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Hot Topics: Food Prices

Food prices have surged in the past few years, and in recent months inflation has sparked riots, hoarding and economic sanctions around the globe.

The following sources will discuss the rapid increases of some local necessities in the past year.

Selected articles

Due to contractual arrangements, access to some articles may be restricted to the Stanford community, and subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of the ideas expressed.

 

Recovery carries risk of food price surge, says FAO. Financial Times, 11/16/09
Conditions are ripe for a fresh surge in food prices as the global economy recovers, says the senior United Nations agriculture official, write Javier Blas in Rome and Vincent Boland in Milan.
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Europe Tackles Creaky Food Supply Chain. BusinessWeek, 11/2/09
To ease the often inefficient flow of foodstuffs "from farm to fork," Brussels is proposing to improve contracts, transparency, and monitoring.
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Food Prices Likely to Start Ticking Up. New York Times, 8/25/09
Prices for beef, milk, eggs and some other grocery items have been dropping for several months, providing relief for consumers who suffered through the steep increases of a year ago.
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Food prices still rising in many poor countries. Reuters, 4/23/09
Poor countries are still struggling with rising food prices, despite sharp falls in international markets and a plentiful global supply of cereals, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned.
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The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. Congressional Budget Office, 4/2009
This paper discusses the relationship between ethanol, greenhouse-gas emissions, food prices, and federal spending on nutrition programs.
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Grocers, name-brand food producers at odds over prices. Los Angeles Times, 3/2/09
Supermarkets complain that giant food manufacturers' wholesale prices have risen even as commodity costs have fallen.
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Fluctuating Food Commodity Prices: A Complex Issue With No Easy Answers. Oregon Wheat, February 2009
The article discusses the issues concerning the rapid increase of food commodity prices in the U.S.
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Grocery inflation likely to ease in 2009. Chicago Tribune, 12/26/08
Though some crop prices have fallen dramatically, it can take 6 months for the costs to work their way to store shelves.
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Food Prices Expected to Keep Going Up. New York Times, 11/26/08
While prices for some items like milk and fresh produce are dropping, those of most packaged items and meat are holding firm or even increasing.
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Power to the People. Foreign Policy, Nov/Dec 2008
In this article the author examines issues connected with the global increase in the cost of food as it stood in 2008.
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To Counter Problems of Food Aid, Try Spuds. New York Times, 10/25/08
With governments having trouble feeding the growing number of hungry poor and grain prices fluctuating wildly, food scientists are proposing a novel solution for the global food crisis: Let them eat potatoes.
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Don't Blame Biofuels for Food Crisis. Wired, 10/7/08
Biofuels have contributed far less to rising food prices than previously estimated, a new United Nations report's data suggests.
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Food Costs Feed Health Woes. WSJonline, 9/2/08
For Many Relying on Nutritional-Support Groups, Better Diet Is Getting Too Expensive.
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High Food Prices A Two-Edged Sword For Farmers. NPR, 8/7/08
For many Third World farmers, the world has turned upside down. They used to complain about low prices, which made it hard to earn a living.
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More Articles

Hoarding Nations Drive Food Costs Ever Higher. New York Times, 6/30/08
At least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure that their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices.
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World News: World Bank Fund Targets Food-Price Surge. Wall Street Journal, 5/30/08
According to a 73-page paper released Thursday by the FAO and the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, high food prices will let farmers invest more and improve yields in Asia and Latin America but will also lead to more severe food shortages in parts of Africa.
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Why the World Can't Afford Food. Time, 5/19/08
The article discusses the global causes of the high prices for food.
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High Prices for Staple Foods Dip, but Volatile Markets Persist. New York Times, 5/9/08
After months of startling increases, the prices of rice, wheat, soybeans and several other foods have come down recently, a development that could ease some of the panic in global food markets.
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Sourcing Peril Looms From Strife Over Food, Energy Prices. WWD, 4/21/08
Labor unrest over soaring food and energy prices could soon trigger a spike in global apparel sourcing costs, forcing companies to raise wages to stave off starvation and rioting.
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'Silent Tsunami': The Food Price Crisis. ABC News, 4/20/08
Millions of People Worldwide Face Starvation Because of Rising Food Prices
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The new face of hunger. Economist, 4/17/08
Global food shortages have taken everyone by surprise. What is to be done?
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Business: Tightening belts; The food industry. Economist, 4/12/08
The food industry is being squeezed from all sides. Last year prices for milk, eggs, corn, wheat, oils and almost all other edible commodities climbed to unprecedented levels.
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FarmEcon LLC President: High Food Prices Linked to Ethanol Industry's Corn Demand. BioFuels Journal, 4/7/08
Soaring food prices in the United States are caused in part by $25 billion per year in unnecessary costs imposed on food producers by the federally subsidized ethanol industry, which is itself teetering on the brink of contraction due to rampant over-expansion and higher corn prices, an agricultural economist told food writers at a meeting.
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Some Good News on Food Prices. New York Times, 4/2/08
WHILE grocery shoppers agonize over paying 25 percent more for eggs and 17 percent more for milk, Michael Pollan, the author and de facto leader of the food intellectuals, happily dreams of small, expensive bottles of Coca-Cola.
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Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits. Guardian, 2/26/08
Huge budget deficit means millions more face starvation.
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Page updated by: [icon- email] Nora Richardson