Re: Another thing to worry about GAS

[Guest guest]

Hubby said he heard on the radio that by next year the price of gas will be

$10.00 a gallon. I freaked...that's like the end of the world coming or

something, I mean come on.....I hope he heard wrong....but we are probably

headed that way if somebody doesn't do something and fast.

Re: Another thing to worry about(NOW I AM SCARED) Rice???

To: Fibromyalgia_Support_Group

Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 6:54 PM

The rice shortage is not in this country. We are growing enough rice

to feed our people. What we're experiencing here, with limits and

apparent shortages, is panic buying. It's like when ny Carson

made a joke once in the 70's during the gas shortage about a shortage

of toilet paper, and the next day you couldn't find a roll of toilet

paper on the shelves for love nor money.

The problem globally is also not necessarily a shortage, it's a

distribution problem. With the price of oil going off the wall, it's

harder and more expensive to get rice (and other goods) to where it

needs to go. So countries are stopping exports of rice, to keep it

in the country where distribution is easier and cheaper. So world-

wide distribution of rice is affected. If country A stops exporting

to country B, then country B will stop exporting rice and keep it for

its own people, and country C can't import it. World-wide, the price

of rice is going up so much because of the price of fuel that people

in poor countries just can't afford to buy it and other staples.

It's scary to reflect that probably a majority of people on the

planet live on rice and not much else.

The high prices are starting to hit us, and will, I suspect, hit us

harder than they already are. Right now we're feeling it most at the

gas pump. It's starting to affect food prices. But for most

Americans, thankfully, they can do a lot of belt-tightening and

jettisoning of " luxury " items like cellphones and cable TV before

actual need and hunger sets in. The poorest of the poor in other

countries don't have that buffer.

Jim Lehrer's NewsHour is talking about that right now on PBS. Here's

a link to a previous segment about the problem:

http://www.pbs. org/newshour/ bb/business/ jan-june08/ food_04-23. html

If you wait till tomorrow, you should be able to find today's segment

about it here to read or listen to:

http://www.pbs. org/newshour/

Z

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