Half the grain is VASTLY different than half the food supply. Half the grain is believable, and probably still less than 5% of the food supply. Half the food supply is a lie.
Funny, most of what you post to me supports me and debunks you.
Nikkei didn’t say they haven’t grabbed a huge hunk of other commodities. Their story was focused on grain.
Do you honestly think that to purchase half the global food supply a Chinese agent goes up to some trading house called “Food Supply R Us” and says, “Hi. I’d like half of all you got. Thank you very much.” And he says, “Wah, shore, pardner. That’ll be eleventy billion dollars. No personal checks. Gotcher ships ready for loading?” Agent: “Of course, stupid American. Here is gold bullion enough for it all.”
Half the food supply, as I said, is not a static amount, and is not purchased all at once. In normal years, China uses 20% of the world food supply. They have 1.25 Billion population. Some of that they grow at home. The rest they purchase from various countries, among them Australia, the United States, Israel, South American, European and Asian nations including India. During the pandemic, restaurants, hotels and cruise ships were closed, air travel almost stopped completely, and all the food produced for those outlets had to go somewhere. Some was dumped en masse. Some China bought on a large scale. But it was not all bought at once, but piecemeal, and trending in a direction in excess of their normal purchases. So basically, they purchase 150% more than they usually did of food of all kinds from grain markets, livestock markets, dairy markets, perhaps initially on paper at the Chicago and New York commodities exchanges. At the end of the day, after perhaps two years of accelerated purchasing, they had 50% of the world food supply, but only until the next harvest cycle. So first Gravitas twigs this extraordinarily large purchase. Then Nikkei finds out about the grain purchases and its effect on the grain market. They have their sources.
A word about Gravitas. They are based in India, and they know what goes on in Asia and are well-informed. The hostess of Gravitas is in some ways a total leftard, decrying how much “mis-information” Big Tech allows to circulate, and the horrible danger of the Omicron strain. But when it comes to Asia, she knows what she’s talking about, especially China, whom she regards with good reason as Public Enemy Number One.
Finally, you again pontificate. Grain is in everything, in breakfast cereals, bread, cake, pasta, beer, whiskey... It includes rice, several varieties of wheat traded separately and with different seasons, millet, rye, maize, buckwheat, kinua, barley. There is no way that 50% of the world grain supply is 5% of the world food supply. And there is no way that they only purchased that amount of grain without a commensurate volume of other purchases in fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy.
Go look up the Archer Daniels Midland commodities brokerage, which deals in everything, and do your own research.