The World We Eat In is Changing

Associated Press writers from around the world recently reported in: In Mauritania in West Africa, rice prices doubled over the first three months of the year, according to the World Food Program. Over the same period, the price of corn rose 59 percent in Zimbabwe and 57 percent in neighboring Mozambique. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mami Monga pays $25 for a box of fish that cost $10 a year ago. The price of a 25-kilogram bag of rice has doubled to $30. In China, food costs rose 5.9 percent in April over a year ago. India’s food prices were up 17 percent in April over a year earlier.

The world we eat in is changing. The situation is not good. Going into the year 2010 a billion people in our world were already going hungry and well on their way to pandemic malnutrition and starvation. Conditions have rapidly been getting worse for families around the world that are being battered by surging food prices. Rising food costs are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing more and more people to go hungry.

Food is now costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest areas of the world as rising prices are squeezing household budgets. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index — which includes grains, meat, dairy and other items in 90 countries — was up 22 percent in March from a year earlier. In some Asian markets, rice and wheat prices are 20 to 70 percent above 2008 levels.