Yesterday, Sam’s Club announced that it will begin rationing rice purchases to 4 bulk bags per customer. Already California Costco customers have been making a run on rice and flour, according to the Washington Times, and it’s now being rationed there as well. The New York Sun reports that “major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply.”
Prices have almost doubled.
There are going to be price increases across the board.
Food shortages have been hitting the developing world for some time now, and causing food riots in places across the world like Haiti, Egypt and Bangladesh. It seems our chickens may finally be coming home to roost in the developed world now as well, according to the cover story of this week’s Economist magazine “The Silent Tsunami.”
Agriculture is now in limbo. The world of cheap food has gone. With luck and good policy, there will be a new equilibrium. The transition from one to the other is proving more costly and painful than anyone had expected.
According to some, including Professor Andersen of Cornell, these “abrupt food prices” make this current “global food crisis” historically “as bad as it has ever been.”
