Posted on 12/28/2021 6:47:53 PM PST by SeekAndFind
About two and a half years ago, we told readers China was panic hoarding food, which was several months before the virus pandemic began to spread worldwide; Beijing has managed to stockpile more than half of the world's maize and other grains that have resulted in rapid food inflation and triggered famine in some countries.
In August 2019, we asked the question:
Does China believe that we are on the verge of a major global crisis? The communist Chinese government has always been very big into planning, and it appears that they have decided that now is the time to hoard food, gold and other commodities.
Fast forward today, the answer is most likely "yes." China maintains "historically high levels" of beans and grains stockpiled at COFCO Group's (a major Chinese state-owned food processor) 310 storage facilities in the northeastern part of the country, according to Nikkei Asia.
Qin Yuyun, head of grain reserves at the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, told reporters last month, "our wheat stockpiles can meet the demand for one and a half years. There is no problem whatsoever about the supply of food."
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows China has approximately 69% of the globe's maize reserves in the first half of the crop year 2022, 60% of its rice, and 51% of its wheat.
Since the Chinese plan multiple years out, we've pointed out how a series of disasters and weather events have likely led state officials to forecast a troublesome period of food shortages. China has already observed droughts, floods, and pests that have ruined harvests. More than 20 months of snarled supply chains due to COVID and La Nina weather patterns (second consecutive one) have also produced volatile conditions for food production.
The one thing Beijing cannot have is discontent among its citizens triggered by food shortages and or soaring prices; that's why central planners spent $98.1 billion importing food in 2020, up 4.6 times from a decade earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs of China. For the first eight months of this year, China imported more food than in 2016.
"Over the past five years, China's soybean, maize and wheat imports soared two- to twelvefold on aggressive purchases from the U.S., Brazil and other supplier nations. Imports of beef, pork, dairy and fruit jumped two- to fivefold," Nikkei Asia said.
China's acquisition of the world's food supply has helped push food prices to decade highs. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the food price index is currently at a ten-year high.
The Ministry of Commerce has even told households to stock up on food in case of emergencies, all under the guise of the virus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media has downplayed the notion China is headed for a food crisis. Chinese President Xi Jinping must keep food supply and prices in order to ensure food security; otherwise, discontent among citizens will increase in the world's second-largest economy.
Nikkei Asia concludes by saying, "throughout history, food shortages have triggered popular unrest. They served as a contributing factor to uprisings that toppled Chinese dynasties."
So without a doubt, Beijing has been stockpiling food to avoid a collapse as central bankers have yet to figure out how to print food from thin air. But don't worry, as the global food situation worsens, we're all likely going to be forced to eat crickets, worms, and grasshoppers.
It’s the exact opposite. The ChiComs only react to things in their country when it is already a problem that can’t be fixed—the one child policy, for example, now being reversed in favor of 2 children, but it’s too little too late. Or look at the ghost cities—the world’s biggest debt bomb just waiting to explode.
The ChiComs routinely make decisions that screw up whatever they were trying to improve, only to embarrassingly reverse it later, or make a big show of fixing a problem they set into motion 10 years earlier.
Do not underestimate their extreme incompetence. They are NOT good at running a country. They ARE good at destroying human life and even the Earth itself, however, their own and ours too if they could.
So you're saying they're like democrats.
How long do beans and grains stay good if they are hoarding them?
stop manipulating the water situation in the cental valley California and this area is capable of feeding the world.... currently we have crony capitalist manipulating water supply in the California central Valley so the land can be taken over by corporate farmers
Not panic hoarding.
Not crazy.
They are preparing for war.
maybe we should do the same.
Yes. While I don’t trust China or our own government one bit, I also don’t just blindly trust articles like this either.
Maybe FauxXi and China will release a genetically engineered wheat virus next.
bkmk
Looks like the PRCs need a war...
Communism is a bankrupt economic system. Reagan understood that because Reagan understood economics better than most. He knew that behind the iron curtain was weakness and poverty - an empty shell - and he forced their hand to show just that.
China has a zillion people but they are still basically a bankrupt economy. Just need someone with the smarts like Reagan to show them up.
They are NOT good at running a country.
What they, and our own Progressives don't realize, is that no one is.
Which is odd, because there were Chinese philosophers who understood this, thousands of years ago.
The more prohibitions there are,
The poorer the people will be.
The more laws are promulgated,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.
Therefore a sage has said:
So long as I “do nothing” the people will of themselves be transformed.
So long as I love quietude, the people will of themselves go straight.
So long as I act only by inactivity the people will of themselves become prosperous.
Yes, Lao Tsu I believe. I saw that quote awhile back and have kept it in my head since then. There are others that say essentially the same thing even more blatantly.
Stop turning grain from food to ethanol! Remove the oxidizer requirement for gasoline. Turning the water back on for the California central valley, ie. ignoring the greenies, little fishies and tribal conflicting requests would also help some. However, I am concerned about fertilizer shortages. I don’t know if there are US sources that can be scaled up quickly enough to replace Russian and Ukrainian sources. Without fertilizer our ag won’t scale as well. And the Biden blighted transportation industry may impair getting any of our increases to hungry countries.
US also has enough calories stored in obesity to survive some famine if we are wise about it. Feed the thin, including non-obese growing kids and pregnant women. Underfeed the obese. Including cutting EBT payments and other ‘free’ government food to obese “poor” folks. Let the food prices follow the market so higher prices can reduce consumption. Block the inevitable Democrat demand for universal food rationing. Limit government food to those need tested as both thin enough and poor enough. For sufficiently poor fat folks limit support to enough food to keep their dieting healthy.
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