What is Digg?162 Comments
- designer, on 04/30/2008, -13/+46Thank you Ethanol. Using food for fuel is stupid.
- du4l1ty, on 04/30/2008, -1/+33I suddenly have a craving for 81 pounds of rice...
- chris_moritz, on 04/30/2008, -2/+30*cough *cough - speculation in the market. *cough *cough
- Herostratos, on 04/30/2008, -1/+17RTFA please:
"Has the increase in corn cultivation for producing ethanol in the U.S. and Europe affected the price of rice?
Yes, indirectly. As farmers in the U.S. and Europe plant more corn in place of wheat to produce ethanol, the price of wheat has risen as supplies have tightened. Faced with higher wheat prices, people are substituting rice in their diets, particularly so in Africa." - Myztry, on 04/30/2008, -1/+16Drought is a factor for Australia (and presumably the World). Rice requires irrigation farming so water shortages lower yields. Rice production dropped from a normal 1 Million tonnes to 339,000 tonnes in 2005.
http://www.nff.org.au/commodities-rice.html - inajeep, on 04/30/2008, -0/+13and farmers switching from wheat to corn is jacking up the price of wheat. Although who knows what percentage.
- directrix13, on 04/30/2008, -0/+11Hydrogen is hardly a reliable energy *source*. People need to stop talking like it is. Now solar.. sure. And nuclear too. Its nuclear time, punks.
- stevetrojanman, on 04/30/2008, -1/+12I don't understand...I played that "Click the right definition of a word for a grain of rice" online game for hours, days even...
There's no way we're short on rice...and if we are...it's not my fault...I've created several thousand grains of rice with my clicking. - lazerus9, on 04/30/2008, -0/+10Google "Kissinger, Food as a Weapon" and you will see where the shortage has come from!
- Herostratos, on 04/30/2008, -3/+13The tragedy is that all this could have been avoided if the governments in the world had understood high school level economics about supply and demand.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -1/+11I bought 240 lbs last week. It's in the pantry.
- Lancer28, on 04/30/2008, -0/+9Global Warming Crisis, Global Corn Crisis, Palm Oil Crisis, and now the Global Rice Crisis.
I dunno what I'm going to do when we're hit with the Global Toilet Paper Crisis. - drmangrum, on 04/30/2008, -0/+9You obviously only read part of the article. It's the governments and controlling organizations that have tipped the imbalance in the rice market. Ethanol production may have been a source trigger, but had the governments kept their noses out of it, everything would have been fine.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+9Oh *****, I need to buy tons of rice so poor people can't have it.
- juliandunbar11, on 04/30/2008, -2/+10well, it is the perfect side dish..
- ahuxley, on 04/30/2008, -1/+9"new biotech discoveries and implementation on the farm is about 15 years. " is the key.
All the wonderful products are ready in the labs.
But how to 'sell' them?
Make the world feel they 'need' them :-) - 15charmaxwtf, on 04/30/2008, -0/+7But it's made from a certain source because the government subsidises that source. The farm lobbies wouldn't want to change anything. The only reason ethanol is used is because it is subsidised. (Though, apparently the stuff from Brazil is more economical.)
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+7Nuclear energy is the future. The environmentalists always say we need to cut down using gas but when an actual economically possible solution is proposed, they usually complain that it is bad for the environment.
- NelsonR, on 04/30/2008, -0/+6Mostly untrue. It's not a farmer getting rich, it's not the transporter getting rich, it's not ethanol but it is Wall Street and Commodity players, as in fuel prices also, getting richer on the backs of others. Play with the big boys and take your money and increase your wealth, it's called greed and never believe statistics your government puts forth. Analogy, unemployment, the government says it's around five percent when in actuality it's over twelve percent. Some believe all that is put forth while in reality, under all the mirage, it's a few dictating the norms of the day while they grow richer.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -1/+7if only we could figure out a way to convert smug into fuel...
- webman77, on 04/30/2008, -1/+7biofuels damaged the environment - more than expected, prices for wheat or rice increase, the third world will be ruined by monocultures - i call it pure madness.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -1/+71) make fuel from corn
2) subsidize farmers to not grow food
3) act like making fuel from corn is causing the shortage, not the lack of growing food
4) ???^H^H^Hfood shortage
5) PROFIT!!! - Bridea, on 04/30/2008, -0/+6Is anything else in the pantry? :)
- AnarkeIncarnate, on 04/30/2008, -0/+5Is that a bass estimate? I don't like the tenor of that.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+5Not to mention producing and consumption of this ethanol uses more energy then regular fossil fuels. This is not a cleaner or greener option. But hey, someone's pockets are getting fat off this propaganda, so can't complain too much about capitalists capitalizing on the enviro-whackos
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4You can make ethanol from more plants then just corn.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -4/+8Yes that's right, ignore everything the Rice producing countries say and blame ethanol.
And Africans replaced AMERICAN WHEAT (because they're that rich) with asian rice.
