Food Prices

Food Prices

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  Food Prices PresentationDavid Kim
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  Food in CrisisExacerbated by crop and/or animal diseases, serious food shortages develop. This causes universal public shock and growing political panic. The struggle, even in the developed world, is to keep people fed. With prices skyrocketing, the crisis response creates an untested set of supply arrangements. Issues such as choice and values-based purchasing assume a second order priority
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  Rice Prices Theprice of rice in China has witnessed its fourth increase in the past two months, and many people have responded by keeping large quantities of rice in reserve at home. In rice, there was no shortfall at all, but supply was so tight that prices started going up, whereupon some of the biggest producers, like India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, imposed export bans to protect their domestic markets from shortages. Since only about seven percent of the world’s rice is traded internationally, that immediately led to panic buying by big importers like the Philippines and Indonesia, and in mid May the price hit $1,000 a tonne.
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  “ The costsof machine use and fertilizers have gone up, so the price hike is quite realistic,”
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  Wheat prices InKazakhstan, which is the main exporter of wheat in the region is facing similar crises with steep price increases reported in the other four Central Asian countries. On September 13, a "pasta strike" was held in Italy to protest the sharp increases in the price of pasta there. In fact, prices for wheat, flour, and other grains used to make bread and other foods have gone up all around the world. For the first time, the price of a bushel of wheat has reached $9 on world markets. One bushel is enough to make about 70 loaves of bread.
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  High Food Pricesin Central Asia The start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year has coincided with soaring prices for bread, flour, and wheat in Central Asia. The increase in the cost of a staple like bread has caused severe problems for many people in the poverty-stricken region, where many have already cut down on other staples such as meat and butter. The price has gone up by almost 60 percent since the beginning of September. Thus, people buy flour to make bread at home because it is cheaper than buying bread.
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  Solution In developingcountries hit hard by high staple-food prices, subsidizing wages is superior to subsidizing food purchases directly, because it helps farmers and distorts price signal less. Help marginal and smaller-scale producers recover in a market that has benefited large factory farms to the detriment of family farmers.