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April 23, 2008


Less Land, More Mouths

Roots of Asia’s rice crisis

This little tidbit caught my attention:

“In the Philippines, half of irrigated land has been transformed into urban development in the past two decades.”

Half?!? Yowza.

20 years of rice prices … low back in May 2002: $3.43. You’ve come a long way, baby.


Click to enlarge (Rough Rice futures, generic first month, monthly chart)

Related: Rough Rice Runs Roughshod Over Shorts

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm (utc+8) and is filed under Agriculture.

6 Responses to “Less Land, More Mouths”

  1. stevegee58 said:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    You and tradermike are starting to scare me

  2. C. Maoxian said:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    steve: Rice is a typical parabolic and should reverse any time now (he says hopefully).

  3. Michael said:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    Steve,

    Be afraid, be very afraid! ;-)

  4. stevegee58 said:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    I’m in the presence of greatness! *swoon*

  5. David said:
    April 29th, 2008 at 4:22 am

    Maoxian,

    Thank you for posting this article, I did not see this one.

    Can you imagine: a country losing half of its arable land to “office parks and suburbs” in so short a time frame?

    I think land shortages have been overlooked (until now) as an obvious cause for the “food crisis” that the world is now facing. And to think that this loss of farm land must have been exacerbated by ridiculous land use and government policies to build dams, cities, and “special economic zones” where villages and fields once stood.

    What is your view of the situation in China and in other parts of Asia?

  6. C. Maoxian said:
    April 29th, 2008 at 6:00 am

    David: You’re welcome. I don’t know the situation in China or other parts of Asia, but I assume it’s also bad: office parks and golf courses abound.

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