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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: Liberians drop rice for spaghetti |
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Page last updated at 12:16 GMT, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 13:16 UK
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Liberians drop rice for spaghetti
By Kate Thomas
Monrovia
Tarr Sayeeh has now learnt how to eat spaghetti
Standing behind the wooden counter of his roadside restaurant, Emmanuel Biddle heaps piles of Liberian-style bolognese onto the plates of customers.
When the Liberian chef first added pasta to the menu of his traditional chop house, he didn't expect much success.
But as surging rice prices threaten to halt progress in fragile countries like Liberia, local people are changing life-long habits and switching to cheaper staple foods such as spaghetti.
Liberia imports 90% of its rice from Asia and the US.
In the last six months, the price has more than doubled, making it unaffordable for many ordinary Liberians.
Spicy spaghetti
Spaghetti shacks like Mr Biddle's are springing up in the Paynesville district of Monrovia, a working-class neighbourhood rarely visited by expatriates.
SPAGHETTIISONTHEMENU |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Weird how rice has shot up in recent months. I know all foods are, but rice especially seems to be jumping up. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| but rice especially seems to be jumping up. |
Yes, it does seem like rice is leading the price surge. Has demand suddenly gone up more than for other foods? |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
| but rice especially seems to be jumping up. |
Yes, it does seem like rice is leading the price surge. Has demand suddenly gone up more than for other foods? |
Here is an interesting article from the New Your times, which I think helps explain the sudden rise in the price of rice.
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A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice
By KEITH BRADSHER
DENILIQUIN, Australia � Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. �It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,� he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, �and now it has stopped.�
The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia�s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.
Ten thousand miles separate the mill�s hushed rows of oversized silos and sheds � beige, gray and now empty � from the riotous streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but a widening global crisis unites them.
The collapse of Australia�s rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months � increases that have led the world�s largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
Drought affects every agricultural industry based here, not just rice � from sheepherding, the other mainstay in this dusty land, to the cultivation of wine grapes, the fastest-growing crop here, with that expansion often coming at the expense of rice. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/worldbusiness/17warm.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:06 am Post subject: |
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| Yes, that goes a fair distance in explaining it. I had no idea Australia produced any rice, let alone enough for 20 million people. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Yes, that goes a fair distance in explaining it. I had no idea Australia produced any rice, let alone enough for 20 million people. |
Me too, I didn't know either until I read this article but then again why would anyone suspect that Australia one of driest countries on Earth would produce rice let alone enough for 20 million people. |
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Frankly Mr Shankly
Joined: 13 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| blade wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Yes, that goes a fair distance in explaining it. I had no idea Australia produced any rice, let alone enough for 20 million people. |
Me too, I didn't know either until I read this article but then again why would anyone suspect that Australia one of driest countries on Earth would produce rice let alone enough for 20 million people. |
Yep, takes a hell of a toll on our meager water resources. Cotton is another crop that needs a lot of it and explains why the upper section of the Murray Darling system is proper f*cked. Ditto for intensive agriculture all the way down to the mouth in South Australia. Our continent just isn't able to support European farming methods any more. |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Man, since they started giving minorities better jobs all the prices have been going haywire! |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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| djsmnc wrote: |
| Man, since they started giving minorities better jobs all the prices have been going haywire! |
Minorities????? |
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djsmnc
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Dave's ESL Cafe
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| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
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| blade wrote: |
| djsmnc wrote: |
| Man, since they started giving minorities better jobs all the prices have been going haywire! |
Minorities????? |
Yeah...I don't know either! |
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