india and vietnam have banned rice exports.

[ORDagnabbit]

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=99586

Rice hoarding giving way to price hike



Tuesday, March 04, 2008
By Qadeer Tanoli

Karachi: The prices of different qualities of rice have surged enormously in the local market due to hoardings and export.

There is a great demand of Pakistani Basmati and Irri rice in the international market these days. However, the prices of coarse rice, which is normally used locally, have also surged. In July 2007 the prices of two different qualities of Kernal were recorded as Rs65 and Rs60, which have now surged to Rs85 and 80 respectively in the local market.

A fine quality of Basmati, which was being sold at Rs55 in July last year, is being sold at Rs75 today. The prices of lower qualities of Basmati also increased drastically. The coarse rice, which was being sold at Rs30-35 in July last year, is currently being sold at Rs50.

Vice Chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, Abdul Baseer, believes it is the smuggling of rice to Iran and Afghanistan, which is the biggest issue these days. He said that the immediate attention of the concerned authorities is needed to control this particular factor. “The businessmen of these countries have no problems regarding the availability of money. Such people directly bargain with the mill owners and get the commodities from them,” he said.

Moreover, Baseer added, there had been drought in Australia, which also affected the price of rice along with wheat in the international market. “India has imposed a ban on the export of coarse rice, and so has Vietnam. Hence, the pressure has fallen on Pakistan to fulfil the worldwide demand of rice,” he affirmed.

more at the link

[crikkett]

1. Where else do we get rice, in the US farmers are growing GM strains

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=69991-bayer-cropscience-ge-rice-contamination-rice

GM rice contaminates US food supply
By Lorraine Heller

21-Aug-2006 - Trace amounts of a bioengineered variety of rice have been detected in samples of commercial rice seed and may have entered the food supply in the United States, it emerged last week.
...
"Since 1987, the US Department of Agriculture and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has deregulated more than 70 GE crop lines and in the last decade farmers have increasingly planted biotech varieties engineered mainly for herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, and enhanced quality traits," said the USDA in a statement.

"USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates that in 2006, 61 percent of the corn, 83 percent of the cotton and 89 percent of the soybeans planted in the United States were biotech varieties."

[ORDagnabbit]

2. we're so far removed from where our food comes from most people wont even read this....

crazy...

[fed-up]

4. California Rice Commission supports moratorium on GE field testing-March 14, 2007

we got an initiative on the ballot in 2004 to ban GE crops in Butte County-we lost, but the Rice Commission did much better and banned GE Rice in the STATE

http://www.sacbee.com/129/story/149696.html
Biotech rice pact reached
Panel will allow test variety only in a distant county, with other restrictions.
By Jim Downing - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:29 am PDT Thursday, April 5, 2007
Story appeared in BUSINESS section, Page D1

In a compromise on an issue that has riled the nation's rice farmers, a state panel on Wednesday authorized an outdoor test planting of biotech rice but restricted it to a site hundreds of miles from the nearest commercial fields.

An undisclosed biotechnology firm had asked the board for permission to plant its genetically modified rice in Fresno County, but the board ordered that the rice be planted only in Imperial County, and required that the crop be harvested with a dedicated set of farm equipment, among other restrictions.

The case was the first test of a state moratorium on biotech rice called for last month by the 40-member California Rice Commission board, which represents both rice processors and roughly 2,500 rice farming businesses.


That moratorium made the commission the first major commodity crop organization in the nation to take such a strong position against genetic engineering.

The Rice Commission argued that contamination with even a tiny amount of genetically engineered material could devastate sales to prized export markets such as Japan and South Korea. Market surveys have shown very strong opposition to genetically modified rice in those countries.

As much as 40 percent of California's $200 million to $400 million annual rice harvest is sent overseas. Nearly all state rice grows in the Sacramento Valley, where it is the most widely planted crop.

..snip

links to pdf file of article

http://www.calrice.org/e2_news.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Elizabeth Horan
March 14, 2007
California Rice Commission supports moratorium on GE field testing
SACRAMENTO, CA –

Following mounting concern over the discovery of trace levels of genetic material unapproved for commercialization in long grain rice seed outside of California, the California Rice Commission voted this morning to support a moratorium “on the field testing of all genetically modified (GM) rice cultivars in the State of California for the 2007 crop, and for future crops, until such time as research protocoland safeguards are acceptable to the California Rice Commission."

It is the position of the industry that a moratorium on GM field testing in California would allow for an opportunity to evaluate federal regulations that safeguard the rice industry.

