Price shock in global food

[phantom power]

Bold is mine. Export collapse.

Americans may fret that Wheat Thins cost 15 percent more than a year ago but in poor nations, such price hikes aren't taken lightly. In Ivory Coast last week, women rioted against higher food costs, leaving one person dead.

In Haiti, four people were killed in protests last week over a 50 percent rise in the cost of food staples in the past year. From Egypt to Vietnam, price rises of 40 percent or more for rice, wheat, and corn are stirring unrest and forcing governments to take drastic steps, such as blocking grain exports and arresting farmers who hoard surpluses.

The UN International Fund for Agriculture predicts food riots will become common on the world scene for at least a year. The World Bank says 33 countries face unrest from higher prices in both food and energy.

Even in grain-rich America, wholesale food prices are rising at a rate not seen in 27 years. The most acute "ag-flation," however, is in Asia and Africa, where food costs take up a higher proportion of family income. And the face of hunger is now seen more in cities as a historic shift takes place with more than half of the world's population soon to be living in or near urban areas.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0407/p08s01-comv.html

[One_Life_To_Give]

1. Famine just in time for Human transmission of Bird Flu?

Sounds like the beginning of a perfect storm scenario for a global pandemic.

[phantom power]

2. disease...

is encouraged by collapse of public health and sanitation. My take on avian flu is that so far aggressive monitoring and occasionally equally aggressive livestock-kills have been a factor in keeping it (relatively) isolated from humans. Anything that interferes with continued monitoring and suppression increases the danger of a pandemic strain evolving. Famine sure doesn't make it easier.

[nichomachus]

3. Can't believe the CSM trivialized the effect on Americans

The lead completely ignores the fact there are people suffering from price hikes in this country -- more people on food stamps, more people at food banks, and more people quietly making the choice between food and other necessities.

[XemaSab]

4. We're hosed

I got a community garden plot this spring.

I planted 12 lettuce plants, and DAMN. It's a lot of lettuce.

Like, more lettuce than you would EVER be able to eat in a LIFETIME of eating lettuce.

This weekend I'm going to go repeat the miracle of the loaves and lettuce at my mom's house. :P