Food Prices To Stay High Despite Record Crops, Says UN

An ominous warning from the U.N.

From The Guardian:

World food prices are likely to stay high and volatile for the foreseeable future despite some record crops this year, according to a report published today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The crisis has driven up food import bills around the world, which are expected to total more than one trillion US dollars in 2008, $215bn (£108bn) more than last year. The poorest and most vulnerable countries will be the hardest hit. The FAO report said their collective food import bill is expected to rise to $169bn this year, up 40% from 2007.

Read more ....

News On World Food Prices From Other Sources
UN says world food prices to remain high -- CANOE Money
Don’t Blame Bio-fuels For Everything -- Ecofriendly
World food crisis --Rice price jumps in France -- A Video Report
The silent tsunami -- A Commentary
Déjà chew: The food price crisis in context -- The Ethicurean
Today's Food Crisis Isn't A Blip -- Accountability Central
Higher food prices to plague world in next decade -- Reuters
Stubbornly high food prices threaten worse hunger -- Reuters
U.N.: Poor countries could pay 40 percent more for food -- CNN


My Comment: The post from the Ethicurean is well worth reading. It provides a historical context to todays crisis. Like the food crisis and famines of the early 1970s, the world is unfortunately badly positioned to overcome the problems that we are now facing. Peace and food usually walk hand to hand. If the world starts to go hungry .... and it is .... those hands start to slip.