Food Insecurity

Terry Gross at NPR's Fresh Air had an interesting piece regarding grain crops as the "new oil".   With climate change making grain growing an increasingly risky business just as the emerging middle classes in China and India are demanding a diet requiring large amounts of grain for meat animals,  there will be competition for high priced grain.  While this is good news for grain exporting nations, countries such as South Korea are actually buying American grain elevators in the heartland and buying direct from American farmers.  This threatens to make the situation worse, as less grain will acutally become available on the open market.  This leaves poorer countries uable to purchase supplies at any price.  To compound the irony, China is buying land in Ethiopia and Sudan with the intention of farming and shipping the crops to China, while the starving natives are reduced to waiting for UN handouts.  Also on the line are the water resources of the Nile river which will be used to do this farming.  Meaning Egypt with its 90,000,000 people will have less water to grow crops and will be more dependent on imports.  Sounds like a recipe for social unrest and food riots within a few years.