A Run on Rice?!

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December 2008
- UN Report Finds Nearly 1B Are Hungry
  
  Guardian (UK) | Dec 10, 08 12:54 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Rising food prices have pushed the number of people going hungry to 963 million, or 14% of the world's population, says a UN report published yesterday. Though costs have dropped from historic peaks, basics still cost 28% more than in 2006. That's left 40 million more people undernourished this year, the majority living in seven developing countries, the Guardian reports. More »
November 2008
- Rich Nations Snap Up Third World Farmland
  
  Guardian (UK) | Nov 22, 08 3:24 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Rich nations are buying up farmland in developing countries and drawing the ire of some critics, the Guardian reports. One UN official said the purchases, designed as a hedge against food shortages, could put poor nations at risk of starving to feed the wealthy. In "this scramble for soil I don't see any place for the small farmers," said one analyst, who added that African and Southeast Asian countries will make good money from the sales. More »
- Bush Won't See Mideast Deal During Term
  
  Associated Press | Nov 6, 08 4:46 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Israel and the Palestinians won’t likely reach a peace agreement by the 2009 deadline set at the Annapolis negotiations a year ago, the White House said today. The Bush administration began to question the feasibility of the deadline when a corruption scandal ousted PM Ehud Olmert and set the stage for a new leader to be chosen in February, AP reports. More »
August 2008
- Indian State Recommends Eating Rats
  
  Reuters | Aug 18, 08 12:47 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Faced with high food prices and ebbing grain reserves, officials in the Indian state of Bihar have endorsed the consumption of rats, Reuters reports. The state government sees the strategy as a way to reduce the pest population as well as curb the demand for grain, and has even proposed that restaurants start offering the rodents. More »
July 2008
- Biofuel Caused Food Crisis: Secret Report
  
  Guardian (UK) | Jul 4, 08 3:45 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Biofuel production has been the driving force behind the growing food crisis, pushing prices up 75%, according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian . The most detailed research ever conducted on the issue emphatically contradicts the US position that biofuels are responsible for a mere 3% price bump. It hasn’t been published, sources say, for fear of embarrassing President Bush. More »
June 2008
- Export Bans Push Food Costs Even Higher
  
  New York Times | Jun 30, 08 7:23 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Alarmed by high food prices and shortages worldwide, some 29 countries are banning or reducing exports of foods to make sure they have enough at home. Such limitations pose a threat to countries that rely on imports, forcing prices up further, the New York Times reports. What’s more, the restrictions are in turn fueling private hoarding. "People are in a panic, so they are buying more and more—at least, those who have money are buying,” a Philippine rice vendor tells the Times. More »
- Grain Prices Surge With Midwest Floods
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jun 14, 08 9:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The floods inundating the Midwest are pushing grain prices to new highs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Corn prices jumped 10% to a record high last week as farmland flooded. The domino effects will hit the ethanol industry, hog farmers, and even owners of catfish ponds who rely on corn to feed the fish. Food prices are now forecast to keep climbing for years. More »
- Investors Sink Billions in 'Green Gold'
  
  New York Times | Jun 5, 08 8:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Billions of investment dollars are pouring into agriculture as the global demand for food explodes, turning crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans into green gold, reports the New York Times . And while the immediate impact of more money being fed into agriculture will likely result in increased food production, some critics worry the boom could go bust just as quickly. More »
- Food vs. Fuel Battle Flares at UN Summit
  
  BBC | Jun 4, 08 10:57 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The battle over biofuels is raging at the UN’s food summit in Rome, with nations bitterly divided over whether growing corn and sugar cane for ethanol production is pushing food prices up and helping create disastrous global food shortages. On one side: Food experts who call diversion of crops to fill the fuel tanks of wealthy nations immoral. On the other: the US, Brazil, and the EU, the main players on the biofuel stage. More »
- UN Chief Urges 50% Boost in Food Production
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 3, 08 7:23 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - UN chief Ban Ki-Moon today called for a 50% rise in world food production by 2030 to fight starvation and civil unrest as the population grows. He spoke at the World Food Security conference in Rome, where world leaders are working to address the highest commodity prices in decades. Such high prices have prompted global riots. “The threats are obvious to us all,” Ban said. More »
May 2008
- Speculation Not Driving Boom in Commodities
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 8, 08 4:29 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A majority of economists think the upswing in food and energy prices is due to fundamental issues of supply and demand—and not driven by speculation, a Wall Street Journal survey finds; 51% pegged demand from China and India as the chief cause of the oil boom. More »
- Bush: $770M Needed For Food Aid
  
