Rice Shortage: Myth or Fact? Or Just Another Bullsh*t?

Staple Reading (Open in New Tabs for some basic understanding of the situation):
Shortages drives rice prices to record high
Sarawak as nation's ninth rice bowl
Enough rice in Sarawak, assures BERNAS

Right. So I was out helping my mom to do some grocery and resupplying (nothing much to do for the holidays anyways so helping around kills time). And only by then I came to know Sibu got a rice shortage. WTFBBQ. 2 years ago the town had a sugar shortage, then last year it was cooking oil and now it's our staple food. Anyways we went to Thai Choon near Civic Center and they said they're out of stock, saying:

"No more stock, China don't want to export rice because they want to make sure they have enough food for the Olympics"

Ok... Next stop was Power near Kpg. Nyabor-City junction. My mom was lucky, because there were only 2 rice sacks left and we keelhauled everything. Enough supply for the next few weeks :) The picture above was taken at Medan Mall, so hurry there if you still want to eat rice tonight.

So are we really facing a rice shortage? Some people said the price increment of rice caused the grocers to hide it in their stockpile and wait for the right moment to sell to earn more profit (sounds familiar right? Same thing that happened to cooking oil and sugar not long ago). Some used the China's restriction thingy as mentioned above (sounds bullsh*t though), while some said this is just another news to be discussed at coffee shops after the public got bored talking about petty politics, the aftermath of the elections and minyak naik.

I'm not sure which one is it, and I'm just going to stay neutral about it, for now (hey I'm still studying and not yet earn my keep properly, so the pain that is felt is less). Basically all these barang naik issues, especially the rice and other essential goods, are inevitable. As a neo-economist and a hardcore gamer, I daresay we are all to be blamed here.

WARNING: HAM IS LAYING DOWN SOME KNOWLEDGE BEYOND THIS POINT!

You see, the law of supply and demand plays a heavy role here (ironically my lecturer used to tell me those theories were only useful for passing Economics 100 but now we are using it for real). Law of Supply states that the supply of goods naik when the their price increases. Law of Demand on the other hand states that demand increase when prices of goods turun, ceteris paribus. It's a win-lose and lose-win situations between suppliers and consumers.

And since we're multiplying everyday, the demand for food increases as well. The sad thing is to support the ever increasing high demand, the hardworking farmers are literally breaking their backs to sate our lust and hunger. In a boring but detailed graphical form, it looks like this:

Demand and Supply of Rice 1900 - 2008 (Click to enlarge!)

So the best solution is to buy more equipments, slash and burn new lands (global warming duh) and hire more foreign workers to help (they have to eat our rice too, so +5 demand). All these cost lots of money so the farmers and manufacturers have to increase the selling price to avoid going bankrupt. Unfortunately we as consumers take the hit badly and the savings for the PS3 or the new Nokia N98 become the opportunity costs of our food. The rich becomes poorer and the poor becomes bankrupt.

And to end this post, here's a song and a video for you to enjoy: