiency, and dig out a large cistern for collecting water. I'm also now thinking about raising a couple of sheep to keep the grass mowed and provide wool.

None of this can be done in an urban area, and when the shit hits the fan, cities are going to be screwed. The typical city only has approximately a three day supply of food at any given time. If the shipments dry up, cities are screwed.

...when it becomes to expensive to make his beloved suds? The combination rise in the price of oil and gold (remember, that's tripled in price in the last 18 months) has hit the third world hard and starting to take a bite here as well. $4 a gallon gas is bad...but $4.50 a gallon diesel is even worse. The planting season is underway and the costs of getting the crops out of the fields, processed and distributed will result in soaring food prices this fall. And that's assuming prices stay the same...not go up even higher.

While the repugnicans love to say how they've cut taxes...the tripling of oil prices under this regime has been like a major tax hike on everyone. But their Exxon/Mobil stocks sure look good. Many felt it was just taking money from one pocket and putting it in the other...the little guy be damned.

The runaway prices are a ticking time bomb that is yet to be fully felt worldwide...and there's no end in sight. Yes, I expect many shortages to hit this country as it becomes too expensive for companies to fight the rising costs along with a drop in demand that only will force prices higher. And this regime will just "play out the clock"...only concerned with fleecing the Treasury in their remaining months in power.

That people won't wake up until they can no longer get beer and T.V. I wonder when we'll see that point.

So, there's a supply chain problem to Costco in a certain part of the United States. I wonder
when they're going to do an in-depth piece on the extreme shortage of Webkinz in Hallmark stores?
You'd think we'd have learned our lesson with Beanie Babies, but I guess not.

I saw this article before it was posted on DU and I checked at my local grocers AND at the local Costco.
All of them are swimming in rice, along with every other food staple. There were cheerful people handing
out samples of food in little plastic cups. I would venture that when food is ACTUALLY rationed, we wouldn't
see much of that.

Could stocks be depleted by local bakeries and restaurants who are trying to save a few bucks on supplies by
buying up staples? Sure. Does that mean Costco will be sending us little coupon books to make sure everyone
gets their daily rice (along with their 50" plasma TV, I guess)? Not hardly.

But so far very locally and small scale in US, globally quite widely spread allready of course and still spreading.

Just a temporary hickup or sign of what is to come, hickups starting to spread wider and wider until "real" governement regulated rationing also up North? It is the latter, there is no doubt of that: a sign of what is to come, as what is to come is dictated by underlying fundamentals of limits to growth. Only open question is about speed. Will this panic be just temporary to be followed by a temporary period of relief (to be followed by even more severe panic etc.)? Quite likely and I don't know the likelyhood of worst case scenario, that Peak Everything has allready started to hit us with full force and there is only downhill from now on - grab your towel time!!! I doubt anyone knows, and the uncertainty is certainly not fun.

are the result of finance moving into commodities when the global real estate bubble popped. "Shortages" aren't just suddenly discovered in the space of 3 months.

Fear-mongering is bad.

Also, it keeps people's attention focused elsewhere while their pockets are being picked.

Growth paradigm is bad, that is the focus, greed is mortal sin, that is where attention is needed.

The fact that inflation moving from real estate to food is part of the parcel does not change the big picture that demand is growing faster than supply is growing and that supply can't grow ad infinitum but there is a limit. The first fact is possible only because of the second fact.

at production & consumption figures instead of scare-mongering news stories.


Finance moving from real estate to food isn't "demand" - not for food, at least; demand growth for grains has actually been slow over the last decade.

Demand for profits, yes. If you can't get your 20% by making something, get it by jacking up food prices.

Grain production per capita peaked allready in 1986, production consumption deficit every year but one since 2000:
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Grain/2006_data.htm#fig3

1) Per capita consumption: As people become wealthier, they eat less grain. Consumption moves, not only to meat, but to increased fruits, vegetables, & fats. Grain demand in the developed world has been dropping for years.

2) Stocks: The decline in stocks isn't a pure function of supply/demand. Since the advent of WTO & other "free trade" agreements, it's been deliberate policy to reduce supports to agriculture & reduce state-run stockpiles - including by "dumping" in countries to undercut local production. Low stocks are good for prices & arbitrage; high stocks = lower prices & less opportunity for arbitrage. This is the background to the hyped stock drawdown.

Go into the USDA & FAO stats & policy papers yourself, rather than relying on "earth policy" analysis.

For example, US wheat acreage has declined since the 90s - not because the land was unproductive, but because prices were TOO LOW, so it was taken out of production. That doesn't suggest rising demand, does it? Wheat prices have been low for years.

With the recent spikes, some of it's been put back into production for 2008-2009.

capita production, no alarm was sounded until now, in 2008, 22 years later, & why prices doubled in only 3 months. and why, from 1986 - 2008, grain prices have been low for most of those 22 years. Kind of an unefficient market, wouldn't you say, if these things take 22 years to shift production?

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/04/commodity_arbit.html

Charts show the divergence - beginning about 2006. In a "normal" market, they should track the midline pretty close. When spot is lower than futures price, it indicates lower demand than forecast. It also indicates failure in the futures markets, i.e. pricing is out of whack. That smells of speculation.

When you limit how much people can buy based on what they bought in the past, it is rationing.

Those are hard to find, too.

I think that you don't really understand what the term 'rationing' means. Ration booklets and government mandated programs are not necessary to have rationing occur.

Rationing is the controlled distribution of resources and scarce goods or services. As you pointed out Nintendo Wiis are a scarce good, particularly when they were first sold or around the holidays, and stores implemented a form of rationing in order to control their distribution. It isn't all that uncommon for rationing like that to occur.

What is uncommon is for this to happen with food staples. You might not see any difference between being limited in how much flour, oil, or rice you can buy and how many Nintendos you can buy, but there is a significant difference.

The article listed a single source - Costco - as the rationer of goods. That is not 'rationing' any more than
"One Per Customer, Please" signs are rationing. If I can leave the high-volume, large-package convenience of
Costco and find the staple elsewhere, then the word 'rationing' doesn't nearly apply. Gasoline in the late 70's?
Rationed. Food staples now? Not so much.

They aren't getting enough in for everyone so are rationing how many you can buy, and still running out, unable to keep up with demand. And yes, they are using the term "rationing". It's not gvt doing it, but the one local feed store/chick supplier.

Way to CREATE a panicked run on rice, no?

Except Fox News citing the Sun's article: http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=8202003&nav=menu606_2">NY Paper Reports Food Rationing Appearing In US

Evidentally Murdoch is trying to generate more food hysteria - he must have investments in commodities.

2007 was a record rice harvest.

Clever little set up they have - citing each other until it looks like 'real' news.

I bet you are absolutely right - a little investigation would probably show that Murdoch recently purchased grain commodities.

Wonder if that's possible to investigate?

grain futures doubled prices, which happened over a few months when the global real estate bubble started to tank. Some countries cut off exports to protect their domestic prices from being jacked up with the global market, i.e. to prevent more speculation & hoarding.

The Sun is a Murdoch paper, this is fear-mongering which in fact creates the crisis it supposedly warns us about. Freaking murderers.

(rolls eyes) "Po lil sheep are running off a cliff again, Sam."