Warfare: Food Supply/Access

[Watcher In The Middle]

Here's the link to the FT story about the spike in rice prices today. The US is one of the few rice export markets that is still functioning as a free market.

Jump in rice price fuels fears of unrest
By Javier Blas in London and Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok
Published: March 27 2008

Rice prices jumped 30 per cent to an all-time high on Thursday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest across Asia where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5bn people.

The increase came after Egypt, a leading exporter, imposed a formal ban on selling rice abroad to keep local prices down, and the Philippines announced plans for a major purchase of the grain in the international market to boost supplies. Global rice stocks are at their lowest since 1976.

Link to article

Another Article

Went back & checked federal crop acreage estimates (January, 2008) on amount of farmland in rice production, and there looks to be only a minimal increase over last year. There's just no overhang of supply in the marketplace.