Struggling Farmers Furious After Iraq Stops Buying US Rice, Opts For Cheaper Grain From India

[Purveyor]

By Associated Press,

DAYTON, Texas — The talk of the day among Ray Stoesser and other rice farmers is Iraq’s decision not to buy U.S. rice, a stinging move that adds to a stressful year punctuated by everything from drought to unusual heat.

Stoesser and other farmers know Iraqis struggled during the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation. They know most countries — and people — buy based on price.

But at the moment, with production costs rising, export markets shrinking and rice prices dropping, it’s difficult to be rational and suppress emotions so intimately intertwined with their land and livelihood.

“That’s just not right,” the 63-year-old Stoesser fumed. “If we’ve got some rice to sell, they ought to pay a premium for it just because this is the country that freed them.”

MORE...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/worldbusiness/struggling-farmers-furious-after-iraq-stops-buying-us-rice-opts-for-cheaper-grain-from-india/2012/02/23/gIQANgPpUR_story.html

[appleannie1]

1. We bankrupted their country. Do you expect them to be grateful?

[izquierdista]

2. Hey, Ray

Maybe if we didn't free so many Iraqis from their corporeal bodies, there would be more of them to buy your shitty grub.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Mr. Stoesser needs to slapped in the face with a 2x4.

What you call "Freedom", the rest of the world calls utter destruction and mass murder.

[xchrom]

4. +1

[Dokkie]

17. they were freed from

a stable life. These ass holes think america can do no wrong

[WilliamPitt]

5. Ow. My brain.

[AtomicKitten]

6. This quote is telling --

“You would think with all that we’ve done over there, there would be a way to get them to do business with us,” said Ronald Gertson, who grows rice in Lissie, Texas.

The answer is in that quote ... WHAT WE'VE DONE OVER THERE. Exactly!

[tanyev]

18. All those billions of dollars the Coalition Provisional Authority lost track of

could have purchased a lot of rice. Take it up with Paul Bremer, Mr. Gertson.

[TwilightGardener]

7. After all we did for them!

[gratuitous]

8. Buncha ingrates!

Well, maybe next time we won't invade and occupy their country, annihilate their infrastructure, loot their resources and gun down their people in the streets. That'll teach 'em a lesson!

It's too bad this kind of bone-deep stupidity doesn't cause physical pain.

[Angry Dragon]

9. Free Market

[LiberalFighter]

11. They probably don't teach that in the FFA

They probably don't think they receive any govt assistance either.

[PDJane]

10. Oy.

I'm going to go back to my needlework project. Or a good book. Or something.

[Ikonoklast]

12. I need to stop reading stuff likke this.

I't sstarrtting to eerodddddeee my cognitiivev cxapabiklties an d intfreres wiwth miy hier braa akkkinn funcsstottinsz

[hifiguy]

13. One gets a little dumber just by reading

about people this effin' stupid.

[Purveyor]

14. THIS JUST IN: Congress Members Urge Iraq To Buy US Rice

(02-24) 11:53 PST HOUSTON, (AP) --

Congress members from the largest rice-growing states are urging Iraq to resume buying U.S. long-grain rice, calling the country's standards "unreasonable."

--CLIP
Congress members say there was a 77 percent drop in rice sales to Iraq between 2010 and 2011.

The Iraqi Grain Board has said it decided to buy cheaper basmati rice from India.

But the 12 legislators from Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and Virginia say part of the reason U.S. farmers charge more is the risk involved in meeting Iraq's quality demands.

MORE...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/24/national/a115322S92.DTL

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. What's wrong? Don't like the free market? Want government subsidies? Texas socialists in action!

[Enrique]

16. wow the AP really sugar coats their ignorance

Stoesser and other farmers know Iraqis struggled during the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation.

Well every quote in the article proves that none of these farmers knows anything about how the Iraq war impacted the Iraqi people.