Wheat Crisis... What?

[BPSCG]

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Sorry, I was under the impression that growing food isn't rocket science, since rocket science is less than a century old and growing food has been going on for five millennia. If someone can't do it, they're either seriously mentally retarded, which I doubt applies to entire countries, or they're tied to some disfunctional economic model that cripples their ability to grow food.

Yet all alleged economist Paul Krugman can see is that we have to pour more food aid into the bottomless bureaucratic maw called the U.N.

BTW, you know which country is the top wheat producer in the world? It's not the U.S., which surprised me. It's China. The U.S. isn't even number 2 - it's India. When I was growing up, we learned in sixth grade that both India and China were prone to famine and full of starving people. Something has changed since I was in sixth grade. Do you think Paul Krugman might have a clue what that might be?

 

[Gurdur]

Gee, you'd think after five thousand years of growing the stuff, pretty much everyone on earth would know how to do it by now and wouldn't need the U.N. to go begging for it.

Sorry, I was under the impression that growing food isn't rocket science, since rocket science is less than a century old and growing food has been going on for five millennia. If someone can't do it, they're either seriously mentally retarded, which I doubt applies to entire countries, or they're tied to some disfunctional economic model that cripples their ability to grow food. ....

Your ignorance and bigotry show yet again. Famines mostly happen when people cannot afford to buy food, not because of actual physical lack of food, as you would know had you done the slightest bit of research into famine economics; India does not equal the Third World as your crappy little argument implies; and oddly enough, farming demands more skill than you think, and you obviously don't know much about that at all either.

But don't let that stop you from making ignorant put-downs for the sake of your ego.

 

[BPSCG]

Your ignorance and bigotry show yet again. Famines mostly happen when people cannot afford to buy food, not because of actual physical lack of food, as you would know had you done the slightest bit of research into famine economics;

Um, people can't afford to buy something when it is scarce. When food is scarce, that's usually the result of a famine. You appear to have confused the cause with the effect - famines cause high food prices, not the other way around.

India does not equal the Third World as your crappy little argument implies;

My "crappy little argument" implies nothing of the kind. Here, read the last paragraph of that post. I would say read it again, but that would presume you had already read it once, a presumption I see no evidence to support:

When I was growing up, we learned in sixth grade that both India and China were prone to famine and full of starving people. Something has changed since I was in sixth grade. Do you think Paul Krugman might have a clue what that might be?

I was in sixth grade in 1962, and believe me when I tell you India was a third world country in 1962.

and oddly enough, farming demands more skill than you think, and you obviously don't know much about that at all either.

When did farming become rocket science? In most of the world, homo sapiens learned how to farm before he learned how to write.

Countries suffer famines largely because of catastrophic economic policies. When China and India decided to jettison communism and socialism for Adam Smith, they suddenly became able to feed themselves. Israel exports food even though it's in the middle of the stinking desert and surrounded by neighbors trying to destroy it, while North Korea is apparently in a state of perpetual famine. Show me a starving capitalist country.

But don't let that stop you from making ignorant put-downs for the sake of your ego.

A little more evidence and a little less speculative invective would serve you well, Gurdur.

 

[Puppycow]

Ronald Bailey has written on the same subject. Liberals, libertarians, scientists and environmentalists agree: biofuels were a bust. Farmers harvesting bushels of cash and politicians after their votes may see things differently, however.

 

[Puppycow]

Yet all alleged economist Paul Krugman can see is that we have to pour more food aid into the bottomless bureaucratic maw called the U.N.

As a temporary humanitarian measure. Prices have more than doubled in less than a year, so it takes some time for even the market to catch up with demand.

Or did you think that Krugman meant that this as a long-term solution?

 

[BPSCG]

As a temporary humanitarian measure.

How many decades has much of sub-Sahara Africa been getting "temporary" humanitarian aid?

Contrary to popular belief, Africa is not one vast desert. There is no reason Africa should not be able to feed itself. All you need to do is get rid of the institution of government-by-goon-squad and replace it with a representative democracy that embraces capitalism and you'd be there.

Hell, if China is any model, you don't even need the representative democracy - just embrace capitalism.

 

[Elind]

I think they are saying the market isn't working, the government should come up with a solution.

I think if one looks into it the government is in it to the ears with export/import regulations, control of arable state land and differing subsidies to various crops competing for limited land that distorts market forces. etc. etc. Free markets outside of a narrow variable range of supply/demand are a figment of imagination.