Monday, January 31, 2011

The Coming Famine (II)

Even for me, it is hard to believe that we could really have a world-wide famine on this side of the rapture, but the stories continue to roll in. Just today for instance:

Global food chain stretched to the limit

Strained by rising demand and battered by bad weather, the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago.

Signs of the strain can be found from Australia to Argentina, Canada to Russia.

As supplies tighten, prices surge. Earlier this month, the FAO said its food price index jumped 32 percent in the second half of 2010, soaring past the previous record set in 2008.

Prices rose again this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut back its already-tight estimate of grain inventories. Estimated reserves of corn were cut to about half the level in storage at the start of the 2010 harvest; soybean reserves are at the lowest levels in three decades.


Authoritarian governments start stockpiling food

Authoritarian governments across the world are aggressively stockpiling food as a buffer against soaring food costs which they fear may stoke popular discont

Commodities traders have warned they are seeing the first signs of panic buying from states concerned about the political implications of rising prices for staple crops.

Governments in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have recently made large food purchases on the open market in the wake of unrest in Tunisia which deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Resentment at food shortages and high prices, as well as repression and corruption, drove the popular uprising which swept away his government.

Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economics professor who predicted the financial crisis, this week told the World Economic Forum in Davos that high prices were "leading to riots, demonstrations and political instability." "It's really something that can topple regimes, as we have seen in the Middle East," he said.

Jim Gerlach, of commodity brokerage A/C Trading, said: "Sovereign nations are beginning to stockpile food to prevent unrest." "You artificially stimulate much higher demand when nations start to increase stockpiles."

"This is only the start of the panic buying," said Ker Chung Yang, commodities analyst at Singapore-based Phillip Futures. "I expect we'll have more countries coming in and buying grain."


An era of cheap food may be drawing to a close

U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end.

U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices -- which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and hit their highest levels since mid-2008

The forecasts suggest no quick relief for nations bedeviled by record high food costs that have stoked civil unrest. It means any extreme weather event in a grains-producing part of the world could send prices soaring further.

A series of shocks brought the grains market to the brink last year.

Another year of high grain prices could exacerbate the problem of food price inflation.

A summer drought in Russia led to a suspension of grain exports, rains in Australia downgraded the quality of its wheat crop, and a lack of rain cut Argentine corn output. China bought near-record volumes of U.S. corn, and demand for corn-based ethanol surged.

For North African countries like Algeria, the rush to import grains, particularly in the past two weeks, has been fueled by concerns about how to reduce populist anger over rising food costs that has led to riots.

With the stepped-up demand from North Africa and the Middle East whittling away at global wheat stocks, there is no room for error with the winter wheat crop in the United States that was planted last fall and will be harvested in the summer. the same goes for the wheat crops in China -- the world's largest grower.

"We are not in a good situation going into February and March in China and in the U.S., so wheat is on the verge of a real scare," Roggensack said.


As discussed in the previous post regarding famine (see here), the bible informs us that in the early days of the Tribulation, it will require a single day of wages to buy a day's worth of food. That is a severe famine. And it seems to be approaching, due to a number of complicated factors which are not helped by flooding, drought and crop disease in much of the world.

Like all of the signs that we monitor - this one is progressing pretty much as we would expect at this point.

5 comments:

  1. Scott >>>>

    I think you need to be careful here
    HOW you interpret these BULLS and what they are feeding the public.

    I can see we have way TOO MANY
    inflation bulls being very noisy.
    Which to me means only one thing.
    PRICES of food and OIL are going to
    crash in the near future.

    Thats right, they are going DOWN.

    Stephen >>>>>>

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  2. I don't think that will be the case if the Suez Canal is controlled by militants? imo.

    By the way Scott.
    Did you notice the piece about the big tunnels under the Suez Canal; I forget what it was over now, it may have been the escape of son and family of Egypt's leader??

    I though 'hmm, tunnels again'.

    God bless
    Sue

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  3. SUE

    I didn't notice that! Do you have any links?
    That sounds pretty interesting

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  4. Hello Scott

    I cannot remember the exact piece of news, but it was within the past week.

    However, Wiki apart I found these links. Its called the Ahmed Hamdi , a two-lane road with a width of 3.75 meters each and minimum headroom of 5 meters.

    The Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel provides a crossing under the Suez Canal for motor vehicles. It was originally constructed as a shield tunnel by the British government in 1983. It is 1.63 km long and has an outside diameter of 11.6 m.

    There are pics and diagrams on this link.

    http://www.nccnet.co.jp/english/introduction/suezcanal.html




    Plans are afoot for a second $1bn tunnel under Suez starting at Port Said. 14/7/2010

    Reuters reported that Egypt plans to build USD 1 billion tunnel under the Suez Canal at Port Said and will begin seeking finance as soon as the designs are completed.

    Mr Mahmoud Mohieldin investment minister of Egypt said while telling a conference in Dahab in the eastern Sinai Peninsula that the tunnel, to be built 19 kilometers south of the Canal's northern entrance, will have 3 passageways, one for rail and two for cars.

    The conference was called to discuss investment in the cities along the canal and in the Sinai, which the government is keen to develop following a number of clashes between security forces and impoverished Bedouin tribes.

    Mr Mohieldin said that there is good cooperation with international investment funds to finance the project, which will be entirely financed outside the state budget.

    He said that Egypt now has two points for cars to cross the waterway a tunnel near the city of Suez and a bridge near Ismailia. Once the Port Said tunnel is finished, another tunnel is planned for Ismailia.

    http://www.steelguru.com/middle_east_news/Egypt_plans_USD_1_billion_tunnel_under_Suez_Canal/155084.html

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  5. Our food supply here in the States is far more fragile than most realize... both in terms of price and availability. JWinNC

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