Will there be food shortages in the next decade?

[hoon]

Rising food and energy prices push UK consumer inflation to 3.3%, up from 3% in April.

BBC NEWS | Business | UK consumer inflation rises 3.3%

[hoon]

Rapid rises in food and fuel prices are expected to push up the inflation rate when figures for June are released.

BBC NEWS | Business | Food and fuel 'to hit inflation'

Most people already know this, but it never does any harm to ram it further down the governments throats just how hard people are being hit.

[Rog]

Rising food prices are putting millions of people in East Africa at risk of severe hunger and destitution, the UK-based charity Oxfam has warned.

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | New E Africa food crisis warning

[arno]

North Koreans are experiencing their worst food shortages since the famine of the late 1990s, a UN agency says.

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | UN warns on North Korea shortages

[bruce]

Rising fuel, petrol and grocery bills, combined with higher taxes, have wiped out any wage increases.
In spite of a £16 weekly increase in earnings, the average UK household had 9.1 per cent less disposable income — £13 a week — to save or spend on luxuries such as holidays and electrical goods, according to the think tank, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

Higher food bills leave families £700 worse off - Telegraph

[kepler]

Interesting piece here on the connection between oil prices and food prices.

As gas prices go down, so will food, right? No - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com

[Rog]

I love how prices lag on the recovery but never on the initial rise in prices.

[August]

IRIN Africa | East Africa | Kenya | KENYA: Tens of thousands facing acute food shortage | Early Warning Environment Food Security Health & Nutrition Natural Disasters | News Item

"There is an acute food shortage and the situation has been rated as alarming," Anthony Mwangi, public relations manager with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), said.

But I think it is fair to say that food shortages are local phenomenons, and that the real problem is the global food price crisis.

[August]

Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, August 22, 2008 (ENS) - Tremendous quantities of food are wasted after production - discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and kitchens - and this wasted food is also wasted water, finds a policy brief released Thursday at World Water Week in Stockholm.

The brief authored by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute shows that the current food crisis is less a crisis of production than a crisis of waste. Tossing food away is like leaving the tap running, the authors say.

"More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem - many are hungry, while at the same time many overeat," the brief states. But, it says, "we are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."

[seven]

UK food prices have risen by 8.3% on average since January, with meat and fish up 23%, according to a study for the BBC.

BBC NEWS | Business | UK food prices show 8.3% increase