Foreign Policy Blogs

Global food prices offer promise and peril

The soaring price of food was one of the drivers of the Global Food Crisis, making it difficult for people to purchase food for themselves or feed for their animals.  The Financial Times cites a biannual United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report that states that amount spent globally on  food supplies will decrease for 2009, following their all-time highs in 2008.  The damage done by the global financial crisis may be,

“Eroding purchasing power through a combination of falling incomes and real exchange rates… [afflicting] the affordability of food, however cheap it has become on the international market place.”

The report forecasts a building danger from natural disasters, which could hurt food availability and the recent spikes in the prices of staple foods like corn, wheat and soybeans.