Two bull markets: food and bombs!

Posted by Eric LeRiche | March 18, 2010 .

Stocks are going nowhere these days . In fact, for all of 2010 so far, the Dow and S&P 500 have done just about squat — a 2-3% gain, at best.

Stocks are boring these days. So let’s find a bull market somewhere else more traditionally boring.
Buy food, The world has an increasing demand for food

The U.N.’s estimate that world population will grow from 6.8 billion people to 9.1 billion people by 2050, with Asia and Africa making up 80% of the increase
The world will need to produce an additional billion tonnes of cereal crops and 200 million tonnes of meat. That’s a 70% increase in food supply
Global diets are shifting from one heavily weighted toward rice to one that includes more meat, which has an exponential effect on grain demand
Scarcity of arable land and clean water mean that most of the new production (about 80%) will have to come from increasing yields from existing farms.

“In that kind of world, a global agriculture powerhouse with a focus on bringing food to markets is the stock to own.

Here’s another global bull market, this one a little more explosive — weapons. The average volume of global arms sales rose 22% over the last five years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports.

Interesting details in this report… the U.S., the great global police force, remains the world’s biggest exporter of arms. We are responsible for some 30% of the global trade. Russia’s bombs and guns are close behind, with a 23% stake.

The world’s biggest importers rank in this order: China, India, South Korea, the UAE and Greece. South America saw a stunning 150% spike in arms sales (ahem, Hugo Chavez). Exports to Southeast Asia, notably Vietnam, are up quite a bit, too.

And just how much money is the world spending on weapons? Heh, c’mon… governments don’t disclose that information anymore. It’s none of your business anyway… right?

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