  Reuters | May 1, 08 3:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Amid rising food prices and overtaxed international reserves, President Bush proposed a new $770 million aid package today, Reuters reports. The money is part of a supplemental $70 billion measure that also includes Iraq war funding and would require a vote in Congress. More »
- Thailand Plans OPEC-Style 'Rice Cartel'
  
  Bangkok Post (Thailand) | May 1, 08 9:54 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The prime minister of Thailand is exploring the idea of setting up a rice price-fixing cartel with four other governments in southeast Asia, including the military dictatorship of Burma. The Bangkok Post reports that Samak Sundaravej wants to establish an OPEC-style collective of producers that will influence the market for rice, whose rapidly rising price has resulted in protests and hunger riots. More »
April 2008
- UN Ready to Tackle Hunger
  
  BBC | Apr 29, 08 10:52 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is putting together a task force to deal with an "unprecedented" world crisis that's left 100 million without enough food, the BBC reports. Ban also called on donors to follow through on pledges for the World Food Program, saying only 62% of the $755 million needed has been promised—and only $18 million delivered. More »
- Rice Is the New Oil
  
  Newsweek | Apr 27, 08 3:31 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Even as the burgeoning price of oil slaps consumers at the pump, a darker global market crisis looms as rising commodities prices compound the pressures of poverty worldwide. The UN has said that spiking food prices have started "a silent tsunami threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger." Newsweek investigates the causes, which are both complicated and simple. More »
- Scientists Work on New 'Green Revolution'
  
  LiveScience | Apr 25, 08 1:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Food scientists are plotting a new "green revolution" to solve a growing food crisis, LiveScience reports. Facing what a World Food Program official called a “silent tsunami” of world hunger, researchers are working on a sequel to the first "green revolution" of the mid-20th century, whose innovations included the fertilizers, pesticides and better irrigation that helped increase crop yields. More »
- Sam's Club Joins Costco in Limiting Rice Purchases
  
  Bloomberg | Apr 23, 08 8:25 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sam's Club joined Costco today in limiting how much rice customers can buy, Bloomberg reports. The restrictions by the nation's largest warehouse retail chains come with the price of rice at record highs around the world, which has spurred some to begin hoarding, Bloomberg notes. Sam's Club customers can buy no more than four bags per visit. More »
- Costco Sees High Demand for Basics Rice, Flour
  
  Reuters | Apr 22, 08 9:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Costco is seeing unusually high demand for basics such as rice and flour, Reuters reports, a development the warehouse giant attributes to customer uncertainty over global food shortages. The company, which sells to individual shoppers as well as restaurants, has put limits in place for those items at some stores. Customers are apparently stocking up amid heavy media coverage of a global food crunch. More »
- UN May Cut Food Rations for Schoolkids
  
  Reuters | Apr 19, 08 12:38 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Food rations for hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren may be cut because of surging crop prices that have widened the World Food Program’s funding gap to $750 million, Reuters says. The UN food aid agency also blamed the situation on high fuel prices and reductions in new crop plantings. “The world’s misery index is rising,” the program’s top exec warned. More »
- Humble Spud Could Solve Food Crisis
  
  Reuters | Apr 15, 08 2:39 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Sharp hikes in the prices of staples like wheat and rice are sending shockwaves around the world and convincing governments to rediscover the virtues of the potato, Reuters reports. Spuds are nutritious, will grow just about anywhere, and they yield up to four times more food per acre than other staples. Peruvians, faced with soaring wheat prices, have been switching to potato bread. More »