Food prices have been rising. As reported here , world food prices started rising in 2007 and climbed to a record in June 2008 with rising prices of wheat, rice and corn sparking riots from Haiti to Ivory Coast. Around the world, food security is the big issue now. In the United States, food prices are spiraling ever upwards , with the price of fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1% and eggs up 33.6%,
Reuters reports that the United States has committed $475 million to an $880 million Global Agriculture and Food Security Program but the question is whether it will be enough.
More than one billion people around the world lack a reliable, sufficient source of nutritious food. Most of these people live in the world's poorest countries, where poverty, violence, resource scarcity, and undeveloped infrastructure make it more difficult for famers. Agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, irrigation systems, and crop preservation mechanisms, which farmers in wealthier countries often take for granted, remain almost impossible to obtain in poorer countries. The problem is that this creates global political instability which affects the global economy.
I blame much of this on the growing appetite by speculators and index funds for wider commodity portfolio investments. And with the price of soft commodities, like coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soybean and fruit rising, we can expect to see more investors coming in and pushing up food prices around the world. It's unsustainable.
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