The workmen at the giant American rice silos on the outskirts of Tokyo are understandably cagey about the size and state of their contents. Some believe it to be more than 2 million tonnes, many believe it to be slowly degrading to a level where it will one day be inedible to all but pigs and chickens. The only certainty is that Japan isn't going to eat it.

Governments are fast realising that the apparent rice crisis - certainly no myth to those starving in the Philippines and Haiti - is more about secret political deals and global agricultural imbalances than about traders screaming on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade or prices fixed over a coffee by the rice elite of Bangkok. ... Read full article