Is it time for First World citizens to start stockpiling food as well?

Jeff D
Apr 25, 2008 at 10:08 AM
9 comments

I think so and I view it solely as an investment opportunity.

The huge run-ups in the prices of wheat, corn and rice abroad have to be felt in the developed world at some point. Why put money into a money market account or CD at 3% when you can buy a twenty pound bag of rice whose price will probably go up 10% in the same timeframe?

And interesting idea for sure.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120881517227532621.html

Some numbers from the article.

The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.

9 comments

Tags:

This also appears in:

Comments

[this is good]

No, it is not necessary. Instead though, first world countries should tighten their belts and stop wasting so much for their is plenty to go around.

The thing is that at least in regards to rice, there IS plenty to go around. All estimates of this year's harvest say that it will meet or exceed expectation. What we are seeing is pure specualtion/panic buying for no good reason whatsoever.

[this is good]

Yes, just like you wrote-pure speculation/panic buying. However, even though I enjoy rice my diet can radically change to potato based products in a New York minute. And thanks to the Internet, receipts for less expensive and still healthy foods are a dime a dozen--they are found everywhere.

Yes, we are both fortunate to live in a place where we can easily change our diets based on price. In most of Asia rice is the only choice available.

[this is good]

i strongly agree.... if we could...we should invest in those commodities ;)

Oh, are you trying to prompt me to write a post about how the inflation index is calculated in a way which masks our declining standard of living? The annual figures in this article are across the board and do not appear to be the result of panic buying. Is it me, or is this water a little hotter than it was before? My impression is that the global economy is in a period of equalization and Americans have had it a little nicer than others in recent history.

Dave, there is no need. This is one of my biggest pet peeves, and Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture regularly (and caustically) takes apart government statistics to show what they really mean, or what they used to mean before government changed the methods to something more.....acceptable. Posting about it would just be repeating his work.

From what I've read I still believe that there is no actual shortage of rice. This smells like some sort of speculative play to me.

This is an excellent read from Barry Ritholtz. Thanks for the reference.

No problem. If you go back into his previous posts he deconstructs GDP numbers as well as inflation, unemployment and generally any other economic statistic the US government releases.

Is it time for First World citizens to start stockpiling food as well?

Comments

Post a comment

Advertisement