Last week, I saw pictures of armed soldiers guarding rice distribution trucks. It reminded me of the intro scene of Blackhawk Down (now that is one hell of a movie) where Somalians who were fighting over food were shot down by the guards. Less the rioting and shooting part, of course. Who would have thought something like that would happen here? And yet it has.
The rice shortage has been attributed to hoarders, poor harvests, population growth, price(?!?) etc. Who now knows what the real reason really is? And it’s not just here that it’s happening. There is also a shortage of food in other places, even leading to food riots in Haiti and Egypt. Experts are even predicting possible war :o
For our part, I suppose we can help by reducing our rice consumption (could even be healthy). Perhaps, only perhaps, the lessening of demand would lead to a lesser price increase and thus allow the less able to still acquire this staple food. Of course longer term solution is becoming improvements in rice production whether here or from where we import from. But that’s later. We’re here right now.