Food Riots A Possibility Here In U.S., And How They Relate To Iraq, Oil, And The Chinese

One of the little-known stories developing worldwide is the fact that food prices in most other countries have increased by, in some cases, more than three hundred percent. While we here in the U.S. have been obsessing over the subprime mortgage fiasco, our contemporaries around the world are facing real issues.

Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the year to the end of January, markedly accelerating an upturn that began, gently at first, in 2002. Rice prices in Thailand, the world's largest producer, doubled last year alone.

According to the Times of London and recently highlighted by Paul Krugman of the New York Times, many countries, some commonly thought of as being "First World," are facing near-famine conditions due to a variety of reasons, some of which one would NEVER have thought of as a cause. For example, things are so bad in the Philippines that farmers caught hoarding rice could face life in prison if convicted of economic sabotage.

In Haiti, long the poorest of the countries in the western hemisphere suffered a national strike directly related to the price of food. In fact, hungry Haitians stormed the presidential palace Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices. They were beaten back by UN peace-keepers using rubber bullets and tear gas. Several died in the melees.

And Chinese, Korean and Japanese companies are preparing to compete in a desperate “land grab” for agricultural land across the globe. A little known fact: Japan already owns three times more farmland overseas than in its home territory; the government in Seoul, South Korea is keen to do the same.

Fueling The Engine of Our Demise
As to the reasons, one big one seems to be China. Apparently the Chinese, in their rising economic status, are increasing their meat consumption. Feed for beef and chicken have been outstripping human food in the race for resources. And since it takes 700 calories to create 100 calories of beef (or 200 calories to produce 100 calories of chicken), the eating habits of 1 billion people can have a drastic impact on available food resources.

Over 2.5 billion Asians may find rice prices going up an additional 100% in the next year or so, due to the crowding out of food production, by that for feed.

When you think about it, the insistence on American companies shipping production of damn near everything to cheap Asian laborers has strengthened China and caused its economy to boom like no other. Plus, the Chinese (and to a lesser extent the Japanese), own a substantial chunk of the $7 trillion of American debt, our interest payments providing a healthy influx of cash monthly to our debt-holders. And we don't help the debt spending something like $300 billion a month in Iraq.

Climate Change, Oil and Iraq
Global climate change is also to blame. A nine-year drought, in Australia, the longest on record, has parched one of the most productive farming continents in the world, reducing their food output by at least 10-15%. Changing weather patterns elsewhere have also reduced agricultural output.

Closer to home, prices in the U.S. for staples like corn, rice and soy beans have gone through the roof, leading to crazy increases of food prices.This is in part due to the much higher price of gas and oil, which are used to power the equipment that process the foodstuffs and transport them to market.

Go to your local grocery store, and you'll have all the proof you need. No less a conservative bastion than Fox Business Channel warns that milk could be priced at $5 a gallon by summer's end. High fuel prices (that damned oil again), drought and a spike in the cost of feed and dairy operations are all kicking up the price.

But more insidious is the influence of biofuels on the prices of food here at home. Thanks in part to Iraq, we have a national feeding frenzy taking place  surrounding  the development of alternative fuels. The prevailing price of oil, at the start of the Iraq war was about $40 a barrel. Today, oil will close around $109 a barrel. As one can easily tell, if a production input increases nearly three-fold, prices for goods relying on the input are certainly going to rise. A lot. And there will be much incentive to find a substitute, obviously.

That's where biofuels come in.

The push to develop ethanol as an oil-substitute has driven corn prices up by over 100% in recent months, this despite the fact that ethanol is not even the best candidate for biofuels. (In fact, it takes as much energy to process the corn to a usable fuel as the energy it contains as a fuel. In other words, it's a one-to-one ratio.). As I pointed out in a previous blog post, our focus needs to be on other biomass, especially that which isn't consumed as food by the residents of this or any other country.

But the increase in corn prices have raised the price of all animal-related foods -- such as milk -- since, well, corn is the feed of choice for beef and milk cattle, and chicken.

Basically ConAgra, Archer Daniels Midland, and Monsanto, with the help of the Idiot President and his minions have hoodwinked most of the nation into a precarious food situation impacted by war, poor economic planning and hysteria.

The intersection of all these events have people worried that prices may increase so much in coming months, that even here in the U.S. might resort to protests, and even increased crime to feed themselves, a circumstance not seen since the Great Depression.