In the end it will come down to international barter of real assets. Forget currencies and deficits. It will be, "I have a tanker full of Saudi oil. How much wheat will you give me for the tanker-full?" The micro-economy and the macro-economy will have to revert to barter.

And those without food or oil to barter will lose. They will be forced to fall back on whatever there is existent in their countries, and dieoff will occur.

Time to turn it up another notch.

CNN:

There was a piched battle in the local fish & chip shop last night.

3 Haddocks got "battered"

Only "codding" !!!!!!!!!

Couldn't resist the chip shop post.

Food riots - cost of food rising quick - Why ?- Has the population suddenly increased 10%, are there any crop / animal plagues (well, yes, but not big enough to trigger current rises).

Whats going on ? - Well, I have a theory, more a thought. Now i'm no commie (I own shares), but there is an old marxist phrase, "A nation's wealth is measured by what it creates"

Trouble is, the "west" dosen't create much wealth anymore. Thats done by the "east".

To maintain the status-quo, balance the books so to speak, the west needs a financial top-up now and again.

We therfore see the governments raid pension schemes (UK), oil price hikes, housing bubbles, stock market collapses, etc etc.

All designed to part us from our money.

The governments, banks, "them", bilderbergers, you, me, need more & more money to "run things", this is how they do it.

Now there getting ruthless - there doing it with food.

In a way, I hope I'm right, as if so when the system is sufficiently "topped up" (current financial crisis) then we MAY return to normality.

Don't "Bite my head off", Folks, Its just a thought.

Regards GASMON

You are not entirely wrong. A portion of your taxes is spent ensuring the playing field is not level. However, the ultimate beneficiary is you, the man in the street, relatively speaking to a far greater extent than any "elite".

Mainly agree, Twilight.
Though at the moment, the only "benefit" I currently see is rising prices. I'm no politician, statistician or financial wizard, just a plain old gas distribution engineer.
Frightening thing is, (and other threads I read also state), that what I thought would start to happen, slowly, in 5, 10, maybe 15 years time is happening right now, right quick, and right across the board.

Gasmon

This cannot be fully blamed on biofuels...there were widespread crop failures in Asia this past winter due to anomalous weather. It is becoming harder and harder for farmers to grow a crop.

Let me tell you something that may shock you.
Biofuels idea was introduced in order to begin the worldwide famine.
We are so stupid we burn corn and think it is saving the earth.
You can sell a sucker anything.
It worked.
Anyway, the signal has been given, and it is starting to come apart now, bulging seams giving way.

What qualifies you to know this is true? You have the most bling on your tinfoil hat?

mos6507, lol that was funny. But I think most of us agree on something: biofuels are not a solution and should not be implemented.

It's actually a combination. First, food stores have been dwindling for years. The last I heard, the entire world only had something like 56 days worth of food in storage. We have been quite literally living hand-to-mouth for nearly a decade.

Then there's the crop failures. Billg is right, it's been a tough year in Asia. I also read somewhere that India is suffering it's semi-centennial rodent infestation. It's damaged a lot more crops.

Then there's this ethanol nonsense. That's been discussed to death here, and I see no reason to further belabour the point.

And let's not forget Ug99. I haven't read the whole thread myself, but if it's posted here, it's probably "triple X doomer porn".

And finally, we come to transportation costs. This has long been predicted on this forum. The UN's World Food Program is begging for $500 million in emergency funding, mostly to cover increased transportation costs.

It seems like we need a thread dedicated to the many issues related to the spreading food crisis.

The problem continues to spread from rice, which has seen many countries cut off exports to wheat.

World's 5th largest wheat exporter to ban exports

As trade in one commodity was restricted in an attempt to keep prices down at home (rice in many countries) the "contaigen" seems to be spreading to a related commodity (wheat) since many of those who would otherwise be buying rice are now substituting wheat, creating a cascading problem.

Who will be next among the large exporters to limit exports?


My guess would be Argentina but who knows?

Of course this might be good for our own trade deficiet. If the price of basic food stuffs goes up, perhaps we will be able to reclaim some of those dollars out there for rice, beans and corn.

Who is liable to be hurt the most?


Pick an "Other Developing Country" of your choice.

Once/If Wheat restrictions begins to cascade through the system what will be the next commodity to follow? Corn? Or will the system of trade be greased through government intervention or perhaps "demand destruction?"

Production:



Exporters:



(and most important) Importers:



Sorry Mexico, less oil for us = less corn for you.
Sorry South Korea... We won't be needing as many cheap new cars and TV sets for a while.
Taiwan, We have enough laptops thank you...

Or perhaps we will continue to supply them because they are allies?




Got Food?

Here's one benefit of soaring food costs, if you support free trade:

Global import barriers fall as food prices trump Doha



Did it not occur to the authors that bans on exports of soft commodities may hinder free trade? Did they not hear about the rice situation? I'm just posting this as an example of myopic thinking.

Oh! you are talking about wheat and rice (and maize). Seeing the title of "Spreading Food Crisis" I thought you meant items like butter and jam

One old post of Monte's that I happened to read recently talked of the effect of Peak Oil being manifest most in its effect in the economic realm. The effect of this current food crisis is probably one of these effects showing up in another field than the oil industry. But then food is where one should expect the crisis to develop when you have a resource (like oil) that is getting scarer in a growing population.

I suppose we will see food prices rising faster than prices at the petrol pumps. I must get out into the garden, but it is a cool and cloudy day and I am too comfortable where I am. I need to find a space to dig up a new bed for potatoes (lots of hard work now, but I know I will feel better when it is done).

There has always been a huge market for myopic thinking. My highest boss, a division head, told me once in all seriousness that he was specifically looking for particularely "dumb" people to fill vacancies in our technical project management teams. The last thing he wanted, apparently, was having the day-to-day company business being run by "smart" people, who might get into all sorts of trouble and cause delays in technical projects supposed to be "quick and dirty".
The above discovery was a huge "eye-opener" for me, but this the way things are kept moving along in this world. Never hand power to smart people with insight. Better to hand it to goodhearted nincompoops who don't ask difficult questions and don't threaten the status quo.