Americans Facing The Unthinkable; Food Rationing

By James Donahue

It was bound to happen. We sounded the alarm of looming food shortages while living in Arizona a decade ago. That is when we were encouraged by some Mormon acquaintances to follow their time-worn example and stock up on basic foods, like dried fruit, vegetables, grain, flour and other staples.

As Americans ignored the warnings sounded by then Vice-President Al Gore and other global warming alarmists, we foresaw the effects el-Nino had on America’s weather patterns that season, and calculated what a long-term warming effect would have on the world farming industry.

Foolish humans, we set ourselves up for a disaster that did not need to happen. Even last year, when Gore was traveling the countryside, showing his video and sounding the alarm, his critics continued to make fun of him. He was taken seriously by more people, but still taking a lot of heat from government, industrial and some (paid) people proclaiming to be scientists who disagreed with his warnings that global warming was real.

So now we are starting to run out of things from the other side of the world that we have been taking for granted. Things like rice, cooking oil, cocoa, seasonings, and even coffee may soon be in short supply.

The rice crop shortage, and rising cost of this basic staple for much of the impoverished world, has been making headlines for several weeks. But why didn’t anyone think it would be hard to buy rice at the local American supermarket one day? Where did they think rice came from? Sure, some is grown in the United States. But much of the world’s rice is shipped here from other parts of the world.

The food shortage also is being felt this month in Japan, a nation that depends almost totally on imports to feed its people. There, where most dairy products are imported from drought-stricken Australia, there has been a big drop in milk imports. Consequently commodities like butter, milk and cheese are not only in short supply, but when you find it, the price is going through the roof.

Not only crop failures, but the rising cost of oil, which drives the engines of agriculture, is pushing up food prices and causing rioting among the starving millions in third world countries.

Wheat prices have risen 92 percent in the past year, which means a big increase in just buying a loaf of bread.

And the biggest issue in the world food catastrophe is corn, which has become the new main staple of the ethanol industry. With growing demand on farmers to produce corn for the production of the alternative to gasoline to run the world’s automobiles, the food industry, which depends on corn to feed livestock and manufacture all of the food products made from corn, is in tough competition for its share.

When we have a crop failure, due to drought, floods or other weather anomalies, it now affects a lot of people.

Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group, told investors meeting at Toronto earlier this year that he foresaw nations that once tried desperately to sell their surplus food to other countries now putting embargoes on food exports.