Food prices have risen sharply around the world. The price of wheat has doubled this year, and meat and milk have more than doubled. Rice and coffee prices are at ten year highs. It seems that all the staple foods have risen. Some families are pinched.

One cause of these horrific increases is, ironically, the economic success of China, India, and other up-and-coming countries. Large numbers of newly prosperous families are eating better than ever before, and they're eating more. They are also eating more animal foods, which use a larger amount of resources to produce a food calorie than a diet based more directly on plants would. All of this leaves less food to go around, which causes a price increase.

Another factor putting pressure on food prices is desertification. The spread of deserts in China and Africa, due to farming practices focused on immediate results, water shortages, and global warming, leaves less land suitable for growing crops. When marginally arable land is farmed in an effort to increase food production that land is degraded, and the desert spreads still farther.

Ethanol is another reason for high food prices. We in America have been mixing ethyl alcohol distilled from corn in some of our gasoline. Our gas is often 10% ethanol. In Brazil, many of the cars run on pure ethanol, although they make theirs from sugar cane, which yields a better energy return. Corn grown for ethanol brings America's farmers a high financial return, so they naturally tend to prefer planting it over other crops. The current plan is for 30% of our corn crop to be converted to ethanol by 2010.

This may buy us some energy independence, and possibly lower levels of pollution. Yet we will also have increasing percentages of corn that nobody will get to eat, and of land that will not grow food. Jean Ziegler, a U.N. food expert, calls for a five year moratorium on ethanol production, calling it: "a catastrophe for the poor."

Food riots have already occurred in many countries, including Indonesia, Mexico, and Haiti. The Haitian government has responded with subsidies intended to lower rice prices, but of course nobody can repeal the law of supply and demand. When a commodity is scarce, its price will tend to rise.

At the local Costco there's a run on rice. Costco stores on the west coast of America are rationing 50 pound bags. Apparently restaurant owners are hoarding rice because they think prices will rise still more. Families that eat a lot of rice are stocking up too. This of course causes apparent scarcity, which can cause still more hoarding. I think everyone in America has noticed that food prices in general are on the rise.

What can we do? Shop frugally. Food that is less expensive is usually so because it took fewer resources to produce. Eat locally, and seasonally. Food that has been grown nearby, and that is in season, uses fewer of the world's resources to reach our kitchens and restaurants. Eat a more plant based diet. Drive less. There's dispute about it, but probably less ethanol equals more food.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_ depth/7361945.stm
http://www.livescience.com/env ironment/071027-ap-biofuel-cri me.html
http://origin.mercurynews.com/ news/ci_9036860

Learn more about this author, Janet Grischy.
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