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Food rationing in the U.S.

2008-04-22 01:49:02.208423+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

Food rationing hits the U.S. (Via SE).

[ related topics: Food Current Events ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-22 17:44:31.60581+00 by: petronius

There's something a bit fishy about this story. Once guy worrying about panic buying says he normally buys 10 50 pound bags of rice. Who needs 500 pounds of rice, unless he buys it once a year, or runs a chop suey joint? When sudden shortages appear without some ready explanation, like drought, I suspect market manipulation by the middlemen and hoarding by large consumers.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-22 18:07:59.070956+00 by: Dan Lyke

I'll bet that the 3x increase in the spot market price of rice cascaded: There was some local fluctuation, prices went up, and big rice consumers in the U.S. decided to stock up, exacerbating the short term shortage.

If a cup of rice is about half a pound, I usually figure a cup uncooked is good for two people for a meal, so a family of 4 with a predominantly Asian style diet would probably run through roughly 15 lbs of rice a week. So, yeah, the guy hoarding decided to buy half a year's worth of starch (more than we carry in reserves, but not unreasonable for someone with even a passing interest in disaster preparedness, or a Mormon family) in one go based on the short term price increases, thereby causing a local rice bubble.

I hope.

If we went through more rice, and if I had a good safe way to keep it, I'd keep half a year or so in reserves. As it is, when we put in our new pantry cabinets I want to run a more formal three months of spare food. Right now, if we were in an isolating long-term disaster our diet would get fairly monotonous quickly.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-22 19:41:59.418417+00 by: TheSHAD0W

A lot of small restauranteurs buy their supplies at shopping clubs; 500 lbs of rice would only last some restaurants a week.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-26 22:06:12.688224+00 by: TheSHAD0W

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_9047712

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-26 22:18:46.237219+00 by: Dan Lyke

Apparently there's still gobs o' the short grain California rice around, it's the long grain stuff that's in short supply.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-26 22:39:45.150855+00 by: ebradway

I was just reading in Wired about water shortages in Australia basically decimating their rice crop. I also saw something at a local pizza joint talking about the recent run-up in wheat prices. Combined with the recent food related riots in Haiti... Things are looking a little sketchy...

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-28 11:28:05.076177+00 by: polly

now is the time to put in a BIG garden, grow your own fresh veggies, learn to live without bread....dang, sounds like healthy eating :<