Tensions rise as world faces short rations

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2533909020080331?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

In 2007 alone, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

"The recent rise in global food commodity prices is more than just a short-term blip," British think tank Chatham House said in January. "Society will have to decide the value to be placed on food and how ... market forces can be reconciled with domestic policy objectives."

Many countries are already facing these choices.

After long opposition, Mexico's government is considering lifting a ban on genetically modified crops, to allow its farmers to compete with the United States, where high-yield, genetically modified corn is the norm.

A number of governments, including Egypt, Argentina, Kazakhstan, and China, have imposed restrictions to limit grain exports and keep more of their food at home.

This knee-jerk response to food emergencies can result in farmers producing less food and threatens to undermine years of effort to open up international trade.

"If one country after the other adopts a 'starve-your-neighbor' policy, then eventually you trade smaller shares of total world production of agricultural products, and that in turn makes the prices more volatile," said Joachim von Braun, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.

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Expert warns of unrest as rice price soars

http://news.smh.com.au/expert-warns-of-unrest-as-rice-price-soars/20080319-20hm.html

As the price of rice hovers near record levels, many poor countries face the spectre of riots by hungry people, according to one of the world's leading rice experts.

Key producers India and Vietnam have both curtailed exports, sending some of the world's largest rice importers including the Philippines scrambling to procure supplies for their people.

Spot prices have recently hit more than 700 US dollars a tonne, more than three times the price of just five years to go.

Industry officials in Thailand, the world's top exporter, have warned that prices could soon rise to 1,000 US dollars a tonne.

Vietnam, the world's third-largest exporter of the grain, also faces the prospect of a return of the deadly crop disease that impacted heavily on its crop yield last year.

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The problem with biofuels:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1169519086