Racionamiento de alimentos llega a Estados Unidos

Palo Alto y Mountain View están cerca de San Francisco, California, una de las zonas más ricas de la Tierra. Ahí trabajan muchos ingenieros emigrados de Asia, pero cual fue su sorpresa al descubrir en sus compras cotidianas de alacena que ya no había arroz... Así es, en muchas zonas de Estados Unidos se está limitando la compra de alimentos debido al aumento de la demanda. Lo impensable ha ocurrido: racionamiento de alimentos en Estados Unidos. Ahora sí, parece que se está en guerra, pero el enemigo no es Irak, sino el aumento de los precios del petróleo (que ha encarecido el transporte mundial), el aumento de compras de alimentos por unas más ricas India y China y el cambio climático, que parece provocó una gran sequía en Australia.

El golpe psicólogico para los consumidores americanos será enorme. Un cisne negro se ha aparecido, algo no pensado se ha vuelto real. Copio del Sun de Nueva York:

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 21, 2008

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

"Where's the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous."

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man said.

PD. El NYT reporta que la crisis económica está reduciendo la resistencia en EU a los alimentos transgénicos.