Banner Headline in my local paper today was World Wide Food Crisis. Here is a bit of the article....
Quote:
Soaring prices on everything from food to gasoline walloped consumers Thursday as the Bank of Canada warned of weaker economic growth to come -- new evidence the U.S. recession has deepened and is dragging down other sectors of the economy as it continues to slide.
Basic food items are becoming more scarce and the price of those commodities is soaring, matched only by the rapid increase in the cost of gasoline. Food shortages, hoarding by producing countries and a pernicious cycle of energy prices driving up production costs are only making the situation worse.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc., one of Canada's largest food processors, reported a loss on Thursday due to soaring costs for grain used in its bakeries and hog barns.
  View Larger ImageA worker in Laos shows rice at a mill this week. The price of rice is up 50 per cent, triggering a crisis.
"These are stunningly, stunningly challenging and unique times," chief executive Michael McCain told shareholders at the company's annual meeting.
"The world is embroiled with absorbing the implications of the simple truth that food will be considerably more expensive, well into the future," he said.
Food riots have spread from Haiti to Thailand and panic buying has even hit North America -- Wal-Mart has imposed rice rationing in the United States because of shrinking supplies and Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers Association of Canada, said he was told that store shelves were being emptied of rice in British Columbia.
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This state of fear is what is fueling Chicken Little and this time we all have to deal with it.