Thought I'd take a break from Ghadafi-bashing to look at a problem that most Americans tend to not notice on those weekly trips to Safeway. The price of grain -- grain that is turned into flour, that in turn creates a loaf of bread. A staple throughout the world.
Most Americans wouldn't take much notice if bread went up a nickel. Or a dime, a quarter, maybe even a dollar. We're like that. We just suck it up, bitch to the cashier and go home and make a sandwich.
World grain prices have been soaring. Strategic reserves (yeah, just like oil, only grain happens to be edible) are shrinking -- in some cases (like the Middle East and North Africa) non-existent -- some of the besieged governments throwing the reserves on local markets as an appeasement to very unhappy citizens. In countries like Saudi Arabia, the reserves are gone.
Other issues are also at play. Weather conditions are high on the list. Russia's drought of last year has forced the country to go from producer to importer. Severe weather conditions in Australia, Pakistan, Latin and South America have added to world shortages. Speculators are busy manipulating these volatile markets in an endless search for quick profits. China has become a huge consumer of grain stocks -- along with everything else -- their needs are great and due to world economic conditions, they are cash heavy and food poor.
And one other surprise: the proliferation of bio-fuels. The majority are produced from grain stocks -- put another way -- food stocks. This puts the petro-chemical industries and refineries in direct competition with food producers for agricultural commodities. And it is a double hit, for the production of bio-fuels has been shown to be a contributor to the very climate changes that are under indictment for crop destruction around the world. Converting food into fuel is no different than what many vegetarians lament about the western diet: "Instead of eating the cow, why not eat what the cow eats instead."
Philosophy hardly matters here. Starvation does. You take that nickel or dime and add it to the cost of a bushel of wheat in the developing world, and it becomes a dire struggle between mere subsistence and the social destruction reaped by an insidious and selective famine. Despots and dictators are capable of creating all sorts of chaos in their own neighborhood, but it pales in comparison to the havoc that can be reaped by a simple loaf of bread.
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