Rapidly increasing food prices are impacting the world’s poorest people. The standard of living for many people in developing countries has been halved as the cost of rice, the staple diet of so many, has doubled within a year. Between 2005 and 2007 the cost of corn rose 21%, rice 74%, Soya 87% and wheat 130%. This global food crisis has been driven predominantly by the burgeoning middle-classes in Asia and also a growing demand for biofuels in the west.

As the middle-class populations of China and India increase so too does their consumption, hundreds of millions of people are increasing their protein intake and are now buying cars. Together India and China have a middle class of around 600million people, almost the equivalent of the combined populations of the USA and Western Europe. This impacts the availability of grain as a direct source of food, as 9kg of grain is required to produce 1kg of pork and more than four times that amount to produce a kilo of beef.

With extreme weather events such as the drought in Australia – the world’s second largest grain exporter – and rising freight rates, food costs have jumped 74% in developing countries that rely on imports, according to the FAO. Damage caused by the recent Cyclone Nargis in Burma places further pressure on the global food market, with the five states affected by the cyclone accounting for 65 percent of Burma’s rice output. The FAO says lower exports or larger imports of rice by Burma, "would lead to a further tightening of the world rice market".

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cyclone intensity is set to increase as a result of climate change, and Sunita Narain, Director of India’s influential Centre for Science and Environment has warned that Cyclone Nargis is a “sign of things to come,” unless efforts are made to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

References

• Blair, D. & Evans-Pritchard, A. 'A World of Hunger,' The Age April 15, 2008
• Wroughton, L. & Topsfield, J. 'World’s new crisis: food,' The Age April 25, 2008
• Schuettler, D. 'Cyclone damage could hit Myanmar Rice exports – FAO,'Reuters, May 7, 2008
• Loudon, B. 'Cyclone ‘is a sign of things to come,' The Australian, May 9, 2008