Food prices matter...Look for more political instability in the more vulnerable parts of the world if this trend is not reversed. Let me beat the dead horse one more time---Corn-based Ethanol causes people to starve to death---If you grow more corn for ethanol, you have less to eat. Farmers grow more corn which means they grow less of the other agricultural commodities on the list. Beef becomes more expensive because corn-based feed becomes more expensive---die, horse, die, so more PEOPLE can live...
Food prices: World Bank warns millions face poverty
World food prices are 36% above levels of a year ago, driven by problems in the Middle East and North Africa, and remain volatile, the bank said.
That has pushed 44 million people into poverty since last June.
A further 10% rise would push 10m more below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 (76p) a day, the bank said.
And it warned that a 30% cost hike in the price of staples could lead to 34 million more poor.
I saw a sale at Sprout's Farmer's Market that actually challenged rising corn prices. The sale was 8 ears of corn for $2, which to me seemed like a pretty good deal. So I wonder how much this sale is scewed compared to the world food prices listed here and how much Sprout's Market had to compensate for using the expensive corn as a lost leader in their store.
ReplyDeleteI know this comment is not academic/economics and won't count for extra credit (which if you didn't offer in the first place, the supply graph of student comments on your blog would shift left and your self-esteem profits would decrease)ANY WAYS, I wanted to 'like' Greg's comment and was wishing this was facebook and wanted to ask if palm oil is actually a 'food' as the title proclaims, or if it's actually used in lamps or drunken? drinked? dranken? idk.. Hmmm... maybe it's used in cooking? Rather curious... Maybe because your pointer is resting on 'palm oil'... psychology and economics meet again..
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