OMFG!!!! A non-candidate diary!!! Yes, folks, food riots are on their way - Across the country, rice, flour and cooking oils are being rationed, er, restricted. - The cost of bread is rising, and the nation's poor are even hungrier than before.
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, California, yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.
"Where’s the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous."
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
Source
and, yet, no one is addressing this issue. Corn is being turned into biofuel at the expense of humans, or says the UN:Yet, according to The Daily Telegraph, it does:
Global warming rage lets global hunger grow
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 1:46am BST 19/04/2008
We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.
The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.
. Over the next several months, food prices across the nation will continue to rise increasing the needs of the poorest in America. The Food Stamp system will collapse - it's hard enough to augment one's income with $130/month in assistance, when it costs $4 for a box of cereal or loaf of bread. Who does this hit the hardest? Those of Asian and Hispanic descent, where rice is a major staple of the diet.
I'm one of them rice and bean eaters. I cook with olive oil - my on efood luxury I am on a very strict budget, I bake my own breads (well I did) it's getting harder to afford even a minimally healthy diet
"Fiat Panis"? not anymore. The ethanol "Lobby" says BULLSHIT! we are HELPING
Ethanol Part of Solution, Not Problem
Claims that biofuels, such as ethanol, are the primary reason for potential food rationing, food shortages and increased food prices are a blatant exaggeration.
Food production in the U.S. is not being reduced to produce ethanol, which is just one point of demand for America’s corn crop.
We live in a global economy where drought, population growth, growing protein demand in developing countries, war, transportation costs, crop acreage shifts and many other factors affect food prices and supplies.
Ethanol does not take food from the mouths of starving people.
Source
So, there now appears to be a 'hostage situation in the making. Where do we go from here?
Who is correct? if rice, flour and CORN oil are being restricted, what shall the consequence for Americans be?
EDIT:EPIC's website