The Indian rice export ban, the war in Ukraine and El Niño are combining to create a “doom loop” for the world’s poorest people, as staple food prices soar.
Started the food wars have
Can we please not have silly jokes on a serious topic like global hunger?
This is one thing I don’t want from reddit
If I don’t laugh about the world I’ll just start crying. It’s sadly the defense mechanism I’ve developed. I use humor to avoid uncomfortable moments in all aspects of my life.
It was a fine dark humor joke, don’t sweat it.
Thanks
I agree, humor is a valid coping mechanism. It’s not like a serious conversation on Lemmy is going to solve world hunger, your joke was fine in my opinion.
I’ve had a lot of trauma in my life and have become a very pessimistic and dark person. Everyone has their cross to bear and I wear mine with a fake smile.
Can we please not banning silly jokes on a serious topic? That is one thing I don’t want from real life
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No!
I’m sorry if this disturbs you but free humour is one of the extremely important aspects of the internet that Lemmy needs to support. When you know who you are talking to you can avoid subjects that may hurt the other person but on the public internet this is not possible. The alternative to never dare making any joke because of the risk to hurt someone is dystopian.
Top comment isn’t even a joke, it’s a movie reference that supports the idea that this is a serious topic.
Been prepping for years just in case this happens. Scary to see its possible.
There’s no prepping for a food war. Prepping is for a temporary situation. Food supplies must be constantly restocked.
The survivors will be those able to adapt. There’s plenty of nourishing fauna, but how many are ready to eat bugs? Rats?
I live in Vietnam, and I’m here to tell you that bugs and rats are more expensive than rice. I’ve eaten them all 🍽️
It’s sad to just watch it all unfold the way we’ve been warned for decades.
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.
In Vietnam we’re losing crop because of saltwater backflow on the Mekong. Dams have been built in several places upstream and all the reservoirs are being filled.
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…
Basmati is the only top quality rice out there. The cheap stuff is okay but if you want to enjoy go with basmati
At the same time as Ukrainian wheat issues with the blockade could be a really big issue.
Why can’t South Asian diaspora just buy Thai jasmine rice instead?
Hong Kong here. We have rice almost everyday and apparently, we don’t import them from India. Yet the “Rice Association” said that due to the India ban, the price of rice in Hong Kong will likely to rise by 10% in October.
The nations used to import from India are buying from everyone else, and that drives up the prices.
Edit: typo
Because they’re really different. People who don’t eat rice as a staple aren’t aware how much varieties there are and how different they taste. There are three specific varieties used just in my own house for lunch, breakfast dishes and dinner respectively.
Japanese or Thai rice are totally different in taste, consistency and texture.
It would be like trying to bake using whole wheat flour instead of refined flour.
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.
You’re probably joking, but in case you’re not or anyone else is confused;
There are three reasons listed for the price skyrocketing:
-
The Indian rice export ban
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The war in Ukraine
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El Niño
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Oxford commas forever. Commas save lives, people!
Me, a doomer, with pseudobulbar affect.
Log off social media for a bit there. Things aren’t great out there, but I’m being absolutely sincere that this environment is a negative feedback loop that makes it out to be even worse. We all need to step away from time to time. Come back in a week we will all still be here.
Taking a week off isn’t going to stop collapse. Ignoring something doesn’t make it go away.
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Mainwhile, Russia is actively engaged in the destruction of Ukraine wheat export terminals, and India remains silent.
India, Indonesia and the rest of non alignment countries do not need to enter this war set up by the West.
I agree with you that India doesn’t need to take sides, but I’m pretty sure Russian/West cooperation had been increasingly positive since the cold war ended, right until Putin decided he wanted to be an imperialist again. The West didn’t make him invade a sovereign, non-threatening country.
Russia imperalist is akin to someone bombing Iraq, Vietnam and Afghanistan?
LOL
https://www.elrisala.com/asians-are-less-humane-ukrainian-security-chief/
Its okay to support what Russia is doing, since they call Russians cockroaches and Asians inhuman. India is a supporter of BRICS and Russia.
This reads like an ironic shitpost. No one can seriously believe that one person saying mean things can rationalize an invasion that’s killing thousands and hurtsling food security for millions.
Nazi speak is “one person saying mean things”. Truly a fascist take.
