As food prices spike again, aid agency warns cost of staples will double in 20 years

[phantom power]

AMSTERDAM — As food costs spike for the second time in three years, an international aid agency predicts the price of some staples such as corn will double in the next 20 years amid a permanent crisis caused by rising demand, flat crop yields and climate change.

The report by Oxfam released Tuesday said the demand for food will grow 70 to 90 percent by 2030, without factoring in the impact of climate change. Increasingly frequent droughts, floods and changes in agricultural patterns from global warming will add pressure to what the agency calls an already broken system.

“The food system is buckling under intense pressure from climate change, ecological degradation, population growth, rising energy prices, rising demand for meat and dairy products and competition for land for biofuels, industry and urbanization,” Oxfam said in its report, “Growing a Better Future.”

It said 925 million people — one out of seven — are hungry, and the figure is likely to surpass 1 billion by the end of this year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-food-prices-spike-again-aid-agency-warns-cost-of-staples-will-double-in-20-years/2011/05/31/AGOkoKFH_story.html

[GliderGuider]

1. And let's not forget the generous contribution of rising oil prices...

[4lbs]

2. My eyes must be deceiving me, those two can't possibly be linked!

---> :sarcasm: <---

[Lifelong Protester]

3. That chart tells you all you need to know about how we are being

manipulated.

[GliderGuider]

4. It does?

I can see that if you start with that assumption this chart might confirm it for you, but I have a hard time starting with the evidence in the chart and arriving at the conclusion that we're being manipulated.

What I see is that oil prices became volatile when we hit the Peak Oil production plateau in 2005, that they crashed when the economy cratered in the second half of 2008, and have trended up again with the global economic recovery - and that the food system uses so much oil that food prices tend to reflect oil prices.

How does this chart confirm manipulation to you?

[JoeyT]

5. Don't worry.

iPods and laptops will be even cheaper by then.:sarcasm: