Retail food prices are heading for their biggest annual increase in as much as 30 years, raising fears that the world faces an unprecedented period of food price inflation.
Prices have soared as the expanding biofuels industry, climate change and the growing prosperity of nations such as India and China push up the costs of farm commodities including wheat, corn, milk and oils. -
FT
Most other countries are seeing food prices rise as well. Since the beginning of 2007, U.S. food prices have climbed 6.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, compared to 2.1 percent for all of 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If this trajectory continues through the rest of the year, it would be the largest annual increase since 1980, the FT notes. And the United Kingdom’s consumer price index indicated annual food price inflation of 6 percent in April, compared with 2.8 percent overall inflation. -
World Watch