The price of rice is skyrocketing, and it's pushing millions more people towards starvation

Started the food wars have

More very real effects of global warming that will be ignored or blamed on other things no doubt.

Global warming will fuck us indirectly before the weather on a Sunday afternoon is actually the problem, many seem to miss that.

Mainwhile, Russia is actively engaged in the destruction of Ukraine wheat export terminals, and India remains silent.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The cost of rice — a staple food for nearly half the world's population — and other essentials, like wheat, corn and vegetable oils, are rising as geopolitical forces, extreme weather and a dawning El Niño disrupt global trade.

In its most recent rice outlook, the USDA said India was expected to ship a record 23.0 million tonnes in 2024, exceeding the combined shipments of the next two largest exporters — Thailand and Vietnam.

The Indian government runs the world's largest food distribution program, catering to about 800 million people, according to McDonald Pelz business manager Sumit Gupta.

The Indian government has a policy of maintaining reserves of key commodities, and as it assessed the risk of El Niño, and the rapid pace of rice exports this year, it brought the trade to a close on July 20.

"This sharp increase in exports can be ascribed to high international prices due to [the] geo-political scenario, El Niño sentiments and extreme climatic conditions in other rice-producing countries," the Indian Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in its statement declaring the ban.

At a conference in St Petersburg recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged 25,000-50,000 tons of free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea in the coming months.

I'm a bot and I'm open source!

At the same time as Ukrainian wheat issues with the blockade could be a really big issue.

When staple foods (rice/wheat/beans/corn) inflate in price the poor starve.

Is 70% correct?. I thought Thailand and Vietnam were just as big of producers? (we get more rice from thailand/vietnam/cambodia/+ grow our own locally here in australia). I never buy basmati.....

Why can't South Asian diaspora just buy Thai jasmine rice instead?

Me, a doomer, with pseudobulbar affect.

The Indian rice export ban, the war in Ukraine and El Niño are combining...

There's a war in El Niño? What does that even mean? I thought El Niño was a weather thing, not a location.

I've always wanted all countries to ban staple food and water exports. If you can't grow your own food and have your own water, you don't need to have people living there.