About the world wide food crisis

[Jerk]

I assume you guys have heard that there are food shortages world-wide, mostly in third-world nations but also in places like Japan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp

Okay, here's my plan:

We trade food for oil. One bushell of wheat for one barrel of oil. We don't get no oil, then you don't get no food.

[tommieharris91]

:les: STOP USING ETHANOL!!!

[Jerk]

For the record, my post was kind of :P:P:P

I just think it would funny if we could do that right now, and OPEC would have no choice.

[Sooner_Havok]

:les: STOP USING ETHANOL!!!

No thank you

[tommieharris91]

Srsly, read the article. Corn ethanol is definitely not the way to go.

[Jerk]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2323679120080423

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (WMT.N: Quote (http://www.reuters.com/stocks/quote?symbol=WMT.N), Profile (http://www.reuters.com/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=WMT.N), Research (http://www.reuters.com/stocks/researchReports?symbol=WMT.N)) Sam's Club warehouse division said on Wednesday it is limiting sales of several types of rice, the latest sign that fears of a rice shortage are rippling around the world.


Sam's Club, the No. 2 U.S. warehouse club operator, said it is limiting sales of Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rice "due to recent supply and demand trends."
U.S. rice futures hitting an all-time high Wednesday on worries about supply shortages.

[royalfan5]

I assume you guys have heard that there are food shortages world-wide, mostly in third-world nations but also in places like Japan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp

Okay, here's my plan:

We trade food for oil. One bushell of wheat for one barrel of oil. We don't get no oil, then you don't get no food.

Of course the Russian, Ukrainians, Argentinians, and Canucks would gladly cash us doing that.

[royalfan5]

Srsly, read the article. Corn ethanol is definitely not the way to go.

Of course, ethanol has jack **** to do with the price of rice. Corn and rice aren't competing for the same acres.

[Jerk]

Of course the Russian, Ukrainians, Argentinians, and Canucks would gladly cash us doing that.


You're the expert in this area. What's a fair trade?

(assuming a barrel of oil is $100 and something)

[royalfan5]

Oil prices and rising incomes in developing nations have a lot to do with rising food prices as well. Now that more people can afford meat on a regular basis it is going to drive the prices of commodities used in the production of it. Plus you add in the weak dollar, and you get record exports. Same thing that happened in the 70's without ethanol. Consider that much of the corn processed for ethanol gets recycled as livestock feed, and corn isn't in short supply. Even with record usage, carryout was still over a billion bushels last year.

Also, the collaspe of credit markets have injected a great deal of surplus cash into the commodity markets because it is a better alternative than sub-prime loans right now.

If the weather holds world-wide this year, raw grain prices will back off pretty good.

[tommieharris91]

Of course, ethanol has jack **** to do with the price of rice. Corn and rice aren't competing for the same acres.

True, but that is a reason that food prices all around the world are rising.

[royalfan5]

You're the expert in this area. What's a fair trade?

(assuming a barrel of oil is $100 and something)

Assuming 100 dollar oil, and 8 dollar wheat. 12.33 Bushels. Our ag surplus is helping to hold oil prices down, when you consider record grain exports are one of the few things holding the dollar up. All those containers filled with cheap **** for your Wal-Marts are going back overseas stuffed with grain and ethanol co-products. Food is getting our petro-dollars back as it is.

[royalfan5]

True, but that is a reason that food prices all around the world are rising.
Not as much as the media wants you to believe it is. Also, you have to consider our cheap food policies of that past have hurt developing countries ability to feed themselves now. That can't be blamed on ethanol either. We have used cheap grain as a carrot for so long, that people forgot how to garden.

[Curly Bill]

Well...they've been complaining about an epidemic of obesity...maybe this could be the solution to that. ;) :D

...you know from a glass half-full sort of perspective. :D

[tommieharris91]

Assuming 100 dollar oil, and 8 dollar wheat. 12.33 Bushels. Our ag surplus is helping to hold oil prices down, when you consider record grain exports are one of the few things holding the dollar up. All those containers filled with cheap **** for your Wal-Marts are going back overseas stuffed with grain and ethanol co-products. Food is getting our petro-dollars back as it is.

Is this actually true with the trade deficit ballooning as it is? Or is the deficit coming from other sectors and the governement? The ag industry is not something I know too much about...

[royalfan5]

Is this actually true with the trade deficit ballooning as it is? Or is the deficit coming from other sectors and the governement? The ag industry is not something I know too much about...

The Ag sector is one of the few things keeping us from really being ****ed. Exports are at record levels. The livestock sector is taking a beating right now, but once we get to the bottom of the hog and cattle cycle, they will bounce back. The weak dollar helps a bunch too. We have had cycles like this before without ethanol, in the 70's and mid 90's.

[Sooner_Havok]

Corn ethanol does wang chung. We need to move towards this Algae oil stuff. Problem is, American corn growers have the gubment by the short hairs. You think they want to give up growing something that the gubment wrights them a check for every year. But that is neither here nor there. Maybe if the US gubment would stop artificially propping up the price of corn, then we could get algae oil, and the rest of the world could afford to eat.

[royalfan5]

Corn ethanol does wang chung. We need to move towards this Algae oil stuff. Problem is, American corn growers have the gubment by the short hairs. You think they want to give up growing something that the gubment wrights them a check for every year. But that is neither here nor there. Maybe if the US gubment would stop artificially propping up the price of corn, then we could get algae oil, and the rest of the world could afford to eat.
Government policy has always been to overstimulate corn production rather than prop up the price. Hence why the farm bill is designed around LDP's and counter cyclical payments. This provided an ocean of cheap corn for ADM and Cargill to wet mill into HFCS, cheap grain for livestock producers, and cheap exports to curry favor in overseas. Ethanol was originally subsidies in the name of environmentalism, and then everybody wet their pants about oil prices, and the government overstimulated production of ethanol to look like they were doing something. All this algae, celluose, etc, are giant red herrings that are a long way from being viable. More than anything, people need to get over the idea that they are entitled to cheap energy. That will do more to fix things than the government and hoping for cheap energy to come from algae, garbage or anything else.