anant1a
New member
One US hamburger=5 lb of rice and 20 meals
A day after India's Defence Minister A K Antony lashed out at US President George Bush for 'denigrating' the food habits of Indians, Finance Minister P Chidambaram now says the government may be forced to ban futures trading in food items or essential commodities.
India, and to a large extent China also, suddenly seem to be the epicenters of rising food prices and skyrocketing inflation, world wide.
The rising global foodgrains shortage forced President Bush to comment, a little sarcastically, that it is the rising prosperity in countries India and China that have resulted in the current 'global food crisis.'
Bush's contention, certainly, was that people in India and China--the world's largest populations--are eatingn too much, thanks to the economic boom that has taken places in these countries in the last few years. May be, there is some sense in what Bush says.
But to say that because Indians and Chinese are eating lots of rice and wheat, leading to global food shortage, is as A K Antony says is a "cruel joke."
According to Antony, it is not Indians' food habits, but lop-sided policies from the US that are responsible for the global foodgrains shortage.
"It is indeed a cruel joke that George Bush made such a statement. His arguement that growing demand for foodgrains in India is the reason for spiralling global food prices is simply a cruel joke," Antony.
Antony said that largescale conversion of agriculture land for commercial and bio-fuel cultivation purposes have resulted in food shortage at the global level.
As the world debates as to what caused the food shortage and what remedial measures can be taken to tide over the situation, read some of the interesting comments that Commodity Online readers made recently to a rice story:
"The amount of food wasted in US is sufficient enough to feed 1/3rd of the people starving in China & India."
"Please Make sure All other Countries Work as hard as indians to produce Food grains That Should be step to be taken to Avoid Food starvation. India is the biggest producers of Food. Without any subsidy or help, farmers in India toil hard and feed the world, It has right to Consume Food."
"Americans have over eaten all these years for the population what they have. In India and China , intake has not increased as they belive, only number of people having a decent diet are increasing which is fair in a devloping country. They are responsible for the increasing Oil Price in the international market. They should stop this kind of big brother attitude and start focusing in the right direction and set their house in order and stop blaming others. It is easy for them to blame others for their downfall."
"Burger versus rice If a person only ate rice, they'd eventually die badly and slowly from protein, fat, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Human's original diet could not include or rely on fire, therefore grains which require cooking are suboptimal nutrition and a culinary 'trick' on evolutionary habits. That's why we are discovering more and more people have allergies, intolerances to and negative health effects from grains."
"The amount of energy needed to make 1 hamburger in US = amount of energy required to grow about 5 lb of rice. 5 lb of rice would feed 1 person atleast 20 meals. who is over consuming? vegitarian/non-beef eaters in India? or 1 person consuming 1 hamburger?"
As the debate goes, India's Finance Minister Chidambaram, desperate to contain the rising inflation has announced that if food prices are going up like this way, he will be forced to ban futures trading in essential commodities.
"'The pressure is to suspend a few more food articles. Rightly or wrongly, if people perceive that commodity futures trading is contributing to a speculation-driven rise in prices, then in a democracy you will have to heed that voice''.
Left parties in India that support the government wants to stop futures trading in cooking oil, sugar and other commodities, saying speculators are driving up prices and fanning inflation.
Chidambaram and most economists in India know well that futures trading and food price rise is not linked to inflation. But as a politician, Chidambaram has to heed to the demand from his fellow Left politicians; and in an election year, he has no other option but to be a politician, rather than an economist.
A day after India's Defence Minister A K Antony lashed out at US President George Bush for 'denigrating' the food habits of Indians, Finance Minister P Chidambaram now says the government may be forced to ban futures trading in food items or essential commodities.
India, and to a large extent China also, suddenly seem to be the epicenters of rising food prices and skyrocketing inflation, world wide.
The rising global foodgrains shortage forced President Bush to comment, a little sarcastically, that it is the rising prosperity in countries India and China that have resulted in the current 'global food crisis.'
Bush's contention, certainly, was that people in India and China--the world's largest populations--are eatingn too much, thanks to the economic boom that has taken places in these countries in the last few years. May be, there is some sense in what Bush says.
But to say that because Indians and Chinese are eating lots of rice and wheat, leading to global food shortage, is as A K Antony says is a "cruel joke."
According to Antony, it is not Indians' food habits, but lop-sided policies from the US that are responsible for the global foodgrains shortage.
"It is indeed a cruel joke that George Bush made such a statement. His arguement that growing demand for foodgrains in India is the reason for spiralling global food prices is simply a cruel joke," Antony.
Antony said that largescale conversion of agriculture land for commercial and bio-fuel cultivation purposes have resulted in food shortage at the global level.
As the world debates as to what caused the food shortage and what remedial measures can be taken to tide over the situation, read some of the interesting comments that Commodity Online readers made recently to a rice story:
"The amount of food wasted in US is sufficient enough to feed 1/3rd of the people starving in China & India."
"Please Make sure All other Countries Work as hard as indians to produce Food grains That Should be step to be taken to Avoid Food starvation. India is the biggest producers of Food. Without any subsidy or help, farmers in India toil hard and feed the world, It has right to Consume Food."
"Americans have over eaten all these years for the population what they have. In India and China , intake has not increased as they belive, only number of people having a decent diet are increasing which is fair in a devloping country. They are responsible for the increasing Oil Price in the international market. They should stop this kind of big brother attitude and start focusing in the right direction and set their house in order and stop blaming others. It is easy for them to blame others for their downfall."
"Burger versus rice If a person only ate rice, they'd eventually die badly and slowly from protein, fat, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Human's original diet could not include or rely on fire, therefore grains which require cooking are suboptimal nutrition and a culinary 'trick' on evolutionary habits. That's why we are discovering more and more people have allergies, intolerances to and negative health effects from grains."
"The amount of energy needed to make 1 hamburger in US = amount of energy required to grow about 5 lb of rice. 5 lb of rice would feed 1 person atleast 20 meals. who is over consuming? vegitarian/non-beef eaters in India? or 1 person consuming 1 hamburger?"
As the debate goes, India's Finance Minister Chidambaram, desperate to contain the rising inflation has announced that if food prices are going up like this way, he will be forced to ban futures trading in essential commodities.
"'The pressure is to suspend a few more food articles. Rightly or wrongly, if people perceive that commodity futures trading is contributing to a speculation-driven rise in prices, then in a democracy you will have to heed that voice''.
Left parties in India that support the government wants to stop futures trading in cooking oil, sugar and other commodities, saying speculators are driving up prices and fanning inflation.
Chidambaram and most economists in India know well that futures trading and food price rise is not linked to inflation. But as a politician, Chidambaram has to heed to the demand from his fellow Left politicians; and in an election year, he has no other option but to be a politician, rather than an economist.
