http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Agricultural_Service
"In 1972 a short grain crop in the U.S.S.R. resulted in the Soviet Union quietly concluding grain purchasing contracts from a relatively small number of the secretive private multinational grain traders who dominated world trade in cereals. Because crop surveys in mid-spring had given the impression of a normal crop, FAS's agricultural attaché in Moscow chose not to follow up with additional crop observation travel, and thus missed a severe drought that set in after the last trip. As a result of this lapse, international grain traders and exporting nations were unaware of the Soviets' dire need for massive grain imports. By the time the scope of Soviet purchases became known, the U.S.S.R. had locked in supplies at low, subsidized prices, leaving other importers and consumers scrambling for what was left at significantly higher prices."
I remember reading somewhere (but I don't remember where) that about 25 % of the Soviet population could have died of starvation because of that famine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dennis
"the 1970s, an era of repeated crop failures and the "Great Russian Grain Robbery" of 1972, when agents of the Soviet Union secretly purchased 30% of the U.S. wheat crop in the space of a few weeks."
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We may be witnessing a similar event now. We could experience 20 limit up days in a row, or 30 days, or more. Real panic could set in. Central bankers can not produce grain. Nobody knows for certain what will happen.
