Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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"Food prices are rising on a mix of strong demand from developing
countries; a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts
caused by climate change; and the biofuel industry¹s appetite for grains,
analysts say."
--
Notice how the main problem -- the biofuels market -- is downplayed as much
as possible in this article.
-rkm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/451604c4-e30b-11dc-803f-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times FT.com

High food prices may force aid rationing
By Javier Blas in Washington and Gillian Tett in London

Published: February 24 2008 22:02 | Last updated: February 24 2008 22:02

The United Nation¹s agency responsible for relieving hunger is drawing up
plans to ration food aid in response to the spiralling cost of agricultural
commodities.

The World Food Programme is holding crisis talks to decide what aid to halt
if new donations do not arrive in the short term.

Why are food prices rising?

View our multimedia feature on the factors that contribute to global food
price inflation

Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, told the Financial Times that the
agency would look at ³cutting the food rations or even the number or
people reached² if donors did not provide more money.

³Our ability to reach people is going down just as the needs go up,²
she said.

WFP officials hope the cuts can be avoided, but warned that the agency¹s
budget requirements were rising by several million dollars a week because
of climbing food prices.

The WFP crisis talks come as the body sees the emergence of a ³new area
of hunger² in developing countries where even middle-class, urban people
are being ³priced out of the food market² because of rising food
prices.

The warning suggests that the price jump in agricultural commodities ­
such as wheat, corn, rice and soyabeans ­ is having a wider impact than
thought, hitting countries that have previously largely escaped hunger.

³We are seeing a new face of hunger in which people are being priced out
of the food market,² said Ms Sheeran.

Hunger is now ³affecting a wide range of countries², she said, pointing
to Indonesia, Yemen and Mexico. ³Situations that were previously not
urgent ­ they are now.²

The main focus of the WFP to date has been to provide aid in areas where
food was unavailable. But the programme now faces having to help countries
where the price of food, rather than shortages, is the problem.

Ms Sheeran said that in response to rising food costs, families in
developing countries were moving in some cases from three meals a day to
just one, or dropping a diverse diet to rely on one staple food.

In response to increasing food prices, Egypt has widened its food rationing
system for the first time in two decades while Pakistan has reintroduced a
ration card system that was abandoned in the mid-1980s.

Countries such as China and Russia are imposing price controls while
others, such as Argentina and Vietnam, are enforcing foreign sales taxes or
export bans. Importing countries are lowering their tariffs.

Food prices are rising on a mix of strong demand from developing countries;
a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts caused by
climate change; and the biofuel industry¹s appetite for grains, analysts
say. Soyabean prices on Friday hit an all-time high of $14.22 a bushel
while corn prices jumped to a fresh 12-year high of $5.25 a bushel.

The price of rice and wheat has doubled in the past year while freight
costs have also increased sharply on the back of rising fuel prices.

The world¹s poor countries will have to pay 35 per cent more for their
cereals imports, taking the total cost to a record $33.1bn (in the year to
July 2008, even as their food purchases fall 2 per cent, according to the
UN¹s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The US Department of Agriculture warned this week that high agricultural
commodities prices would continue for at least the next two to three years.

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