World food fears mount: Should we take them seriously?

Alright. there has been A TON of talk about food shortages and stockpiling going on. This article on YAHOO seems to bring a few topics into the discussion.

World food fears mount as rice prices hit record

BANGKOK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Concerns about food security mounted on Thursday, as rice prices hit records in Asia and the United Nations warned that staples for the world's hungry were getting much more expensive.
In the United States, Bush Administration officials downplayed notions of food shortages amid reports of worried buyers stocking up on rice in major chain stores.
"In the U.S., I don't see food shortages," U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Reuters in an interview. "We have plenty of food in the U.S. The price of food has gone up, but again that won't be as significant for the average American as gasoline."
.....Sam's Club, a unit of retail giant Wal-Mart, said on Wednesday it was capping sales of rice at four bulk bags per customer per visit. The previous day, rival Costco Wholesale Corp reported mounting demand for rice and flour as worried customers stocked up.

My question to you all is this. When do we start to take these stories seriously and begin to stock up and prepare for whatever may come? If Wal-Mart is truly part of some elitist agenda (as some claim them to be) and they are limiting and rationing rice, do they know that something is headed our way?
I also find it kind of typical that our current administration is downplaying this whole situation. Oh you should worry more about gas than food? Oh yeah, is that what we should do? I don't know about you guys, but I think I will worry more about food than gas. Gas won't do you any good if you can't eat to stay alive.
So what do you guys think? Are you going to take comfort in what our government tells us or are you going to stock up and be ready for whatever may go down?

If everyone freaks out and runs to the stores to buy rice in bulk, yes we will have a shortage.
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

Glad to see you back, Palehorse.

The way I look at all these conflicting reports is, it can't hurt to be prepared, so we put in a garden and have been buying extra staples that will keep, as well as filling up both freezers last Costco trip because if nothing else, that food will just be more expensive next trip.

Its actually a catch 22.

With all of the hype if you don't go stock up and everybody freaks out and leaves you nothing, well your assed out.

On the other hand if you do stock up you will be contributing to the madness.

Me personally, I always keep backstock of groceries.

Well, I believe that this may be slightly exaggerated at the moment, costco and china-mart both just got a great deal of free publicity. However, I don't see the current price pressures on grains to abate easilly.

Anecdotaly, we just got our garden in the ground. I'm seeing more people planting edibles this planting season as opposed to pretty looking stuff. I don't think that the US is in danger of famine any time soon. There is a huge amount of arable unused land here. I think that the outrageous rise of food prices are mostly price of oil related right now. OPEC has bent us over on energy perhaps it is time to create a OFEC (Organization of Food Exporting Countries) as a counter balance, of the OPEC countries, I think maybe Venezuela and maybe Iran are the only ones that could possibly be self sufficient in food. I'm blessed enough to live in an area that has arrable land and a long growing season. I don't see food prices coming down unless oil does as well. Oil=Food right now like it or not.

Rev 6:5-6

5When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[a] of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,[c] and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

Dig a little deeper into the preceding quote and you find a socioecenomic element. Wheat and barley are very much your average joe meal. Oil and wine are more of the upperclass commodity. Also you have a environmental element wheat and barley are very sensitive to drought wherass Olives and grapes are much more drought resistant. Interesting times, I bet there is someone out ther who has the answer to it all.

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
If everyone freaks out and runs to the stores to buy rice in bulk, yes we will have a shortage.
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

I'd just like to point out that this thread was referring to "World food fears."
I see you are only concerned about yourself and your country, the most privleged on Earth. Care to live in Africa and answer this question?

Screw "the world", eh? What do we care? (Please note sarcasm)

