I just let our housekeeper know to prepare some Cali and Unagi rolls for lunch. We've had a large bag of Nishiki sitting in the pantry for a long time and I don't want to be accused of hoarding!
Last time I remember eating rice (of any great portion) was when I was 11yrs old. Won't miss it at all. If I never eat rice again, it will be too soon.
at 3500 calories energy equivalent per pound of fat, most Westerners already have a few weeks storage around their waist...
Blame or not, when the shit hits the fan, governments are going to go after the speculators as they DO influence price (and mostly in the up direction as of late). Expect higher margin requirements - much higher - at the very least.
We probably go through 4 cups of prepared rice a month. 48 a year. So that's a third of a cup dried rice times 48 for 16 cups of dried rice a year. Not sure how much dried rice weighs, but I'd guess that a one pound bag has about 3 cups. So that's 5 bags of rice that will last us a year. Even if a bag is only 2 cups, that's 8. Assuming 2 cups per pound, 80 pounds of dried rice makes a whopping 480 cups of prepared rice.
I am going to store some rice this weekend, unlike electricity or gasoline, consumer do have the power to store rice, when a few stores run out of rice, it will create a public panic which will run out of control.