Posted on 01/05/2011 9:26:25 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
World food prices continued to rise sharply in December, bringing them close to the crisis levels that provoked shortages and riots in poor countries three years ago, according to newly released United Nations data.
Prices are expected to remain high this year, prompting concern that the world may be approaching another crisis, although economists cautioned that many factors, like adequate stockpiles of key grains, could prevent a serious problem.
The food price index of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization rose 32 percent from June to December, according to the report published Wednesday. In December, the index was slightly higher than it was in June 2008, its previous peak. The index is not adjusted for inflation, however, making an exact comparison over time difficult.
The global index was pushed up last year by rising prices for cooking oils, grains, sugar and meat, all of which could continue to remain high or rise.
“We are at a very high level,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist for the organization, which is based in Rome. “These levels in the previous episode led to problems and riots across the world.”
“The concern is that the long duration of the high prices for the months to come may eventually result in these high prices reaching the domestic markets of these poorer countries,” he said. “In the event of that, there is the chance of the repeat of the events of 2007 and 2008.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good thing our government has decided that food prices don’t count in calculating “inflation”.
When you need to replace reality with something, they’re always there.
When you say "our," where outside the United States do you live?
I’ll bet if they get off of their fat asses and check they’ll find that the rise in oil prices has something to do with the rise in food prices. Just a guess though.
This is one of the first mentions I can think of in the MSM of the ongoing and very obvious food inflation going on right now. Of course they spin it as a “world” problem. Nothing to do with Obama inflating the currency, oh, no, sir.
The administration is quite happy to conceal food and energy inflation behind the ongoing decline in housing prices.
Would stopping government subsidies of corn to ethanol help lower the world price of corn?
You don’t eat field corn which is used for ethanol, you eat sweet corn or cereal corn.
Also, with prices high for corn and beans the farmer gets less or no subsidy from the USDA. When corn was around $1.50/Bushel the USDA was subsidizing it up to $1.00/Bu. which means it took $4.00 into the gov to render $1.00 because of the bureaucracy.
I am not for subsidy of any kind but I don’t like misleading statements, you can not come to rational solutions.
Livestock eats field corn.
Hello high meat prices.
I think you are wrong. I know sweet corn is used where corn is directly
consumed such as and of course corn on the cob.
But, I think field corn is used for corn cereal products and corn meal
and a host of other edible products based on corn.
Yes, true but all grades of corn are part of the equation, but how much corn is not available because it is burned for fuel instead of being used to feed livestock. And how much of the higher grades are used for lessor purposes to fill the gap. The law of unintended consequences always has an effect.
Those fields planted with field corn, for ethanol, that were planted because of subsidies, could have instead been planted with food corn or cereal corn in their absence, lowering the latter’s prices by increasing their supply. If dirt only grew one kind of corn, you might be right, but it doesn’t.
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