reply to post by palehorse23


personally i would be a little worried about this loss of food for the worlds people -the world food bank just announced that it can only feed half of the worlds poor so i wonder which nations are to be starved to death ops its not the worlds nations its the working poor and the poor in any nation which are to be starved to death only the wealthy will be able to afford the price of food.remember gasoline controls the price of everything and it is going to continue to climb through the roof commute to work i don`t think so we can`t afford to in the near future as the oil companies just said that we are going to be paying $2.00 per liter by 2009 scary isn`t it.the worse part is that there are other ways to use gasoline which would be cheaper -how about running a generator off of a 5.5 h.p. lawnmower motor which would run an electric motor to run the drive wheels,and the heaters add in a voltage regulator and you still use 12 volts for light`s and anything else that you could think of could also be run at the same time and it would not need any of that anti pollution garbage which they install and costs so much to fix. 1 gallon of gas would last 2 to 2.5 hours or 100 miles or better and a lot less pollution that a 4 ,6,or 8 cylinder car.the us is just starting to experience the droughts which are beginning world wide- ever wonder if it`s because our so called wisdom is our own undoing that this paradox we`re in was because we got a little to big for our britches.Question-how many billions of gallons of water have we taken out of the environment worldwide. part 2 and where did we put it answer we stored it in underground lines ,plumbing and water heaters and softeners and so on.i believe we did this to our own selves and it is now time to pay the piper his dues for the arrogance of our species.Far greater nations than those in our days have passed into history -just look into the past Rome ,Egypt and so on.The dirty 30`s will have nothing on what is just beginning to come to be and come to pass.Remember people will do strange things in order to feed their family so if your into survival ism i`d suggest that you keep it to yourself as once food is not being transported the hordes will start to fan out and look for you or anything to eat.P.S. the military -governments come first in their pissant little minds remember how the soviet union was the military and governments got the lions share of the crops before even the farmers -they should be your biggest fear as this will also happen everywhere soon.as to the one who quoted the bible earlier in this post you can`t help them as they were warned and told they never listened or understood like the little sheep that they are-they all followed blindly.so for a new quote take care of your own self so that the self will grow not the exact quote but you will understand.

I think it would be very foolish NOT to take any threat on food supply seriously. Laugh now and cry later...

All I know is I've planted myself a nice little garden plot and I'm going to stock up on organic seeds (just in case). If nothing happens, then I'll have some nice cheap fresh produce from my garden and cut down on my grocery bill this summer, if something happens, then I'll have food for my family when others might not. It's worth the effort either way, as far as I'm concerned.

I don't eat many grains except bread and noodles, and I could do without that just fine if I had to. As long as I have potatoes and beans and peas, it's fine. I do feel awful for those who will starve if their crops fail though.

It might be good for developing nations to give different crops a try if their grains aren't growing well. Best way to eradicate a problem is to remove the thing that feeds it, the way that people rotate crops to reduce diseases and pests. If all you grow in a field time after time is one crop, it's predator will become ramapnt. It would be worth a switch in diet for a couple years and it might reduce the issue when planting in the future. Just an uneducated guess so don't flame me please. I'm not sure how long this stem rust thing would survive without it's host.

No idea about the rice issue though. What else grows in wetland areas that are edible?

Take everything seriously.

Food is not a joke. And society as we know it has been taken away from us and re-constructed so that people have to work for money and not food. It is with the money that they buy food, and if they don't have money, there is no way to get food or move it.

The money will crash and food will seem like a mirage. We have tons of food but do you know what happens when nobody buys it? It gets thrown away. Imagine if all the food in the world plus refuse were consumed during a starvation period. At that point money is worthless and there are no food 'corporations' to keep us afloat.

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

The media is a puppet. It will speak before a plan happens or while it happens.

It doesn't 'cause' anything.

There is no food shortage in the USA but the rising food prices are all about coming financial collapse. It's about money - not food availability. Once the money flops, everyone is out for themselves, no food is produced or moved. Just consumed.

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

Must agree, there is no food shortage in the USA. Take a sec to sit back and think... the government may be using the media to over play this, so they can pass a law or something with out much notice. Remember how over played bird flu was? The So Cal Fires?

I went to costco last night... oh yes it was scary that I could only walk out with 200 lbs of rice per visit. What 200lbs??? Yes 200 punds!! 4 50lbs bags was the limit per visit. What the heck am I going to do with 200lbs of rice?? I think 10 lbs has lasted me a year! And if i needed 400lbs, it was a quick walk back to cosco from the parking lot.


The Media is overplaying this! Keep your eyes open to catch what will be missed, as we focus on this overplayed crisis.

reply to post by RabbitChaser


Please don't spin my post.

I am more concerned with immediate dangers to me and my family and neighbors before I worry about a food crisis in Zimbabwe.
If you think that is selfish than so be it.

Besides I think the USA needs to start worrying about themselves for a change and not trying to save the world. If Africa is starving than they need to fix it, not my problem because I'm on ANOTHER CONTINENT!

I help others in every way I can when ever I can. So please don't hit me with that crap about how I'm selfish because I make a statement pertaining to my country's situation without mentioning everyone else.

Wtf are you doing to save the world hero?

At the risk of sounding cold on this subject... Regardng the stockpiling of rice in my basement... How much rice do I normally eat in a year?

This type of situation may or may not be real, but it does remind me of a time back in 1978. I had just gotten out of the Air Force and was released, after a four year tour of England, in Los Angeles. Funnily enough the radios were ablaze with a toilet paper shortage.

We spent a couple of weeks with my wife's family before heading on to Missouri, and each member of the family who had his or her own domicile had two or three cases of toilet paper in closets or bedrooms.

