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America and the Middle East Food Riots
American Thinker ^ | January 31, 2011 | Steve McCann

Posted on 02/01/2011 5:02:55 AM PST by Puzzleman

--snip--

Today there is a global food shortage and skyrocketing prices. This has become the underlying factor in the riots in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, where up to 56% of a person's income is dedicated to the acquisition of food. These riots are now leading to the upheaval of governments and the very real possibility of the ascendancy of the radical elements into control...

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: ethanol; food; foodcrisis; foodinsecurity; foodprices; foodriots; foodshortage; foodshortages; mtba; ntsa
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The amateurs in Washington are making a worldwide mess.
1 posted on 02/01/2011 5:02:57 AM PST by Puzzleman
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To: Puzzleman

But wait. We need more ethanol! Let’s keep the federal ethanol MANDATE! Let’s keep subsidizing ethanol!

LET’S KEEP BURNING OUR CROPS!


2 posted on 02/01/2011 5:06:59 AM PST by Obadiah (Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen. He was #1.)
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To: Obadiah

Didn’t our masters in the EPA just rule that gasoline now has to contain 15% ethanol instead of “just” 10%?


3 posted on 02/01/2011 5:13:55 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Bringing children to America without immigration documents is child abuse. Let's end it.)
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To: Obadiah

let them eat ethanol!

It’s good for the climate!


4 posted on 02/01/2011 5:15:34 AM PST by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: Puzzleman

Now would be a good time to fix the price of our grain to the price of their oil.

Say, for instance, one bushel of grain for one barrel of oil?


5 posted on 02/01/2011 5:17:55 AM PST by CPOSharky (Posted with 100% recycled electrons.)
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To: FromLori; ChocChipCookie; PJ-Comix; no-to-illegals

*ping*


6 posted on 02/01/2011 5:29:46 AM PST by hennie pennie
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To: Puzzleman

The price of oil from the Middle East has tripled in the last 10 years, shaking economies worldwide. Yet nobody in London or New York or Tokyo rioted because energy costs were crushing their budgets.

But when an American farmer begins to make a sustainable profit on the food he grows, the world rises up in outrage. So everyone else in the world (including our enemies) is supposed to make a profit except the people who supply the world’s food???

By the way, a large reason for increased food costs comes from increased petrochemical costs. Farming demands a lot of oil byproducts besides just fuel. And those products have gone through the roof.

Feed America. Let the Middle East eat their crude.


7 posted on 02/01/2011 5:29:50 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: Puzzleman

No, not “amateurs”. Someone wants the Islamic radicals to gain more power.


8 posted on 02/01/2011 5:34:59 AM PST by Ragnar54
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To: IronJack

Great stuff IronJack. Feed America indeed...eventually they’ll realize that the global division of labor is a two-way street (crude for food). Better yet, lift the absurd barriers to tapping OUR OWN resources and kiss them off altogether.


9 posted on 02/01/2011 5:40:38 AM PST by Mich Patriot (...politics is the second oldest profession...it bears a striking resemblance to the first." RReagan)
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To: IronJack

Actually, I thought we were now a net IMPORTER of food.


10 posted on 02/01/2011 5:41:20 AM PST by rbg81
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To: Puzzleman

That’s ok, grassely told me, what’s important is those corn subsidies, the rest of the world can burn, you corn belt, welfare people, are the blame for this screw up.


11 posted on 02/01/2011 5:58:22 AM PST by org.whodat
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To: Puzzleman

That’s ok, grassely told me, what’s important is those corn subsidies, the rest of the world can burn, you corn belt, welfare people, are the blame for this screw up.


12 posted on 02/01/2011 5:58:37 AM PST by org.whodat
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To: IronJack
So everyone else in the world (including our enemies) is supposed to make a profit except the people who supply the world’s food???

We may be a major supplier of grain, but for the last ten years America has operated with a negative balance of trade in food for human consumption.

13 posted on 02/01/2011 6:17:39 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to manage by central planning.)
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To: CPOSharky

Excellent idea.


14 posted on 02/01/2011 6:21:24 AM PST by Judith Anne (Holy Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.)
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To: Puzzleman

The globalists who put the ‘Obama amateurs ‘ and the Bush Clinton Bush administrations in power are responsible.

No coincidence that Egypt blows up while the globalists are in Davos creating more economic chaos in the name of globalism.


15 posted on 02/01/2011 7:04:41 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
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To: Carry_Okie; rbg81

If indeed we are net importers of finished foodstuffs, then demand should drive grain prices even higher than they currently are. Grain is one of the few American commodities we can use to offset the huge trade imbalances we’re experiencing in every other sector.

And I’m having trouble understanding what foodstuffs we would be importing in sufficient quantities to outpace our grain exports. Coffee? Sugar maybe?


16 posted on 02/01/2011 7:55:32 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: Mich Patriot

I’ve always believed in food for crude. The Middle East is largely desert. They can’t grow much there. Their strength is their oil; ours is our agriculture. Every market trades on its strengths.

They don’t care if we freeze. Why should we care if they starve? Using our own resources, we would do neither.


17 posted on 02/01/2011 8:00:43 AM PST by IronJack (=)
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To: IronJack
And I’m having trouble understanding what foodstuffs we would be importing in sufficient quantities to outpace our grain exports.

Winter vegetables from Central and South America are a biggie. So in recent years has been "unfinished" meat. A lot of our fish comes from offshore, particularly aquaculture. The fresh fruit market is so distorted that the Chinese even export apples to Washington! Toss in the luxury foods, snack foods (such as dried fruit), and local foods such as nuts, bananas, etc. and there you are.

More concerning really, is that the total inventory of stores for human consumption is sufficient to last about twelve weeks. Methinks that JIT in food constitutes a very serious socialized risk.

18 posted on 02/01/2011 8:30:14 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to manage by central planning.)
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To: Puzzleman
Today there is a global food shortage and skyrocketing prices.

Coming soon to a street corner near you, compliments of the 110th Congress and the Senate in the "lame duck" session. The Passage of HR2749/S.510/HR2751 FDA Food Takeover Bill.

S.510 passed the Senate in late evening by voice vote and then back to the House as HR2751 (renamed bill). They did not want you to know which members actually voted for this monstrocity. They sold this to combat terrorist threats against our food supply. (valid threat, but the way to solve the problem is not by sending the control to DC). We will regret bill passing, if you are hungry in the next few years, don't blame a farmer, blame lying POLs who sold out to the highest bidders (Global Ag).

19 posted on 02/01/2011 8:35:39 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one)
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To: Carry_Okie

Do you have any good sites you’d recommend for more research on that 12 weeks figure?


20 posted on 02/01/2011 8:41:55 AM PST by Patriotic1 (Dic mihi solum facta, domina - Just the facts, ma'am)
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