Food Prices Stir Poverty Concern

Development and trade have lifted many from poverty, but have also widened inequality around the globe. Diverting grain crops from food products to biofuels depleted global food stocks causing spikes in prices. Climate change and a declining dollar also add to prices. Reports of food riots and families stretching meals by adding dirt as an ingredient reveal growing desperation in the world’s poorest nations like Haiti or Egypt. A growing appetite for meat in emerging economies has led to increased demand for grain and speculation in the commodities markets. “Commodities, as an asset class, have attracted investors looking not only for a safe haven from the carnage in highly leveraged mortgage investments,” notes a report from Aljazeera.net. In some developing nations, the poor spend up to 75 percent of their incomes on food and cannot afford additional price hikes as predicted. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, meeting in Washington, point to the food shortages as a crisis with great potential for unrest and even terrorism. – YaleGlobal