Came across this on teh interwebs. Had not come across this doom scenario before. However some interesting observations are made so I thought I would bring it over here for discussion. Still ruminating on it myself.

http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/1...r-dummies.html

So, long ADM?

good thing there's a Wendy's, Burger King, McDonald's, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and 2 grocery stores within 5 miles of here.

real answer: won't we just keep iowa's production to ourselves? i mean, it may get ****ty in africa and asia, but i'll still be eating steaks and mashed potatos, right?

Well its not so much about the amount of food or any long term problem, more of short term food inflation due to fixing prices at high production levels when production has in fact been low, when production is inelastic and demand is elastic.

So yea, you will eat as much as you want but expect to be paying more for it when prices return to equilibrium.

Why aren't grain futures reflecting this imminent catastrophe?

Soylent Green is people!

If this response is an inside joke I must know....

I think it just means to buy stock in Archer Daniels Midland.

Because federal agencies are predicting a bumper harvest when the article says otherwise, I have no idea either-way.

The explanation that they are doing this to stop currency appreciations seems slightly plausible.

Right I got that.

This is like the third or fourth time I have seen PVN make a one line reply like that. IIRC it usually follows a sensational claim.

This is why you must own gold. Even a mother of starving children will accept gold for food.

We are all going to starve to death in the street like dogs!

ill just kill other people and take their food actually

Hmm telling that most poster are unable to comprehend that this is actually about a financial problem not a food one.

I guess I should have made the title about currency appreciation.

cool more conspiracy threads, or i guess this technically isn't a conspiracy

You can just eat the people you kill.

Not even close imo, also I have no track record in that regard imo.

I dont see why the hypothesis is any more ridiculous/conspiracy than saying if rating agencies over rate sub prime mortgage derivatives there will be problems.

This is about the currency appreciation not ohh noes we willz all be hungry.

what am i? an animal?

There was a thread predicting the same thing like 8 months ago (that his was to have happened by now)... forgive me if I don't believe it will happen.

That thread was completely and utterly different and was saying there was a systematic problem in food production and we will all starve etc.

This says nothing of the kind except that there has been a one off manipulation of food prices and therefore some problems in currency will result as countries will attempt to appreciate there currencies to make food more affordable to import.

Perhaps turn off the knee jerk memes and try and actually comprehend the article linked.

good thing they made enough macaroni and cheese to sustain us for years. just gotta goto the store

No, it's not... But this is your default mantra when something is presented that you can't get your head around... apparently.

Indeed... It is mostly financial, due to production costs.

But there is also a soil problem. We have over-farmed huge swaths of the bread-basket. Previous civilizations rotated their crops for a reason. We don't, because we just keep pouring nitrogen-based fertilizers and pesticides in the same soil year after year after year.

Of course, then there's the Monsanto "frankenfoods" issue as well, where they engineer seeds that only grow for one season.

"Food Inc." is a fine source for understanding our diseased food industry.

From the opening narration:

"the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10 thousand. ... but the image that's used to sell the food is still the imagery of egrarian America. .. You go into the Supermarket and you see pictures of farmers... The pickett fence and the silo and the 30s farmhouse and green grass... It's the spinning of this pastoral fantasy."

"There are no seasons in the American supermarket. ... Now there are tomatos all year round, grown half way around the world , picked while still green and ripened with ethaline gas."

"In the meal isle, there are no bones anymore... THere is this deliberate veil, this curtain, that's dropped between us and where our food is coming from."

"The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you're eating, because if you knew, you might not want to eat it.... The reality is a factory. It's not a farm, it's a factory. ...

"That meat is being processed by huge multi-national corporations that have very little to do with ranches and farmers... Now our food is coming from enormous assembly lines where the animals AND the workers are being abused... And the food is becoming much more dangerous in ways that are being deliberately hidden from us."

I read this when it was posted in the econ forum the other day and it seems to me that the conclusions are the opposite of what one would expect.

the main conclusion is that the US dollar will weaken.

Why would it weaken? The US is the major producer of food in the world-massive rises in food costs will strengthen the dollar. Expecting the dollar to fall in that scenario is like expecting Canada's currency to fall if natural gas doubled in price.

Why and how would other countries strengthen their currencies? if England and Japan raised interest rates they would crush their economy. Massive shortages will raise a cry for the government to do something- and that something is nearly always massive subsidies. countries won't be printing less to strengthen currencies- they will be printing more to buy votes and try to keep the populace calm.