Let the Chicken Little rice hording and gold buying begin!

We are unique in that we run largely a corn economy. I just hope no one decides to ration corn products or we will be in severe trouble.

If we were all to eat locally then we would avoid a lot of these issues. My beef cost the same this year as it did last year because energy costs were largely the same and the beef only had to move a few miles from birth to my home.

Typically these type of crimes fall under much smaller penalties.

And no that is the opposite of the type of rhetoric that got us into Iraq. If tampering with intelligence evidence and falsely presenting facts qualified as a high crime or misdemeanor, as it should, we would not be there now.

People are to tolerant of those who would wreck the country for personal gain.

On a side there is plenty of food. It's just that people can't afford it. Foreign nationals depended on the US economy to continue onwards. It didn't, now people are screwed. Zimbabwe is likely to never recover at this point.

@howie_in_az:

Sounds like a great time to walk out the store and back in again, this constituting another "visit"

When there's no more rice, I say mais qu'ils mangent du brioche.

Anyways, yes, the current food situation is scary, but on the positive side, easily corrected, because the food is there - it's just not going to the right places.

(And yes, all whole grains are far more prone to spoilage than refined grains.)

ANWAR by being untapped is a strategic oil reserve that allows the US to have sufficient fuel for self defense even if over seas oil routes are cut.

It also allows us to weather the much more likely situation that in a future war oil producing countries will play both sides for profits.

Wasting Americas National resources so a corporation can make a few billion more or a politician can get a few percentage points qualifies as treason.

There are specific constitutional provisions that deal with such people.

Here's my theory on why some groceries have cheaper rice than say the Asiatic markets. Many groceries do have current supplies purchased at a low price and/or purchasing contracts that permit them to get grain at a certain (lower) price. Other stores don't have old cheaper inventory and/or the price contracts. When the supply or contract runs out, you must buy in the current market, and you get expensive rice. It won't be long until everybody's rice is more expensive.

This is total news to me. I might be mad and European but I thought everyone ate brown rice ! Surely you guys can't have overlooked the cheapness / nutritional value ?

We'll hear all sorts of 'reasonable' explanations and it will, of course, always be somebody else's fault. But, even if we say it can't happen here or there, it can and is.

Anyway, that is Walmart/Sam's Club's excuse.

In the '70s & '80s, fruit and nut orchards in Sonoma County and elsewhere up and down the West Coast came down so "visionaries" could plant vinyards. (After that, it was farmland giving way to foreclosedivisions-I-mean-development.) "Oops!" again! Have you checked the price of almonds and walnuts at Costco, while wandering past that rice? I will say though that the Two Buck Chuck at Trader Joe's is not bad this year.

America! Anywon who wants to tell us that we are using up and running out of stuff is a zero-sum-game spewing Commie! ...although to be fair, war and pandemic will probably take care of some of the problem, later or sooner...

no rice for you

(We eat rice a couple nights a week. I took a nutrition class and every nutrition assessment I did I came out sky-high on B vitamins from all that tasty, tasty rice. Like don't-need-prenatal-vitamins-to-prevent-neural-tube-defects levels of B vitamins from my rice.)

One of my favorite lazy dinners is brown rice with shredded cheddar mixed in and soy sauce on top. Seriously, it's good. Or brown rice cooked in chicken broth with broccoli thrown in the last 5 minutes, but that's good-for-you lazy, not "rice equivalent of Mac-n-Cheese" lazy.

Brown Basmati FTW!

@Ben Popken:

LOL, touche' :-)

@AMetamorphosis: Don't you mean riceburg?

@nikalseyn: Actually most of us smarter enviormental wackos are NOT in favor ethanol, because it is not an efficient use of technology. It uses huge amounts of energy to produce, is less efficient than the gasoline it replaces and it's geographically not possible to grow enough corn to use ethanol to replace a significant amount of oil consumption.

Enviromental wackos want proven technology widely in use like solar and wind power. We want significant raises in fuel economy requirements for cars and trucks, our government supporting the Kyoto Treaty like most other major countries.

It's actually conservative Republican and the corporations that bought and paid for our goverment that are responsible. Think Monsanto, Archer Daniels, etc. Our goverment subsidizes every gallon of ethanol. So the riots and mass starvation in other third world countries is actually underwritten by Bush and his gang of thugs.