I can point you towards many racist political figures throughout history who weren’t fascist. Racist is not the same as fascist. Sure, fascism usually requires creating an in group and an out group, but it’s also a lot more than that and needs to be larger than one person. Even if this person is a fascist, it still doesn’t even mean anything. He doesn’t have the political power to do anything fascist with.
Your pseudo intellectual hipster word salad does not detract from the fact that all of Ukraine’s institutions are very much Nazi to the core. Zelensky last year even paid homage to Stepan Bandera, Hitler army’s collaborator.
Yeah. All those damned Jewish Nazis in charge over there.
If you were any dumber, you’d be a doorstop.
Well, you are a doorknob for sure!
Where do you people come from
Looks like Lemmy.ml has been successfully invaded by white libs
🤡
Honk more, fascist. This is why we call your ilk fascist, unironically.
Try harder.
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!
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.
Why would a country cripple their economic growth like that?
How dare you advocate for national stability through hard times
A bit valid. Just rough for the people already living there that may not have chosen it
Could do a phased approach over a decade or so, rather then all at once. But the other thing is that places (like saudi arabia) that shouldn’t have near the population they do, are able to pay much more for food then somalia and so food growers in somalia would rather produce food to sell rather then feed their own people. So you basically shift the starvation to the food producers rather than the food buyers.
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If Russia man cared, then Russia man should gtfo of Ukraine.
“Warmonger bad” FTFY
Blame those who start and continue wars. It’s not entirely the fault of any one country, but there’s only one leader who could put a stop to this latest one.
Conditions? yeah like that’s not just going to inject needed capitol for an extended conflict so they can keep it going at this point. I don’t like how tangled up the world is getting in to this mess and I definitely don’t like how much it’s impacting civilians, but sanctions is clearly not the ONE thing keeping this war going, it was a response to it. It certainly didn’t start it and it’s clear that some leaders value pride over logic. Money isn’t solving that issue (more or less) now that it’s started even if it started as a distraction from economic problems. Whatever that leader is telling the people, he’s the only one who can end this. We need to end this mess. I’d encourage you to be open minded about what factors are keeping this war going, but I understand that’s hazardous in some parts of the world.
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Without being directly involved, the media / news / social media is the only information anyone has access to if you don’t know someone with first hand knowledge and even that is probably anecdotal. So that is unfortunately impossible to avoid.
There’s certainly justification for comparing self serving military actions of the US. It doesn’t make it right whoever is doing it. It’s hard to see this as directly comparable, but I am sure I don’t fully understand the situation so I am hesitant to argue details. But from an uninformed perspective it seems difficult to deny who is the aggressor who could just stop at any time.
so eat something else? if you’re reliant on a grain crop that you cant even grow yourself, you’ve never had food security. plenty of other grain crops that are cheaper to grow than rice (which requires a massive amount of water). those pictures of people that live in arid environments means they’re not growing rice, ever
Ah yes, the old “let them eat cake” solution.
cake is generally comprised of wheat flour. does wheat grow that well in africa?
You’re not wrong.
But this is equivalent to telling a homeless person to get a job. It’s not that simple.
perhaps. i’d argue that it really is that simple. for decades, many countries in areas that are well known, historically, for having famines have been importing most/all of their food because the food was available for export by other countries that are very good at growing things & they had excess. now those countries have stopped or drastically curtailed exports. the end result is that the famine countries cannot buy their way out of famine - and now the population isnt just a few hundred thousand but tens of millions.
It is THAT simple!
if you’re reliant on a grain crop that you cant even grow yourself, you’ve never had food security.
I guess I’ll die
and could you keep it down please your upsetting whats left of the middle class, thanks.
Maybe those cheaper crops aren’t readily available to them? It does say it will mainly hit the poorest people…
so eat something else?
Agreed, but this is going to require changes by governments. Certain crops often get subsidies, whether they’re the best option or not. There are healthier grains that can stand up better to climate change than rice. Many governments are so stuck into subsidizing specifically rice that they have backed themselves into a corner with a thirst crop that isn’t all that nutrient dense. And unwinding those subsides is unpopular, even if it’s ultimately the right thing to do.
Most rice in the world is poisoned by pollutants anyway. Since rice grows in water it collects arsenic from pesticides and when you eat it regularly it puts you at risk for a wide variety of arsenic related diseases. Ironically, the rice with the least amount of nutrients (white rice) also has the lowest arsenic levels.
