Bush now blames Indian middle class for rising food prices (Economic Times)

[struggle4progress]

WASHINGTON: US President George Bush has joined his top diplomat in suggesting that the growing prosperity of India's large middle class is contributing to rising food prices around the world ...

"So, for example, just as an interesting thought for you, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population.

"And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up," said Bush joining his top diplomat Condoleezza Rice in suggesting India's role in the world food crisis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also said last week that apparent improvement in the diets of people in China and India and resultant export caps among the reasons for the skyrocketing prices of grain worldwide ... http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Economy/Bush_blames_India_for_price_rise/articleshow/3007385.cms

[rock]

1. Yikes!

What a bonehead * is.

[struggle4progress]

2. US eats 5 times more than India per capita (Times of India)

... Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg ... In 2003, US per capita grain consumption was 946 kg per year which increased to 1046 kg last year ... India’s per capita grain consumption has remained static over the same period ... Milk consumption, in fluid form, is 78 kg per year for each person in the US, compared to 36 kg in India and 11 kg in China.

Vegetable oils consumption per person is 41 kg per year in US, while Indians are making do with just 11 kg per year. These are figures for liquid milk, not for cheese, butter, yogurt and milk powders which are consumed in huge proportion in the more advanced countries.

A significant proportion of India’s population is vegetarian, and so, this is all the food that they get, apart from vegetables and pulses. But the source of carbohydrates and fats is mainly derived from food grains and oils.

As far as meat consumption is concerned, the US leads the world in per capita consumption by a wide margin. Beef consumption, for example, is 42.6 kg per person per year, compared to a mere 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. In case you are thinking that perhaps Indians might be going in for chicken, think again. In the US, 45.4 kg poultry meat is consumed every year by each person, compared to just 1.9 kg in India ...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_eats_5_times_more_than_India_per_capita/articleshow/3008449.cms

[struggle4progress]

3. We will eat what we need, Minister tells Rice (30 Apr / The Hindu)

New Delhi: Reacting to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement that the world food crisis is a result of an “improvement in the diets of people in India and China,” Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, told reporters here on Wednesday that Indians would eat what they needed ...

“Ms. Rice has a different perception about India. It’s a painful reality that there is a global shortage and the scarcity has put pressure on poor countries like ours.

“The shortage has resulted in a sharp increase in food prices, worldwide. But in India it works the other way round. Besides climate change, one major factor in India is the diversion of food grains for bio-fuels.

“As far as India is concerned, our people will eat what they need and it is the duty of the government to ensure adequate availability of food grains. The country should export only when it has much in excess than its own people’s demands” ...

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050160111200.htm

[Mojambo]

4. Bush: "I stamp out one middle class and another one just pops up in its place!" n/t

[Doctor_J]

10. .

:thumbsup: :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[diane in sf]

14. funny!!! the middle class should stamp *whistle ass out

[liberal N proud]

5. Will the insanity end on 1/20/09?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

6. I f*ing hope so!

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. They've had "trickle down" economics for thousands of years there. Great traditionalists.

Well, so did we, until WWII. Although I believe the Left have prospered in India more than in the UK and US in recent times, just as Reagan and Thatcher were setting the stage for our incipient Great Depression.

[Jim__]

8. "George Bush has never been known for his knowledge ... "

The Hindustan Times has a sense fo humor:

Most parties said a major reason for spiralling global food prices was diversion of land producing foodcrops in the US to bio-fuel production, while Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said Bush was "completely wrong" in his assessment.

"George Bush has never been known for his knowledge of economics. And he has just proved once again how comprehensively wrong he is. To say that the demand for food in India is causing increase in global good prices is completely wrong," Ramesh said.

[Doctor_J]

9. I am going to subscribe to the Hindustan Times!

the truth, finally

[Cresent City Kid]

11. Let me get this straight

According to Bush, it's not only okay to seek wealth at levels way beyond comfort, but encouraged and protected as the engine that drives our economy. Now he has a problem with people eating a little better than before?

Next he'll say Hatian dirt cookies lead to erosion.

[Igel]

12. It's not "having a problem."

But among the long list of factors contributing to higher food prices--specifically rice prices--is increased demand per capita in places like India and the Philippines.

It's inconvenient for places like India and the Philippines to deny that they've contributed to the problem--rejecting guilt is a great hobby. It's much more expedient to blame the US and Europe for everything; it maximizes your political capital and makes you positively glow with prestige, talking truth to power like that. The problem I have with most analyses is that they assume that when there are a dozen contributing causes over the last decade or two that it's only one or two, presumably the most recent, that contribute entirely to the problem.

Take the Philippines. The amount of rice they import has increased pretty much every year. People are eating something like 50% more rice *per person* than they did a decade ago. Now, nobody begrudges them the rice: Many were malnourished. (Now more are overweight.) This makes for more demand, however, and denying it as a factor is either simplistic or duplicitous. It's not talking truth to power. It's simply denying reality or lying to curry favor among those who don't have rice for their curry.

Oil prices, increased demand for grain as food/feed/biofuel stock, shifting lands to produce more livestock feed/biofuel stock, weather patterns, length of time since last rice harvest, fertilizer shortages, market limitations and limitations on the market ... all contribute. They're not all entirely independent variables, of course, but let's assume they are. It's still more honest than assuming only one or two are actual factors.

[Hannah Bell]

15. Philippines rice consumption 1999/2000 = 10250 thousand tons

Population 81 million

Rice consumption in 2007/08 12000 thousand tons

Population in 2007 = 91 million

Conclusion: Per capita rice consumption has increased about 3%, not 50%. Total rice consumption has increased 17%.


http://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/psdgetreport.aspx?hidReportRetrievalName=BVS&hidReportRetrievalID=681&hidReportRetrievalTemplateID=7

http://www.airninja.com/worldfacts/countries/Philippines/population.htm

[benld74]

13. What W and Condi have in common? Both have shit for brains!

And thats not saying much for shit