Media having a field day on food shortages
At first glance there would seem to be little that unites the revolution in Egypt, the struggle to combat drought in China, and campaign politics in Pakistan. Yet it turns out that all three of these stories have something in common: the spike in global food prices.
Food prices are shooting up to levels last seen back in 2008, when foodstuff inflation hit populations around the world. If present trends continue, though, some consumers might find themselves looking back on that earlier era with nostalgia.
Food prices are shooting up to levels last seen back in 2008, when foodstuff inflation hit populations around the world. If present trends continue, though, some consumers might find themselves looking back on that earlier era with nostalgia.
Economist Joachim von Braun, director of the Center for Development Research in Bonn, Germany, says the world could be facing a new era of expensive food. "The best forecasting models for the long run, for the next few decades," von Braun says, "are that we may have to face 50 percent increases in grain prices by 2030 and further increases, up to doubling trend prices, by the middle of the century."
If current trends are any indication, these trends are likely to bring plenty of political instability in their wake. Experts note that rising food prices in countries like Egypt, where the average citizen spends some 40 percent of his or her annual income on food, have been a major factor in the political turmoil rocking the Middle East.
Perilous Effects
The World Bank recently warned that high food prices have driven 44 million people around the world into poverty since June. "There is no room for complacency," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told journalists. "Global food prices are now at dangerous levels and it is also clear that recent food-price rises are causing pain and suffering for poor people around the globe."
In today's world of interlinked markets, a problem in one place quickly ripples out to others...
... Longer-term trends are also part of the problem. Demand for food is skyrocketing as the middle class grows in countries like China and India. Yet the amount of land devoted to crops has remained unchanged, while efforts to promote agricultural productivity have failed to keep pace.
Even the growing demand for biofuels is a factor. A recent report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, a forum of the world's developed countries, recommends that governments cut back on subsidies aimed at raising corn, sugar, and beets as biofuels. The problem, says World Bank economist Hassan Zaman, is that rising prices for crops like these have knock-on effects.
"When it comes to other commodities these markets are very interlinked," Zaman says. "So the price of meat goes up as the price of animal feed increases, and that's affected by the price of corn."
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http://www.rferl.org/content/food_prices_consumers_rulers_guessing/2319336.html
Source: newsroom - farmingnewsdaily.co.uk