What are you talking about? The whole point of flooding rice fields is to manage insects without pesticides
Arsenic was used as a pesticide in many parts of the world throughout the 20th century. Even if it wasn’t used on rice it ended up in the water where the rice grew.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm
Ok… Now let’s see the positive effects of less people…
Climate change certainly gets a little less fuel…
Referring to the potential starvation deaths of a large group of people as a positive for climate change is like saying you’re glad someone died early from a car accident instead of suicide.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/JwI2NrVYqIE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
This bot needs to die, or at least be upfront about what it is. I’m fine with piracy, but don’t dress it up as “privacy respecting open source”. If you don’t agree with Youtube’s model, then just don’t use it.
Yes, but im just a very positive thinker today!
(is irony dead? Does everything need the /s? Are people so insane they think someone would writing that in a serious note…)
Honestly? Yeah, I thought you were serious, because I’ve seen that attitude expressed before. Generally it’s more “this hazy, unspecified population can be sacrificed to help me deal with the existential dread that me and my world are walking off a cliff” than “dear me I so DO delight in death”, but it makes my teeth ache.
Thank you for clarifying, and I’m sorry for jumping on you.
I didn’t think he was serious, fwiw.
For real? (serious) a nuclear war might be beneficial because mostly citys of big polluters will be taken out, starvation always hits those that already basically don’t pollute. So that argument would make 0 sense regardless…
And i don’t think a nuclear war is exactly what we want… There are better ways than to suicide on species level…
Nuclear Winter about to solve climate change /s & If there is nothing left to safe there is no need for any efforts /s
I think there might be better alternatives including less suffering
So you agreed with me?
From the rest of your comment history? Yes, it’s entirely believable. It’s more surprising that you’re walking it back, really.
Eh, the way it was written I wouldn’t have read it as sarcasm. Text and tone yada yada. That said, I’ve definitely seen people who seriously think like this.
For real? (serious) a nuclear war might be beneficial because mostly citys of big polluters will be taken out, starvation always hits those that already basically don’t pollute. So that argument would make 0 sense regardless…
And i don’t think a nuclear war is exactly what we want… There are better ways than to suicide on species level…
Edit to clarify that im not in favor of nuclear war…
It’s called Malthusianism (after the philosopher Malthus) and, yes, it is a real philosophy.
Sounds like a special form of nihilism…
Sort of. Malthusians believe that disasters which take out large numbers of people help to keep the population in check and are therefore necessary. Obviously a little oversimplified, but that’s about what it boils down to.
Completely honest, I lean a little bit more towards nuclear annihilation every day
Tbh, i can see why… But maybe things get better (hopefully) (im atheist but please god let it rain some braincells for the people)
Literally no way to discern whether it was a sarcastic joke or if you were legitimately an eco-fascist
My entire existence is basically a joke so don’t take me too serious.
In general its a better approach to think everything on the internet is satire until clarified that its not, way better for your believe in humanity, trust me.
I see a lot of people on the internet say some pretty horrible shit with a lot of conviction. Sorry that you’re having a rough time. Hopefully adding more clarity to your communication helps a bit.
Yeah im going to put the /s behind it in the future /s (i will probably forget about it…)
Those who can not afford to eat are probably not making much CO2 emissions.
Yeah, once they cannot afford the food they stop making any CO2.
Exactly.
Not sure if you caught the text of what they’re saying: people who can’t afford to eat rice starving to death aren’t removing much of humanity’s carbon footprint.
Look further down the thread, its a joke and i know that.
Where you suggest twice that nuclear war would be good or that your whole life is a joke?
I feel fucked up ways about stuff too. Nothing wrong with it and all that negativity’s gotta go somewhere. Just wanted to head the ecofascism train off at the pass.
I literally clarified that while it would help against climate change its not something that is a good option at all and that im against it…
Its a Example of some fucked up view that would at least make sense on a technical level, unlike making food prices higher and killing those that already don’t pollute like at all…
It doesn’t make sense even on a technical level. Cities are all near water and their fallout plumes would irradiate huge swaths of the earth to the east in addition to everything downstream.
The infrastructure of civilization is all clustered around cities as well, so we’d lose access to the best spots to live.
I got nothing but sympathy for you, thirty years ago that bit would have killed. Today everyone assumes you’re serious.
