LiquidFork
04-23-2008, 11:12 PM
That’s right. Rice is being rationed. In America.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/wal-marts-sams-club-chain-limits/story.aspx?guid={6DC71959-619A-4464-A2A8-0C7E220D7A89}&dist=hplatest)—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its Sam’s Club wholesale club chain is limiting the sale of some rice to four bags per member visit because of what it described as “supply and demand trends.”
Jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rices will be subject to those purchase restrictions, as long as they are allowed by law, in the 594 clubs across the U.S., said Sam’s Club spokeswoman Kristy Reed. New Mexico and Idaho are the only two states that forbid such practice, she said.
Reed declined to comment specifically on whether the restriction stemmed from a shortage in imports or a rush among consumers to hoard these commodities. Wal-Mart said at this point, it’s not limiting purchases of flour or oil.
“We are working with our suppliers to address this matter to ensure we are in stock,” Wal-Mart said in a statement.
Wal-Mart won’t say it, but I will: Ethanol subsidies, which are driving food producers to devote their crops to fuel production instead, are driving up the price of food by lowering supply (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-rice-shortage-080423-ht,1,574975.story). And this is what happens when politicians try to command our economy. For whatever reason the politicians have decided that ethanol is the “energy of the future” to replace gasoline, but the truth is that ethanol costs one heck of a lot more to produce than gasoline (it’s not competitive price-wise at the pump with gasoline even when heavily subsidized) and we cannot produce enough of it from food crops to meet our national demand for fuel, let alone our global demand.
Now, it may be that we could produce ethanol from non-food crops (or crop by-products) grown on marginal land not currently used for food crops, but right now our politicians are subsidizing the creation of ethanol from food crops and those subsidies are hurting the world food markets. And not only are the subsidizing the production of food-crop-based ethanol, in many places they’re mandating its use.
A four-bag limit on rice at Sam’s Club isn’t necessarily a sign of impending food shortages and/or hunger epidemics, but when was the last time any American retailer ever instituted a ration on something that wasn’t directly connected to a national disaster?
This is a problem, and the sooner we drop the subsidies and ethanol mandates the better.
There is a lot of overlap in the food market for staple crops, which both corn and rice are. If more land is going for corn, and more corn is going for ethanol, less land is available for other crops and demand for those other crops goes up as well.
I’ll grant that the areas acceptable for growing rice are different from the areas acceptable for growing corn, but even so the markets are intertwined. People have to eat. Less food is on the market as a result of ethanol subsidies. Thus, supply is down and prices are up.
Update: Costco is apparently rationing rice as well (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_rice).
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/wal-marts-sams-club-chain-limits/story.aspx?guid={6DC71959-619A-4464-A2A8-0C7E220D7A89}&dist=hplatest)—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its Sam’s Club wholesale club chain is limiting the sale of some rice to four bags per member visit because of what it described as “supply and demand trends.”
Jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rices will be subject to those purchase restrictions, as long as they are allowed by law, in the 594 clubs across the U.S., said Sam’s Club spokeswoman Kristy Reed. New Mexico and Idaho are the only two states that forbid such practice, she said.
Reed declined to comment specifically on whether the restriction stemmed from a shortage in imports or a rush among consumers to hoard these commodities. Wal-Mart said at this point, it’s not limiting purchases of flour or oil.
“We are working with our suppliers to address this matter to ensure we are in stock,” Wal-Mart said in a statement.
Wal-Mart won’t say it, but I will: Ethanol subsidies, which are driving food producers to devote their crops to fuel production instead, are driving up the price of food by lowering supply (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-rice-shortage-080423-ht,1,574975.story). And this is what happens when politicians try to command our economy. For whatever reason the politicians have decided that ethanol is the “energy of the future” to replace gasoline, but the truth is that ethanol costs one heck of a lot more to produce than gasoline (it’s not competitive price-wise at the pump with gasoline even when heavily subsidized) and we cannot produce enough of it from food crops to meet our national demand for fuel, let alone our global demand.
Now, it may be that we could produce ethanol from non-food crops (or crop by-products) grown on marginal land not currently used for food crops, but right now our politicians are subsidizing the creation of ethanol from food crops and those subsidies are hurting the world food markets. And not only are the subsidizing the production of food-crop-based ethanol, in many places they’re mandating its use.
A four-bag limit on rice at Sam’s Club isn’t necessarily a sign of impending food shortages and/or hunger epidemics, but when was the last time any American retailer ever instituted a ration on something that wasn’t directly connected to a national disaster?
This is a problem, and the sooner we drop the subsidies and ethanol mandates the better.
There is a lot of overlap in the food market for staple crops, which both corn and rice are. If more land is going for corn, and more corn is going for ethanol, less land is available for other crops and demand for those other crops goes up as well.
I’ll grant that the areas acceptable for growing rice are different from the areas acceptable for growing corn, but even so the markets are intertwined. People have to eat. Less food is on the market as a result of ethanol subsidies. Thus, supply is down and prices are up.
Update: Costco is apparently rationing rice as well (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080423/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_rice).