"Rice farming in Burma has become a precarious enterprise, as stepped-up government intervention is stifling profits while stressing the land and the lives of the farmers... There are few ways to express displeasure with the government in Burma, but farmers have been voicing their discontent with their feet. And gauging by the steady flow of rice farmers fleeing Burma for neighboring Thailand, Bangladesh and India, farmers are fed up with working conditions under authoritarian rule. "Less and less people want to farm," says a veteran Shan political analyst. "Even if you grow vegetables they will not end up in your kitchen, but in the military?s kitchen." In Burma, prices of commodities, particularly rice, have skyrocketed over the last 12 months, leaving individuals in both urban and rural areas able to afford only one meal a day. This inflation has further fueled existing hunger woes. Farmers, human rights workers, and diplomats say the government?s incoherent policy making—such as the government?s drive to boost exports and increase the quota system requiring farmers to sell rice at a subsidized rate—as well as the lack of infrastructure, has created an army of disenfranchised rice farmers and scores of hungry citizens..."