Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

[uscitizen]

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World
By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun * April 21, 2008

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.

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, Calif., 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.

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world

 

[cawacko]

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World
By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun * April 21, 2008

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.

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, Calif., 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.

http://nysun.com/news/food-rationing-confronts-breadbasket-world

Sorry Yajun, I bought it all.

 

[Little-Acorn]

How much of this has to do with government mandates to produce more methanol for auto fuel? I keep hearing rumors that more and more farmers are converting from rice, wheat etc. to corn, for the purpose of getting those nice subsidies the govt is offering for people who produce methanol.

As well as scary predictions that, if we were to run all vehicles in the US on methanol, something like 4/5 of ALL our farmland would have to be given over to producing corn just for the demand for fuel.

Rumors only, I'm not sure where to find the real numbers. Anybody know?

BTW, many reports HAVE come out, saying basically that it takes more than a gallon of gasoline, to produce every gallon of methanol, once seed production, fertilizer, plowing, harvesting, water pumping, and grain transportation and processing is taken into account.

"Energy efficient", it ain't.

ON EDIT: Here's one article that has a few numbers. A lot of the story still remains to be told, however.

------------------------------------

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update69.htm

Why Ethanol Production Will Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008

Lester R. Brown
January 24, 2008

We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before.

The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Wheat trading on the Chicago Board of Trade on December 17th breached the $10 per bushel level for the first time ever. In mid-January, corn was trading over $5 per bushel, close to its historic high. And on January 11th, soybeans traded at $13.42 per bushel, the highest price ever recorded. All these prices are double those of a year or two ago.

As a result, prices of food products made directly from these commodities such as bread, pasta, and tortillas, and those made indirectly, such as pork, poultry, beef, milk, and eggs, are everywhere on the rise. In Mexico, corn meal prices are up 60 percent. In Pakistan, flour prices have doubled. China is facing rampant food price inflation, some of the worst in decades.

In industrial countries, the higher processing and marketing share of food costs has softened the blow, but even so, prices of food staples are climbing. By late 2007, the U.S. price of a loaf of whole wheat bread was 12 percent higher than a year earlier, milk was up 29 percent, and eggs were up 36 percent. In Italy, pasta prices were up 20 percent.

World grain prices have increased dramatically on three occasions since World War II, each time as a result of weather-reduced harvests. But now it is a matter of demand simply outpacing supply. In seven of the last eight years world grain production has fallen short of consumption. These annual shortfalls have been covered by drawing down grain stocks, but the carryover stocks—the amount in the bin when the new harvest begins—have now dropped to 54 days of world consumption, the lowest on record. (See data.)

From 1990 to 2005, world grain consumption, driven largely by population growth and rising consumption of grain-based animal products, climbed by an average of 21 million tons per year. Then came the explosion in demand for grain used in U.S. ethanol distilleries, which jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. This 27 million ton jump more than doubled the annual growth in world demand for grain. If 80 percent of the 62 distilleries now under construction are completed by late 2008, grain used to produce fuel for cars will climb to 114 million tons, or 28 percent of the projected 2008 U.S. grain harvest.

Historically the food and energy economies have been largely separate, but now with the construction of so many fuel ethanol distilleries, they are merging. If the food value of grain is less than its fuel value, the market will move the grain into the energy economy. Thus as the price of oil rises, the price of grain follows it upward.

A University of Illinois economics team calculates that with oil at $50 a barrel, it is profitable—with the ethanol subsidy of 51¢ a gallon (equal to $1.43 per bushel of corn)—to convert corn into ethanol as long as the price is below $4 a bushel. But with oil at $100 a barrel, distillers can pay more than $7 a bushel for corn and still break even. If oil climbs to $140, distillers can pay $10 a bushel for corn—double the early 2008 price of $5 per bushel.

(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

How much of this has to do with government mandates to produce more methanol for auto fuel?

It is truly news that the government is mandating the production of methanol.

 

[Thorn]

It is truly news that the government is mandating the production of methanol.

That reminds me. A couple of weeks ago, the History Channel aired a program on ethanol-producing switchgrass, a native plant of the plains that grows easily and doesn't require the input that corn and other such crops do. Also pretty much all the plant is used and it was expected to produce fuel at an approximate cost of about $1./gallon. I'd like to learn more about this; it was terrifically encouraging.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

That reminds me. A couple of weeks ago, the History Channel aired a program on ethanol-producing switchgrass, a native plant of the plains that grows easily and doesn't require the input that corn and other such crops do. Also pretty much all the plant is used and it was expected to produce fuel at an approximate cost of about $1./gallon. I'd like to learn more about this; it was terrifically encouraging.

The technology is still in its infancy, and pardon me if I'm being a little pessimistic about it. Nothing ever does as good as the predictions.

 

[Thorn]

The technology is still in its infancy, and pardon me if I'm being a little pessimistic about it. Nothing ever does as good as the predictions.

Of course not -- but it is good that people are thinking in several directions. Bandwagon-leaping is the worst thing possible for the generation of new ideas and their development! That's as true in science as in any other endeavor.

 

[uscitizen]

It is truly news that the government is mandating the production of methanol.

yeah like we grow rice and corn in the same place.

 

[uscitizen]

KY is starting construction of a methanol plant that uses grass or pretty much any thpe of cellouse to produce methanol.