Also, we had Republican legislators and the oil companies fight efforts to end billion dollar subsidies to the oil companies who have the largest recorded PROFITS in the history of the world.

Please crawl back under a rock and take Rush Limbaugh with you.

Now you see why Sam's Club and Costco might be rationing their rice - their suppliers can't get the cheap stuff from India like they have been doing.

There is some irony in that only a few years ago, people were complaining that food prices were really low and that this was destroying African farmers. Be careful what you wish for!

Actually this reminds me of the Baked Bean wars back in the UK a few years back.

This may be just the beginning. This is what you get when you listen to the environmental wackos and burn grain instead of eating it or actually drilling for oil off shore or in alaska. Glenn Beck talks about this situation often lately. catch him on the radio.

"Just buy your rice at the Asian store" is all set to become the new "I always get my pizza at a mom and pop joint"

I am speaking to the bigger picture of food shortage. I don't grow rice or even live in a place that I could grow rice. But imagine the surplus of food we could create if everyone started growing some type of food in their front yard instead of wasting resources to grow a lawn.

@burgundyyears:

In all seriousness, I'm very happy that your standard of living has risen. Unfortunately, I find this is not the case for a large majority of people I interact with.

Even if your standard of living has risen, unless you make a substantial amount more than you did last year, a higher percentage of your take home pay is going for heat, gas & food.

I know mine is :-(

While there's not going to be many in the US or Europe who starve due to a rice shortage, our costs are going to continue to rise and people in developing nations will start to become malnourished and we're going to start seeing more people dying of starvation if this continues.

Whose bright idea was it to use a food source for fuel anyhow?

Human civilization is destoying itself. The rate at which we speed toward extinction is increasing.

An excellent article IMHO: The Biofuels Scam, Food Shortages and the Coming Collapse of the Human Population [www.naturalnews.com]

@Kavatar:

Asian food stores arent everywhere!

Good luck finding one in bumblefuck tennesee.

Laugh all you want but this is the tip of the iceburg people.

As China & India raise their standard of living more grains are going towards meat production.

Addtionally, corn based products are going up too because we are diverting food crops toward plant based fuels.

We as a country have become fat, dumb & happy ... is anyone's standard of living higher than it was last year ?

All it takes is a trip to the grocery store to see that food costs are rising significantly.

Sams also changed suppliers or quit carrying a bunch of things in the last month. This might just be the tip of things. That worries me.

This sounds bizarre! A food shortage of rice? WTF?????????

Is the world coming to an end???

btw..... The only rice I eat is basically the equivilant of rice crispies cereal. IF that is indeed actually rice? I havnt had actual rice since I was a kid.

Now if they start rationing wheat products.... i am going to REALLY be pissed/worried.

Actually this reminds me of the Baked Bean wars back in the UK a few years back.

My "rice purchasing credits" are now up for sale to the highest bidder.
I'll sell the whole ton, in ten pound increments.
I wonder if that is 1-ton per day?

However, now that I think about it, I tried to buy gochujang from our local Asian market yesterday and they said their supplier was out so they couldn't get it with this month's supplies... maybe all Asian food will be rationed!

"We are limiting the sale of Jasmine, Basmati and Long Grain White Rices to four bags per member visit," the company said in a statement. "This is effective immediately in all of our U.S. clubs, where quantity restrictions are allowed by law."

Sounds like a great time to visit your local Indian and Asian markets.

@unklegwar: Also, fortunately, Walmart is *not* rationing its supply of "Narrow World View" at this time, that time-tested product that prevents people from seeing that other people live their lives in many different, varied ways.

It forms the basis of some cultures' diets. And with the US being a melting pot or whatever they're calling it now (I prefer to think of it as a "mixed salad"), I'm sure this will affect at least a few people.

And I speak from experience, since as a Puerto Rican I go through my fair share of rice and beans. And rice and chicken. And rice and sausage. And rice and pigeon peas. You get the idea.

Hello? 500lbs is just a starting point. It's number that we can all currently tolerate. Next year it could be 250, then 125, and so on....It's just like all of the cameras - if they all popped up instantly people would freak, but if they add 1 or 2 here and then a few at a time they just become a part of our lives. Same thing with gas - nobody's doing much more than whining now, but if prices doubled in a month, there might be a full fledged revolt.

My husband is asian and we go through 25+ pounds of rice every month. This is a big deal to us.

I was about to ask the same thing.