Fear of rice riots as surge in demand hits nations across the Far East

[jpak]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article3701347.ece

Any farmer in the Philippines caught hoarding rice risks spending the rest of his life in jail for the crime of “economic sabotage”.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, thousands of makers of traditional tempeh soyabean cakes strike in protest as their livelihoods are destroyed and their countrymen starve. In Malaysia, where immense palm oil plantations stretch as far as the eye can see, panic buying of palm oil has stripped stores bare.

Chinese, Korean and Japanese companies are preparing to compete in a desperate “land grab” for agricultural land across the globe. Japan already owns three times more farmland overseas than in its home territory; Seoul is keen to do the same.

For Asia's 2.5 billion people who depend on rice, these are anything but isolated incidents. They are what happens when huge sections of society move into the cities, when farm productivity growth halves over two decades and when bad weather or disease exposes fragile dependencies on the exports of a few nations.

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[ensho]

1. wonder how much of our farmland is owned by others

I'm assuming our farmland is being bought by others as is our roads, sewage waste plants, etc. are.

[Tashca]

3. Not much here

In Iowa a law was passed that no foreign countries could buy Iowa farm land....that law was passed during the farm crisis in the 80's. I know it's been a hurdle for foreign manufacturing companies to buy land here for building facilities.
I am guessing South America is a huge market for buying land. I know one guy from Illinois who bought several thousand acres down there because land was so overpriced here.

[hatrack]

4. Most Midwestern states have similar laws, some more restrictive than others

Not sure about other regions . . .

[XemaSab]

2. Only 2.5 billion people in Asia are eating rice?

What are the other billion people eating? :shrug:

[Nihil]

5. Just a guess ...

... but I'd say that it includes
- fish (see "Collapsing fisheries, Starvation risk of")
- imported grains (see "Rising food prices, Starvation risk of")
- chicken / smallholding meat (see "Bird Flu, Food supply impact of")

Either way, it doesn't look sunny (but that isn't really a surprise is it?)