The Global Food Crisis Is Not Over

In April of 2008, after food riots rocked Port Au Prince and Cairo, I wrote about how inflation of grain prices worldwide due to rising fuel costs, diversion of foodstuffs for biofuels, distribution problems, market speculation, and local crop loss caused by drought and other natural disasters was leaving millions of people in places like Haiti, Egypt and Mexico without the means to pay for even the most basic staple foods, like bread and rice.

Since then, with the U.S. mortgage crisis and stock market crash precipitating a global financial meltdown, financial market prices for grain have dropped significantly in response to lower fuel prices and a generally declining global economy.

You might think falling grain prices would mean that the worst of the global food crisis is over.

You would be wrong.

In fact, as credit markets have frozen and many global trade routes have broken down, the economic crisis has left many people in nations around the world even less able to buy food. Over the next few weeks, I'll be highlighting some of the areas hardest hit by the food crisis, and discussing what ordinary people in the United States can do to help.

Photo credit: Jeff Vanuga, USDA.

Jaelithe also writes at The State of Discontent.

Comments

[World Food Program USA]

Would you have any interest in writing a guest blog post (or even cross-posting one of your own posts in this global food crisis series) on the Friends of the World Food Program blog (http://friendsofwfp.typepad.com)? Currently Friends of WFP staff are the primary bloggers, but I would like to invite other bloggers interested in poverty issues to join the conversation as well. Would you be interested?

Friends of WFP is a US-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that focuses on building support in the United States for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and other hunger relief operations. Friends of WFP unites organizations and individuals committed to solving world hunger. Our education, advocacy, and fundraising efforts in the United States support WFP’s life-saving global food assistance and development programs.

Thanks again for the post, I look forward to reading your other entries in the global food crisis series!
Jessica Lennon