Please allow me to comment on "hoarding rice".

We saw the news today about "rice hoarding" in the US.

Sam´s has signs which say something like "maximum of 4 sacks of rice per customer".
Customers are buying 4 big sacks at a time, because they fear global rice shortages.

Hundreds of millions of people on this planet live on the equivalent of a handful of rice a day, many of those also not having access to clean drinking water. When masses of people in the wealthier nations hoard rice, the price will increase further, with the consequence that even more people on this planet will not be able to feed themselves and their families.

Shortages don´t necessarily mean that we, in the wealthier nations, have to hoard things.

Shortages can mean that we, in the wealthier nations, can work on finding alternatives or cutting back on our consumption.

It´s the same with our dependency on oil: Finding alternatives and reducing consumption.

Peace.

Wheat prices are right behind them. Something is going on and the hoarding is a symptom not a cause.

Commodities Markets & Speculation.. "the new game"(replaces the housing bubble)

Pure-D old greed

go here:

http://www.freerice.com/

I still got it!

really depend on rice and/or wheat will be hurt more, and all those billionaire speculators will be so very happy!

Johnny Carson made an innocuous joke about a fictional toilet paper shortage.

People were buying crates of the stuff, at least a year's supply as they believed the joke was real.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/toilet_paper/

Scroll down for the story.

like Costco and Sam's, that do a lot of B2B selling, some of the increased buying is done by owners of smaller stores and restaurants. They are trying to stock up against futures price gains. I'm not sure that it's a lot of private citizens hoarding rice for home use.

From what I've seen, most of this seems to be happening in just a few areas (I suspect it's a media thing). I was in Costco yesterday, and they had plenty of rice.

That said, I did update my earthquake kit the other day, and added a 100lb bag of dry beans to the mix. We already have 3 50lb bags of rice in there. My kit is already sufficient to keep a family of five alive (albeit at near-starvation levels) for three months, but the reporting on this did concern me enough to add a little more to it. I also expanded my garden to a quarter acre this year, and unlike past years, I'll be canning and freezing the excess instead of giving it away as I normally do.

I don't think it's happening enough to impact global prices though. Quite frankly, there aren't enough of us in the U.S. to push prices up all that much in relation to global demand. The 300-odd million people in the U.S. are overwhelmingly outpurchased by the massive rice markets serving billions across Asia and Africa.

And keep in mind that rice is NOT a staple food in the U.S. the same way it is in other parts of the world. Beans and potatoes are far more common staples on American plates. While rice is widely eaten here, we're not as dependent on it as others are. That alone will keep Americans from rushing the stores en masse to stockpile it.

I only keep dried beans and rice in my emergency kit because they can last for years if properly cared for, so they are a great option for long term food storage.

of rice on hand normally in my pantry. I doubt that even a small percentage of the population of the US even reads the news and will hoard. I doubt it will affect the world's supply. It just isn't a staple for most here. I keep around 9 months worth of food in my pantry. I am not of the opinion as many here are that it is impossible for there to be food shortages in this country. But that is just me.