World Rice...in touble of not being able to produce enought?

Bali, tomorrow...I'm off for the next World Rice Commerce 2007..even more exciting since e saw India ban any non-basmati rice exoports. This is news, and if we read between the lines, we see energy, food and the concept of basic necessities challenged. As it is:
-water is short
- land is increasingly hard to find...worse still anyone who wants to get into the business of producing .. agriculture is less attractive
- there is a genuine choice for farmers in energy crops
But these are old problems...only made worse in the energy age. Add new features:
- freight rates that are both volatile and on historic highs
- a falling US Dollar
- the new reality that production may actually not be enough to meet growing demand

We have amelting pot of issues... research and businesses must start working together.
Food needs to be forced up the political and commercial ladder.
Yes farmers will get more...but they deserve more...we in the industrial world will not find the price rises exorbitent compared to the costs of modern living. Look a little further down...there are millions who are stuck in poverty, will not (may not have been in the first place) be able to afford or obtain food crucial to survival = this is serious

we need
- change in the way we think
- does biotech offer a solution? I'm really not sure...the weather and mother earth are not that easy to conquer
- is there a choice? Yes - I beleive so, but noone wants to admit it

Then again, are we simply being alarmist...ie nothning will happen to the food industry as we know it.

this could be important...not only for business concerns that will make opportunity from change, but on a more broader social and humanitarian level = with millions of lives at stake.
where will the solutions come from?

I feel that we will need to take biotechnology seriously..but
we also need to look at Africa, S.America and the pockets of resources in Asia that can be utilised to offer a sustainable and long term future. Rice is crucial...not only to Asia...its a global issue.

Next up...Food V Energy Security...is there a choice? Both are important...solution is found in sustailability and the ability for some of the most "advanced" nations in the world to forgo some of their more selfish endeavours...perhaps even forcing the WTO forward.