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<h1 style="margin-top: 10px;">Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of
the World</h1>
<p style="margin-top: 12px;">By <a set="yes" linkindex="36"
href="http://www2.nysun.com/authors/Josh+Gerstein">JOSH GERSTEIN</a><br>
<i>Staff Reporter of the Sun</i><br>
April 21, 2008<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 12px;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994">http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994</a><br>
</p>
<p>MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the
breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable
phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of
New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour,
rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also
anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.</p>
<p>At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers
grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in
vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.</p>
<p>"Where's the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu,
said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is
ridiculous."</p>
<p>The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four
or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants,
but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in
stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.</p>
<p>"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care
executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two
sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but
I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man
said.</p>
<p>The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members
were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk
dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another
customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.</p>
<p>"Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice
purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the
dwindling supply said.</p>
<p>Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that
rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred
questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not
return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.</p>
<p>An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no
restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases
of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at
the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when
the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.</p>
<p>The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by
survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious
trouble to come.</p>
<p>"It's sporadic. It's not every store, but it's becoming more
commonplace," the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. "The
number of reports I've been getting from readers who have seen signs
posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I'd say in the
last three to five weeks."</p>
<p>Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti,
Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of
all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a
new contract for foreign rice sales.</p>
<p>"I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export
controls on wheat," Mr. Rawles said. "The Asian countries are here
buying every kind of wheat." Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how
much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused
by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of
product.</p>
<p>"There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it
encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that
supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short," Mr. Rawles,
a former Army intelligence officer, said. "Even if people increased
their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out."</p>
<p>At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages
and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps
because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to
increase prices locally. Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to
be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast.
He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam's Club warehouses,
which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company,
Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits.</p>
<p>An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web
site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice
at Costco. "I am concerned that when the news of rice shortage spreads,
there will be panic buying and the shelves will be empty in no time. I
do not intend to cause a panic, and I am not speculating on rice to
make profit. I am just hoarding some for my own consumption," he wrote.</p>
<p>For now, rice is available at Asian markets in California, though
consumers have fewer choices when buying the largest bags. "At our
neighborhood store, it's very expensive, more than $30" for a 25-pound
bag, a housewife from Mountain View, Theresa Esquerra, said. "I'm not
going to pay $30. Maybe we'll just eat bread."</p>
<p style="font-size: smaller;"><b>April 21, 2008 Edition > Section: <a
linkindex="2" href="http://www2.nysun.com/section/2">National</a> >
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