Food crisis fears as US corn soars

[alp227]

Is the world on the brink of another food crisis?

It has become a distressingly familiar question. With the price of agricultural staples such as corn, soyabeans and wheat soaring for the third summer in five years, the prospect of another price shock is once again becoming a prominent concern for investors and politicians alike.

The debate marks a dramatic shift from just a few weeks ago, when traders were expecting bumper crops and policy makers were comforting themselves that – if nothing else – falling commodity prices would offer some relief to the troubled global economy.

But since then, scorching heat and a paucity of rain across the US has withered the country’s corn and soyabean crops, with the US Department of Agriculture this week making the largest downward revision to its estimate for a corn crop in a quarter of a century.

full: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad1ec426-cd07-11e1-92c1-00144feabdc0.html

[Smilo]

1. And who will be most affected by this

This from February 2011 -

Food spike puts 44 million in poverty
By Colin Barr February 16, 2011: 6:31 AM ET
The rise in food prices since last June has shoved 44 million people into dire poverty, the World Bank says in its latest report on the global food crisis.
The antipoverty organization says in February's Food Price Watch that its price index rose 15% between last October and last month, leaving it just 3% shy of its 2008 peak. The biggest gains have come in wheat, corn, sugar, fats and oils. One rare bright spot: the relative stability in global rice prices.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/02/16/food-spike-puts-44-million-in-poverty/

So with the crops now failing worse than ever - it is going to be so much worse.

[sad sally]

2. Added to this the loss of thousands of acres of food-crop land in West Africa and Asia, that grow

cotton, using Montsanto's seed and insecticides, for the hungry appetite for cheap and lots of new clothes so many people (mostly Americans) have instead of food crops for their starving citizens.