World food prices at record high

Graham_Devon

World food prices rose to a record high in January, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The FAO Food Price Index, which measures the wholesale price of basic foods within a basket, averaged 231 points last month, up by 3.4% from December.

It is the seventh monthly rise for the index.

"These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come," FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian said.

The index is now at its highest level since the FAO started the measure in 1990 and higher than June 2008 when the cost of food sparked violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt.

Hope this eases off soon. Not for us, but for those less priviliged than us.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12354402

smeagold

cotton at 150 year, high sugar at 30 yr high copper at new all time high

CCI at all time high:

[Deleted User]

The decision to allow derivatives trading on food and so make it a highly speculative market was a seriously bad idea IMPO. People in poor countries will suffer as a result.

Wheezy_2

The index is now at its highest level since the FAO started the measure in 1990 and higher than June 2008 when the cost of food sparked violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt.

One has to wonder how much the current Egypt protests are anti-Mubarak...and how much they are food price protests?

Loughton_Monkey

Reminds me a bit of the "Institutional Madness" that still (I think) pervades Europe.

After making the first mistake of paying farmers guaranteed prices to produce a glut of food nobody wanted or needed, they then proceeded to pay the same farmers money for not producing food.

Anyway, none of this will bother North Korea, since they have never been able to buy food at any price.

But it will be helpful for all those stallholders on our local farmer's market, who will doubtless double the prices for their 'organic, home made, fair-trade local produce' for which they cannot be sued since none of these terms has any definition.

[Deleted User]

Hopefully a step in the right direction on its way:
http://www.independent.ie/business/european/eu-move-to-limit-trading-in-food-and-fuel-derivatives-2523008.html

blueboy43

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

But it will be helpful for all those stallholders on our local farmer's market, who will doubtless double the prices for their 'organic, home made, fair-trade local produce' for which they cannot be sued since none of these terms has any definition.

there is specific definition of organic for food sales in UK.

Loughton_Monkey

blueboy43 wrote: »

there is specific definition of organic for food sales in UK.

At variance with my own understanding.

Yes, there is a so-called 'certification' system. But as DEFRA itself says:

What is organic food?

In one sense all food is organic, because it has come from plants or animals. However for some fifty years the word organic has been used to describe food grown without most artificial fertilisers or pesticides and in a way that emphasises crop rotation, making the most of natural fertilisers and ensuring that the life of the soil is maintained. Animals are kept in ways which minimise the need for medicines and other chemical treatments.

Conrad

It will perhaps benefit Brits who need to eat a lot less. Who knows it may even lead to some actualy eating the number of calories they expend.

Cleaver

My quick opinion is that if you live in England and you buy bread from a baker or supermarket, any frozen ready meal under the sun, any pizza, lasagne, pasta dish, any sauce for pasta, curry etc. then you're not really that concerned about the price of food.

For example, a nice pizza from a supermarket will be about £3.50. You could spend around a fiver on ingredients and make about three pizzas. Bread is the same. You can chose to buy one loaf for £1.50 or you can buy yeast and flour for about £2 and make five loaves. You can buy a tomato-based pasta sauce for £1.50 for one meal or make a massive batch of your own for around the same price that will last two or three meals. There are loads of examples like this. I saw a woman being interviewed the other day for some news programme saying how wrong it was that bread was so expensive. Do something about it then and stop buying it ready made!

I know people will say that they haven't got time to do all this, but in reality what they are saying is that they can't be bothered due to the perceived small amount of gain. We make pretty much all of our bread and although the whole process takes a long time, the actual work involved probably adds up to about 6 or 7 minutes.

Fully agree with Graham though, these massive rises in basic foodstuffs must be awful for a lot of people in developing countries who use them day in day out for all their cooking.

DervProf

World food prices at record high ? :beer:

Ooops ! Wrong market.

Hang on a second, I`m sure there must be some link between rising food prices and rising property prices. OK, I'll give it a go......

If a loaf of bread goes up in price, then people who are looking to sell property will ask for more dough, because their property must be worth at least the same as 124000 medium sliced wholemeal loaves.

So, rising food prices = rising house prices. Hurray ! :beer: