IO this is scary - is it a start?

[draggar]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/24/sam...its/index.html

Retail chain Sam's Club will limit the sale of large quantities of rice amid a dramatic increase in the global price of rice.

The store will limit customers to four 20-lb. bags of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice, the company said in a statement. Its restriction mainly will affect businesses that buy rice in bulk, but the company said "a typical Sam's Club Business Member does not buy more than 80 pounds of rice in one visit."

Limiting the amount of rice someone can buy - sounds like the start of a food crisis here in the US.

[Ree]

Unfortunately, you may be right.

It's actually a pretty serious situation all over.

The bulk bags of flour they use at my husband's restaurant went up about double what it was the last time they bought it.

[AnqeiicDemise]

Costco and Walmart are doing it to. I heard that in between of hacking up my liver and my spleen while I drove home from dropping off the husband this morning.

[Boozy]

India and Thailand just announced that they were temporarily restricting their rice exports, so this is probably in reaction to that.

[smileyeagle1021]

pretty scary... am I the only one that remembers that it used to be that you ate a lot of rice and pastas and grains when times were hard for you because they were cheap... now they are going up to be some of the most expensive and limited items

[Rapscallion]

Not quite - I'm in the wholefood industry and we sell loads of rice etc. However, everything is going up. Rice and pasta are still going to be amongst the cheapest things to eat, since everything else is doubling etc.

Rapscallion

[draggar]

Plus with rising fuel costs farmers can't afford to keep their farm equipment running and many more are switching from wheat to corn (for ethanol).

It's a vicious cycle that we're just starting to see.