Food – I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.
If you read the article, he's talking investment strategies here, not so much about a run on food. He's actually suggesting that stockpiling food might provide a better return on investment than other options, since food prices this year are likely to spike more than the avg. return on investment.
See my response below, especially the one about Haiti. Turning the world's markets over to corrupt speculators has been apart of our imperialism efforts ever since Reagan. Concentrating wealth and power in corrupt financial circles has been and is proving to be disastrous.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
I have always had at least 3 month supply of food on hand. Remember the Red Cross asking people to do this in case of disaster or pandemic? Maybe I should have six month supply??
It is a silly way to invest. The US still has the lowest prices anywhere and hoarding will not help. We have tried to help the rest of the world become food independent but it never seems to work.
You do know that the US is a net importer of food? And you do know that the US destroyed local agriculture in places like Haiti and Mexico with our agricultural subsidies?
Haiti? What agriculture did Haiti ever have? And if anything hurt Mexico it's NAFTA.
66% of Haitians work in agriculture and agriculture makes up 28% of their GDP. Coffee, sugar, corn, bananas, rice, etc.
And this produced them what? Foreign aid makes up approximately 30%-40% of the national government's budget. Most of the farming is "small-scale subsistence farming" which means they eat what they grow. So, AGAIN, what GREAT agricultural export income was "destroyed" by US "subsidies"? And what subsidies for Mangoes and coffee does the US government give our farmers?
Damn American Mangoes and coffee farmers. Destroying countries everywhere.
I knew I should have invested in the Mangoes and coffee commodities.
BTW, I can read Wikipedia to. Just shows how little you really know. Lazy and stupid is no way to go through life.
My answering a question that you could easily look up yourself shows how little I know and how lazy I am? You seem to be projecting there, champ.
"projecting"
Alrighty then. You read the first think that came up on your Google search, took the first nugget of info without comprehending the whole description given you by your search and slapped it out there. So you really don't know anything about Haiti and your to lazy to comprehend what you read. Hence my comment.
grr,
We used to stockpile wheat, corn, cheese, milk, and eggs. Remember the Russian wheat deal in the 70's? Earl Butz?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,917...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,917...
http://books.google.com/books?id=oPlNcHQUvSAC&p... Deal, Earl Butz&sourc...
Or the milk deal? Do you remember who was the Agra Sec. during that time? And does the name John Connally sound familiar?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Connally
"In 1975, he was accused of pocketing $10,000 for influencing a milk price decision by Texas lawyer Jake Jacobsen. At his trial, he called, as character witnesses, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Barbara Jordan, Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara, and Billy Graham. Connally was acquitted."
Well here we have the ultimate corruption of the right-wingers. Now it is acceptable to get rich by speculating on the starvation of human beings.
30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. What Happened?
The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots
http://www.counterpunch.com/quigley04212008.html
Trillion Dollar Crisis: Bankers Saved, Human Rights Sacrificed
Money â;; The ministers for Finance of Western countries have strongly reacted to the IMF figure, as if it was dangerous to show the extent of the crisis. These same governments, which are unable to help their needy populations, quickly came to the rescue of private interests: nationalization of troubled banks, cash forexchange of distressed debt securities
http://money.propeller.com/story/2008/04/18/tri...
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I thought the WSJ was a republican controlled spin machine not to be trusted (like faux news)
What gives?
Their info is only good when you agree with it or someting?
You nailed it! lol
This isn't a political issue yet you seem bent on making it one. I've read the article and have just started reading the comments. I'm sure it will not take long to get to where someone will say it's all Bush's fault, aided by the scum-bag Republicans and ignorant conservatives.
Well, I've read the comments now. Not as much Bush bashing as I expected.
OK, I will have a go at it for you. Rice and wheat prices have skyrocketed in the past year. Do you really believe that is because the people of China and India are suddenly eating twice as much rice as they did a year ago?
There is no food shortage. There is a dollar overabundance. The flood of money the FED has been printing to prop up the economy here has seriously rattled the world wide house of cards.
Blame that on Bush? No. First, he doesn't control the FED and second, if he read my comment he'd have no idea what to make of it. I blame the American people for constantly voting for tax "cuts" that really amounted to debt increases. Our debt has reached the point where it requires a constant string of magic acts by the FED to stave off a worldwide crash the likes of 1929.
So yeah, stockpile food. And vote for John McCain because his tax "cuts" will add another trillion dollars a year to the $10 trillion Bush will leave.
And have a nice day. :)
What is wrong with you?
Can't you see a single article, or a single issue, in terms of its facts, assertions and conclusions WITHOUT trying to pigeonhole it as Democratic or Republican, conservative or liberal?
Jeez. Think for yourself for a change.
Or are you THAT far entrenched in the conservative ideology of the past 30 years that you MUST politicize EVERY issue at all times? No wonder you see nothing wrong with the politicization of the Justice Department, all of the consumer safety agencies, with Karl Rove giving PowerPoint presentations about prioritization of partisanship to every cabinet department?
Oh the hypocisy of your statement...
http://news.propeller.com/story/2008/04/22/wall...
"The WSJ will become the print version of FOX NEWS. Pure neocon spin."
"Another venue for Murdoch to promote his personal agenda."
"ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and of course, the TABLOID Faux and now the Wall Street Journal, are all a part of the corporate, conservative owned and operated capitalist american media."
"All you have to do is read the opinions page and letters to the editor about how far right this paper has already become..."
"The WSJ will just become another vehicle for a Jewish Murdoch to promote through propaganda, more pro Israel support"
I checked that entire thread and didn't once see you attack anyone for "politicizing EVERY issue at all times"
PWNED!!!
WHEW - now care to comment on the article?
Dude, get a grip.
That wasn't my story. I didn't write it, and I didn't post it. You didn't see me comment on it either as you said.
We are individuals. Do you understand the concept? Not all liberals are the same, and not all conservatives are.
And that's the point. Stop making everything about left and right, liberal and conservative, good and evil.
Your president did that to the GOVERNMENT, and much of the public has now internalized that idea. That's not what the founders had in mind.
I agree with you but as I say below, I'm finding this crisis a bit hard to swallow (no pun intended). Not saying there's no there there. Just saying it sure seems orchestrated (not unlike the run up to the war).
Watch the BBC and read the foreign press. They have been reporting on this for some time
We have been too busy watching politicians making fools of themselves
Fear-mongering stopped being a CON tactic when?
"Fear-mongering stopped being a CON tactic when?"
About the time Al Gore preached his doom and gloom hooey about Glo-bull Warming.
That's not fear mongering, it's reality. There IS a difference, although I admit that's a lost cause for you not just most of the time.
It's funny you should say that because I'm warily assessing this rising chorus of Chicken Little stories in the media about escalating food prices and mass starvation--especially the ones that suggest that ethanol production is entirely to blame. It's amazing that this all apparently happened overnight and came with no warning (unlike Hurricane Katrina). And it also seems a little too convenient that gas prices continue to soar at the same time there is this sudden overnight food shortage.
It hasn't happened overnight
We are just starting to hear about it. Our press has been too busy chasing politicians all over the country
"We are just starting to hear about it. Our press has been too busy chasing politicians all over the country"
---I don't see how that's changed.
Our press tends to ignore what is happening overseas to a large extent
Have you heard about the rice shortage in the Philippines?
How about the drought in Australia and how it has impacted food supplies?
Or Zimbabwe where commercial agriculture which was the backbone of the economy lies in ruins. From being a food exporter, Zimbabwe now would starve without UN famine relief
The riots in Egypt where thousands of people have resorted to violence due to shortages of basic food commodities and rising food prices?
Our press did report on Haiti but the rest has been largely ignored
nostalgia,
You hit the nail on the head!
If it doesn't happen here, it ain't newsworthy.
I was in Panama a few weeks ago, and gas was already averaging $3.65/gal. It produces its own gas, but crude prices were already affecting it.
The big headline during Holy Week in La Prensa was about the rising cost of wheat and its affect on food prices locally. Italian expats and tourists were discussing that issue and saying that it's a global problem. I'm certain that bit of news never played here.
Does anybody know who's winning in American Idol? Has Paris Hilton fallen off the wagon? Did Nicole Richie get plastic surgery? What's coming up on the CW's new fall TV lineup?
Those are what America really wants to know. Right?
Another point hidden from Americans is that the standards of living have jumped in almost every country but the US which means more competition for world stores of food.
During the Industrial Revolution, standards
of living increased by 50% over the course of
a lifetime.
In China today, the increase is 10,000%.
But it's not food production's inability to
keep up with increased demand that's the
problem.
It's food prices.
Cargill, our largest agricultural company,
during this crisis, has achieved an 86% profit
increase.
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_8919283
Regardless of such greed, contributing factors
would include the price of oil and the devaluing
dollar.
It's not only households that are stockpiling.
It's nations too.
But there's something very suspect about one of
the world's largest food producers reaping an
increased profit of 86% during a global food
crisis where some prices have gone up,
coincidentally, by as much as approx. 86%.
The new Clorox GREEN products are primarily Ethanol...HMMM How much of corn is going into other things that were thought up during the glut of the nineties? Maybe we should NOT have HF CORN SYRUP in everything and quit making throwaway dishes out of corn. Its not all going into the tank. Same for oil...there was a glut and now there are literally thousands of items that we could do without that are made of crude. Plastic bags and bottles being a couple.The morons bidding on the oil FUTURES need to calm down every time somebody sneezes in the middle east. Besides we get ours primarily from Canada and Mexico. So why the high prices??
newbie,
As usual, you shoot the messenger, disregard facts, and call people names.
This issue is not new. It's been going on for a few months. That Americans may be affected now is the gist of this story.
If you like pizza and eat it often enough, you would have seen the prices going up. If you had been astute enough to ask how come, you would have been answered by the proprietor saying the cost of wheat, cheese, and tomato sauce went up. Being more inquisitive would have garnered you an insight as to why and the answer would not have been entirely because of transportation costs, although that is part of the reason.
WSJ is a solid business newspaper - the best in the industry - and Murdoch's purchase of it means that it will not only continue to support government economic political policies, but that it will even more divisive ideologically in its opinion pages. Hopefully it won't impact its reporting, but I doubt it.
oops. gave you a pos. my apologies.