Biofuels and climate change mean food price increase

Pigs, strawberries, cocoa, coffees, corn and wheat, are all flying high; their prices that is. The world is in the grip of rising food prices and it is having serious impacts.

In a reverse to the long-term trend of declining food prices, Merrill Lynch has termed this recent phenominum, agflation.

The impact of the global inflation of food prices is double edged. Some aid organisations such as the World Food Programme are finding it more and more expensive to carry on donating food but at the same time it has been predicted that small farmers in developing countries may benefit by utilising unused land for crop production.

It is thought that a combination of climate change, biofuel crops being grown on farming land, oil prices efffecting transport costs and greater demand for animal feed are causing the inflation.

The long-term affects are unknown, but worrying if you’re against GM crops.

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WFP
Read FT debate on rising food prices
UPDATE: IPPR comment on UK food prices