Not saying that we shouldn't be prepared to some degree or other, but we are still, I think, a long way from the bottom falling out.

Perhaps Tony the Tiger should begin to meowing instead of screaming, "They'rrrrrrrrre Great"!

Just thoughts.

Originally posted by RabbitChaser

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
If everyone freaks out and runs to the stores to buy rice in bulk, yes we will have a shortage.
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

I'd just like to point out that this thread was referring to "World food fears."
I see you are only concerned about yourself and your country, the most privleged on Earth. Care to live in Africa and answer this question?

Screw "the world", eh? What do we care? (Please note sarcasm)

With apolpogies to Digital_Reality for, perhaps sticking my nose where it isn't wanted or needed...

Don't try to lay guilt trips where they need not be laid or necessarily even apply.

When push comes to shove, and I don't know where you live, and reality hits, how excited are you going to be about feeding Africa, or wherever else that isn't your home or loved ones?

Not being real is part of the problem for lots of folks. Digital_Reality pretty much has the viewpoint that most folks are going to end up with anyway.

[edit on 25-4-2008 by sigung86]

Originally posted by Cyprex

Originally posted by Digital_Reality
The media is going to cause a food shortage. There is no food shortage in the USA.

I went to costco last night... oh yes it was scary that I could only walk out with 200 lbs of rice per visit. What 200lbs??? Yes 200 punds!! 4 50lbs bags was the limit per visit. What the heck am I going to do with 200lbs of rice?? I think 10 lbs has lasted me a year! And if i needed 400lbs, it was a quick walk back to cosco from the parking lot.

and to think I only buy a box of minute rice once and a great while.



[edit on 113030p://bFriday2008 by Stormdancer777]

I think John Stewart said it pretty well last night:

"Sams Club has put a limit on the amount of bags of rice you can now buy. The limit is now 4........WHICH IS 3 MORE THAN YOU USUALLY BUY!"

Seriously, I don't believe that the U.S. has a shortage. Other poorer countries are experiencing one. Its just like the gas thing a couple of years ago-the media said gas was going to 4 dollars a gallon and everyone went to the station right then.

The answer lies right before us. And they have enacted several laws to stop our response. The one tried and true failed law that holds them back for now is weapon confiscation. Hungry and weak people can't fight a highly trained and well fed NWO. But, being weak and hungry with weapons is a threat they cannot win.

We need to know, who it is, we the people must go eye to eye with before we can bring peace and food to our table. These people need to be hunted, taken into custody and hung. Only than can power to the people be restored while changing minds in government for the interest of we the people.

I seen the start of all this in 1970 when the gas shortage occured, than a sugar shortage, than milk, wheat, bread and here we are losing our homes, gas gone wild, money made from nothing, and the final blow, food shortages.

reply to post by Stormdancer777



The limit is pointed more towards food services such as restaurants. I see eggs have also hit the price gouge scale. Restaurants are go into bankruptcy with some closing, some reorganizing and some cutting workers.

I have only heard/read little bits about this, but I have not seen anything in our area of Colorado. I never ever trust or take comfort in what the government tells me. Why on earth would I trust a bunch of strangers who don't know me from adam? They have no real interest in telling me the truth.

However living in Colorado having a good stock pile of food is a must. I stock up through the year and keep a very full pantry as well as a good stock of rice, beans, canned goods and such out in my garage. Around here you never know when you could get a blizzard and be snowed in for a while. I went to Wal-Mart today and picked up a bunch of huge bags of rice and pinto beans without a single bit of trouble. The shelves were stocked full and there were no signs or notices of restrictions on how much we could buy. Even without the panic that is being created over food shortages and such I believe it is always a good idea to keep your pantry well stocked. We could all grow our own gardens as well, that would cut down on the need to even buy it from the store, plus it is better tasting and healthier for you. That or buy from local farmers markets, most places have those I think. Saves some money too.

[edit on 25-4-2008 by MaMaa]

Okay folks, now this is going to sound really naeive and it probably is, but something has been making me think about all this gas, oil, food shortages etc. If i get this right, the food shortages are coming (in a round about sort of way) due to farmers changing from selling their crop to us to eat, and is sending it instead to the folks who want to make ethanol from the corn etc. Now, isn't this sort of kicking us in the teeth a little bit, because if they werent sending it to the ethanol makers, then we would still have enough food to manage? Like i said, this is pretty naieve, and i'm not blaming farmers or farm owners, but surely they must realise that making crop for ethanol instead of consumption, will have a knock on effect. *shrugs* maybe i'm barking up the wrong tree, and i'm sure folks will correct me on this.