Darned hay shortage!

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

That reminds me. A couple of weeks ago, the History Channel aired a program on ethanol-producing switchgrass, a native plant of the plains that grows easily and doesn't require the input that corn and other such crops do. Also pretty much all the plant is used and it was expected to produce fuel at an approximate cost of about $1./gallon. I'd like to learn more about this; it was terrifically encouraging.

The cellulosic method of ethanol production (which includes switchgrass) is the way we should explore. We should cut off using our food supply for fuel.

I am not positive as I only know what I have read, but I read the exact opposite.... that cellulosic was harder to produce than grain based ethanol.

 

[Little-Acorn]

We should cut off using our food supply for fuel.

We're not so much using our food supply for fuel, as we are using our farmland to produce fuel instead of food.

If we start using switchgrass or other such non-grain, instead of grain, to produce ethanol, will we be getting rid of the root problem or not? Will we still have farmers giving up growing stuff for food (corn, wheat, rice etc.) and converting to growing stuff for ethanol (switchgrass or whatever)?

Does it take as many acres of switchgrass to produce X amount of ethanol, as it does acres of corn?

 

[Thorn]

The cellulosic method of ethanol production (which includes switchgrass) is the way we should explore. We should cut off using our food supply for fuel.

I am not positive as I only know what I have read, but I read the exact opposite.... that cellulosic was harder to produce than grain based ethanol.

I'm sure they'll rerun the program; it would be worth keeping an eye out for it. One huge advantage is that it won't be a crop that uses our foods; in fact what I gathered from that program was that it needs far less cultivating because it's natural to the prairies. Of course the plains used to have somewhat more rainfall than we've been receiving during most of the past 10 years or so....

 

[Little-Acorn]

One huge advantage is that it won't be a crop that uses our foods;

It'll be a crop that uses the farmland we currently use to grow foods. So we're still behind the eight-ball as much as we ever were.

Or does switchgrass etc. take less room to produce the same amount of ethanol?

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

I'm sure they'll rerun the program; it would be worth keeping an eye out for it. One huge advantage is that it won't be a crop that uses our foods; in fact what I gathered from that program was that it needs far less cultivating because it's natural to the prairies. Of course the plains used to have somewhat more rainfall than we've been receiving during most of the past 10 years or so....

I will keep an eye out for it.

Acorn... actually in addition to switchgrass, corn stover can also be used. Which means not only would we not be using our food supply, but we would also be using the stover for fuel production.

As for switchgrass, it is my understanding that it (as Thorn mentioned) grows on the prairies naturally (among other places)

 

[Topspin]

swithgrass isn't close to ready for primetime. We produce 5 billion gallons with mainly cor. That will only go up.

 

[Dilloduck]

It'll be a crop that uses the farmland we currently use to grow foods. So we're still behind the eight-ball as much as we ever were.

Or does switchgrass etc. take less room to produce the same amount of ethanol?

Limited arable land----people really need to figure this out when considering alternative fuels. You can't just grow AND HARVEST crops just anywhere.

 

[Annie]

swithgrass isn't close to ready for primetime. We produce 5 billion gallons with mainly cor. That will only go up.

I hope and pray you are wrong about corn. We cannot have people starving because the West wishes to drive their cars and the arising nations are now demanding oil:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=arSRWU0yDL7M

and about switchgrass:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/21/science-focused-on-creating-domestic-supply/

Science focused on creating domestic supply

By Kay Brookshire, news@knoxvillebiz.com
Monday, April 21, 2008
Mark Troupe, left, and Rick Michelhaugh are principles in BioPowerUSA, a company that is seeking to commercialize its process for creating biodiesel. The company is located in a Knox County business incubator, the Fairview Technology Center.

Justin Fee/Business Journal

Mark Troupe, left, and Rick Michelhaugh are principles in BioPowerUSA, a company that is seeking to commercialize its process for creating biodiesel. The company is located in a Knox County business incubator, the Fairview



Tennessee could become the "Saudi Arabia of cellulose" with its farm-to-market plan to produce ethanol from switchgrass, beginning with a demonstration refinery being developed in partnership with the University of Tennessee.

Fueled by the best science from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and UT, and with funding from the state, the refinery is expected to produce ethanol for less than $1.50 per gallon within five years...

 

[Topspin]

what I'm saying is easily verified. Also many experts say iowa's cacus will hold off corn alternatives for ethanol production.

 

[Dilloduck]

I hope and pray you are wrong about corn. We cannot have people starving because the West wishes to drive their cars and the arising nations are now demanding oil:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=arSRWU0yDL7M

and about switchgrass:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/21/science-focused-on-creating-domestic-supply/

the refinery is expected to produce ethanol for less than $1.50 per gallon within five years...

but what will it actually cost the consumer at the pump and what crop will it replace? Does Tennessee have acres of land just sitting around for somebody to plant something on it? If it does, why isn't a food crop being planted there now?

 

[Annie]

the refinery is expected to produce ethanol for less than $1.50 per gallon within five years...

but what will it actually cost the consumer at the pump and what crop will it replace? Does Tennessee have acres of land just sitting around for somebody to plant something on it? If it does, why isn't a food crop being planted there now?

Subsidies. Did you bother to read? The US production today is the same at 5 years ago, regarding foodstuffs. Farmers are planting with ethanol in mind. It's where the money is at.