Crops failed this year. Production is low, the rice is low quality. Less rice. - drmangrum, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4sparta?
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4I believe Brazil makes theirs from the sugar cane...
- Amazetbm, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3They need to go cellulose-based and use algea, instead.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Funny. Have you every thought that the whole problem is orchestrated?
Israel + America + European, Ashkenazi's, Jesuits, MR's and other Globalists are using the food shortage as the next stage in the Global-Warming Plan to place a global tax, and to have people crying out for UN Control.
Consider the bleeding of people to pay for the wars! increased fuel prices that increase all commodities, which is just another means to bleed to pay for wars and break down sovereign Nations.
Who's controlling America? Anglo-Saxons? No, Ashkenazis. - DrDragun, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Agreed. I meant that you needed something to fuel your car (and other equipment) with. Hydrogen needs to be produced, of course, at a net energy loss. It is a storage medium for fuel not an energy source.
If we end up using hydrogen as a fuel for energy storage, it would probably need to be synthesized using nuclear power or solar. - lazerus9, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3If you are capable of commenting on digg you are capable of using the search argument that I provided. I am assuming that you know who Kissinger is, but if you don't, you may want to educate yourself on his Bio first.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3No, it's been government subsidies that decide.
- directrix13, on 04/30/2008, -4/+7So you say there is no such thing as food hoarding, and then you define food hoarding. O......K.
- sangjmoon, on 04/30/2008, -2/+5This proves again that the government is the worst allocator of resources. Anybody who wants the government to do more for them, like health care who haven't already noticed the government's incredibly bad track record, should be convinced by this.
- zephyrprime, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3First the article says that demand has increased for rice because of high wheat prices caused by expanding corn planting for ethanol and then the article says that there is no shortage of rice. Well? Which is it? The article seems rather confused itself.
- designer, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3We'll all starve to death in 30 or 50 years. I'm looking at the present.
- alappat1, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3by blowback, i presime u mean that through subsidizing crops, countries like the US, have prevented much needed investment in production capacities in the 3rd world? I agree that is part of the problem, but the main issue here is that with economic growth of the 3rd world, the demand for food is going to start to exceed production capabilities regardless of investment. When people of Asia and Africa start to demand more food until they hit first nation demand levels , there is no way to produce that level of food supply. (see articles below)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-bottleneck
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=humans-gobble- ...
In all, i hope there is significant investment in biotech and new farming methods, because if we cannot stop the growth of population , then we will need to increase production somehow. - 15charmaxwtf, on 04/30/2008, -1/+4It's hard for it to correct itself if it is being distorted by subsidies, the money is going to go into sectors that they would not have gone in to if those sectors were not subsidised. This article puts http://www.mises.org/story/2952 more emphasis on allowing the market to work. (hopefully it is the correct article, I just found it in my browser history.)
- skidooer, on 04/30/2008, -1/+4The big wheat growers, such as those in western Canada, cannot grow corn even if they wanted to. Wheat was priced high because most farmers had a poor wheat crop last year, not because corn took it's place.
- yahaira, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3yesterday's Radio Times (on NPR) had a great show about this...http://www.whyy.org/cgi-bin/newwebRTlookup.cgi
go to the 29th and listen to the first hour - bosssmiley, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2You assume terrorist government. I'd be more likely to ascribe the flaws to venality and incompetence. *****-up is usually a more plausible explanation than conspiracy.
- Herostratos, on 04/30/2008, -1/+3Only an idiot cannot see that ethanol is a significant part of the problem.
- inactive, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2Not really. Guaranteed gov't subsidies (money) for biofuel crops are going to, in growers' minds, trump a seemingly volatile market for the time being. The only way to ensure that growers actually go with what the market needs is to STOP gov't subsidies and get gov't out of those markets altogether.
Of course, environmental conditions such as droughts and gov't protectionism (such as gov'ts putting massive export restrictions or outright bans on rice exporting in SE Asia) don't help the problem, either. - tripzero, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2a couple thousand grains of rice amounts to what I ate last night for dinner. Thanks :)
- yaddayaddayoda, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2And because of the increases in price in fuel and fertilizer (which is made from oil).
- teflonmann, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2Buried as inaccurate for promoting gen modified seeds and overestimating the percentage of rice (and food in gereral) used for biofuel.
Ok. - Biofuel produced by wheat or rice is a bad idea - we've got to find more 'efficient' ways to replace oil.
But gen modified plants already hurt us pretty bad. Search for 'monsanto cotton India' or ask U.S. pig farmers (whose pigs would get sterile from GM corn), etc. - matthewf01, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2When you created the username "USGovTerrorists", did you have the intention of running around using the word terrorists a lot in all your posts as a funny ongoing joke, like you'd establish some kind of 'schtick', and we'd all say, "Oh, you, UsGovTerrorists!" and smile, or did you register because you had something significant to say somewhere and got lost on the way?
Oh... terrorists terrorists terrorists. There. -
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