| FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA |
Baobab
4/21/2008
4:12 pm EDT
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FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
Monday, 21 April 2008
By Josh Gerstein, New York Sun
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.
"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man said.
The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.
"Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.
Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.
An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.
The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.
"It's sporadic. It's not every store, but it's becoming more commonplace," the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. "The number of reports I've been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I'd say in the last three to five weeks."
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
"I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export controls on wheat," Mr. Rawles said. "The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat." Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.
"There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short," Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. "Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out."
At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to increase prices locally. Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast. He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam's Club warehouses, which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company, Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits.
An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice at Costco. "I am concerned that when the news of rice shortage spreads, there will be panic buying and the shelves will be empty in no time. I do not intend to cause a panic, and I am not speculating on rice to make profit. I am just hoarding some for my own consumption," he wrote.
For now, rice is available at Asian markets in California, though consumers have fewer choices when buying the largest bags. "At our neighborhood store, it's very expensive, more than $30" for a 25-pound bag, a housewife from Mountain View, Theresa Esquerra, said. "I'm not going to pay $30. Maybe we'll just eat bread."
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-Noam Chomsky
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Vicious
4/21/2008
4:17 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
sigh.
bad, bad news.
very frightening stuff.
vicious thinks that gastrognomes are what makes her fart uncontrollably after consuming vast quantities of poutine with extra garlic and mooseheads with extra bubbleheads
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Anonymous Coward
4/21/2008
4:18 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
and so it begins.. |
Anonymous Coward
4/21/2008
4:20 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
"An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice at Costco."
Thank the doom-believers like this one who buy 500 pounds of rice at a time.
Expect rice to level out once the hoarders are done filling their pantries. |
Baobab
4/21/2008
4:21 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
Bullshit, yet reposted again!
Sorry, I'm posting in several places, I didn't realise it had been posted already:)
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-Noam Chomsky
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Anonymous Coward
4/21/2008
4:28 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
stfu you complainy whiney thing you |
Anonymous Coward
4/21/2008
4:29 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
lisa the schmuck |
Mrdjs7®
4/21/2008
4:45 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
S'alright Baobab, Crap happens, been there, done that.
 ....................We're all here  because we're not all there ©....................
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Baobab
4/21/2008
4:46 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
And PLEASE stop posting scare tactic nonsense!!!
Kiss my ass. When the newspapers stop printing it, I'll stop posting it.
It's good to know what's going on. You need to get your head outta the sand. Just because you don't see it or read it, or won't listen, doesn't mean it's not happening.
And hey here's an idea, nobody made ya click on the post link. And you're not the thread police here on AE.
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-Noam Chomsky
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Vicious
4/21/2008
4:48 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
well,
She certainly told you.
vicious thinks that gastrognomes are what makes her fart uncontrollably after consuming vast quantities of poutine with extra garlic and mooseheads with extra bubbleheads
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Mrdjs7®
4/21/2008
4:48 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
The more I look at this, the more I think that it is all one big ploy to run the prices up (Like someone else said). Run them up, sell, then buy them back up when they fall.
Follow the money and follow who is the ones that are putting this out in the media (Including here-Yes, I know how THAT makes ME look now, will not do it again unless I actually SEE it happening or call it out as B.S. right up front!)
....................We're all here because we're not all there ©....................
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Baobab
4/21/2008
5:09 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
You must believe everything you read in the newspapers...lol
Nope, but it gives me an idea of what's going on when I read between the lines.
I think they're limiting purchases for several reasons.
Bulk buying by people to send to their relatives overseas.
Bulk buying by people to sell overseas.
Panic buying.
Their Warehouse stocks are low.
The UN is buying grains by the ton to relieve hunger in several countries. This futher reduces the amount availabe for purchase by commercial entities.
The new crops of grains have not been harvested, and when they are, they will be less this year because of several factors; pests, drought, and grain diseases.
And the fact that, yes, India and several other nations have cut way back on, or ceased completely, the exports of several grains as well as other things.
My advice is buy it cheap, while you CAN buy it cheap. And I'm sure that a few others have the same idea. The prices are going to continue to go up for the forseeable future.
This is not a scare tactic, it's a heads up, from someone who reads the news from everywhere and puts the pieces together.
I have 6,500 news articles from all over the globe on my feed demon right now, I may get through reading them all before the day is out. That doesn't include the email newsletters that I get from sites that don't have RSS feeds. And this is a daily thing. So when I post something it's mostly to inform people of something important, not to scare people.
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
-Noam Chomsky
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Vicious
4/21/2008
5:11 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
This is not a scare tactic, it's a heads up
Tis how I took it, but it'S still scary to me.
vicious thinks that gastrognomes are what makes her fart uncontrollably after consuming vast quantities of poutine with extra garlic and mooseheads with extra bubbleheads
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Anonymous Coward
4/23/2008
1:27 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
for our dike Flim Flame |
walmart waddler
4/23/2008
1:39 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
Nothing to worry about until they have a limit on the number of big macs and supersized sodas I can buy! |
Whiterabbit
4/23/2008
4:35 pm EDT
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Re: FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
Thx Bao ... money talks as whos buying all they could over the last months of winter and HOARDING... yup China by the tanker loads....
If we think 4 or 5 dollar gas is bad ... just wait
My dad warned me of these things 25 yrs ago or so , glad ( i think ) he never lived to see them but god damnit all i miss him..
BUT in the END itll be all alright ... but i do feel for those who lack " the spirit to deal with what may come ...
Lets just turn all the food into FUEL ...
do you see or are you as a young kitten whos eyes are still closed ...
I wish you all well , Whiterabbit |
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