Following the August discovery of GM traits in long grain rice produced in southern rice growing states, the California rice industry undertook a comprehensive review of the impacts on markets and potential impacts on commercially grown rice in the state.

The announcement by APHIS within recent weeks that two additional GM traits had been discovered in a variety of long grain rice, the California rice industry voted for amoratorium to evaluate the federal regulations that are the basis for all GM rice research in the state.“Based on the events of the last few months, it is clear that the federal regulatory process is not working for rice,” commented Frank Rehermann, Chair of the CRC Boardand a rice producer in Live Oak, California. “It is imperative that those systems are evaluated and approved.”

..snip

[Mojorabbit]

3. I bought twenty five

lbs of some beautiful jasmine rice at the oriental market labeled 2008 from Thailand. But I think this is the beginning and in the next few years it will get worse.

[SpiralHawk]

5. This is just the beginning...Global famine coming soon to a planet near you...

You can add wheat and corn to the global shortage picture.

It's already happening.

UN Warns: World food stocks dwindling rapidly

By Elisabeth Rosenthal – International Herald Tribune
December 17, 2007

ROME: In an "unforeseen and unprecedented" shift, the world food supply is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels, the top food and agriculture official of the United Nations warned Monday.

more...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/europe/food.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Free advice: get proactive now. Join or start a CSA or community garden...

Do not depend on this republicon homelander administration to do their usual 'heckuva' job. They will, mark my words, screw up this LOOMING disaster worse than anything they have yet screwed up...

CSA
"Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers a way for every human being to be directly involved in the care and healing of the earth, while also ensuring a supply of clean, healthy food for their families and their neighbors."

An introduction and links to lots of resources:
http://www.chiron-communications.com/farms.html

[SpiralHawk]

7. One more kick for all those who are fond of eating

This is a republicon homelander, putting a "Smiley Face" on reality...and the smiliest word he could find was "dicey."


USDA's Conner: Crop supplies "dicey" in 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. farmers will win the race to grow enough corn, wheat and soybeans to satisfy food, feed and biofuel needs although 2008 will be "very dicey," said acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner on Thursday (back in January).

<more>

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2017609720071220

[ORDagnabbit]

8. I think were talking to a mostly clueless crowd....

so if you havent yet then...

start growing your own food
start moving out of complete dollar dependence
start storing seeds
start meeting your neighbors and talking about gardening together

[BeHereNow]

9. Yup. Most are clueless.

The big "wake up" is coming sooner than I like to think about.
BHN

[donkeyotay]

10. But we're still exporting wheat, even though storage is at a 14 year low.

Saw a news story - PBS business news, I think - showing full containers being shipped back to China. The story was about our increased exports. I'd been wondering what we were exporting besides arms and misery. Turns out it was recycled paper, steel, other assorted waste products and grain.

[SpiralHawk]

11. Meanwhile, speculative 'investors' are driving grain prices up, up, up

"Pull yourself up by your own Swiss Bank Account." - Republicon philosophy

[donkeyotay]

13. Oops, that's gasoline supplies at a 14 year high.

In other words, we have finally cut back on our use, but the price goes up anyway - despite a weakening demand - because capitalist are fleeing the almighty dollar. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4381215

Wheat supplies are at a 61 year low:

Low stocks. By July, global stocks are expected to reach a 30 year low, while consumption continues to exceed production. And the three decade US trend of fewer acres will contribute to the least carryover in 61 years.
http://www.farmgate.uiuc.edu/archive/2008/03/get_a_congressi.html

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat futures in Chicago breached $11 a bushel for the first time, rising by the exchange-imposed daily limit for a sixth day after the U.S. forecast its lowest inventories in 60 years.
Stockpiles in the world's biggest exporter will drop to 272 million bushels at the end of May, 6.8 percent less than expected a month ago and down 40 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report Feb. 8. Inventories will be the lowest since 1948 when farmers grew less and shipped supplies overseas to help countries rebuild after World War II.

The price gain also reflected long, or buy, positions taken by index-trading and other funds, Park said.
Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 24,701 contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade in the week ended Feb. 5, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Net-long positions rose by 5,600 contracts, or 29 percent, from a week earlier.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ah7IZrnlONFE&refer=home

Note that free market capitalist fleeing the really terrific economy they've created for us, are also driving that commodity up. The American people will suffer, as we live in dollars. They've fled the mess they made.

[tnlefty]

12. Kick to keep this noticeable.

:kick: