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npr connects the dots
Posted: February 14 2011
listen HERE image from tehran times
Food prices are through the roof around the world. We look at all the why’s and all the consequences.
2008 was a bad year for global food supplies. A real pinch.
Now, just over two years later, the pinch is back. The U.N.’s global food price index is at a record high. Experts say the era of “cheap food” is ending. That’s good for farmers with food to sell, but hard for everybody else.
It’s a factor in the unrest in the Middle East. It can push inflation all over, and it leaves people hungry. We’ve got high global demand, smaller crop yields, bad weather – maybe from climate change – and biofuels cutting into food crops. It’s a recipe for trouble.
We look at food, and a crowded planet.
-Tom Ashbrook
red hook, new york