The Wonder Was It Took So Long…

Oh dear, this cannot be good.

BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) – The condition of China’s winter wheat crop could be the “worst in history”, the agriculture minister said on Saturday, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world’s biggest wheat consumer.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliament meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian said that rare heavy rainfall last year delayed the planting of about one-third of the normal wheat acreage.

The minister’s comments underscore concerns about China’s grain supply at the same time as the war between Russia and Ukraine, which together account for about 29% of global wheat exports, has disrupted supplies causing wheat prices to surge to 14-year highs.

Here’s my favorite part – where the Minister of Agriculture reads the tea leaves and proclaims victory soon via policy, technology and a government edict requiring better weather.

However, Tang is confident China can ensure a bumper harvest of summer grain thanks to strong policy and technical support and the improving crop condition for the grain.

And if he’s wrong he’ll never have to worry about anything again. But there’s no need to panic; there will always be corn. Oh wait: they’ll need that for ethanol.

So let them eat rice. After all, they’ve survived for millennia on it.

No wait, I’ve got it – cake! Let them eat cake! Rice cakes…let them eat rice cakes.

Delicious  rice cakes – said no one ever.

So let’s see where we are: pestilence, check. War, check.  Famine, check.

The Four Horseman and their new sidekick, to hurry things along

I leave you with Vereteno’s perennially sardonic observation.

Thirteen years later and we are still on the road to perdition. Or perhaps we’ve reached the end.