Posted on 10/29/2007 4:28:25 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Rising food prices are likely to force some developing countries to follow Russia's example and impose retail price controls to avoid social unrest, the United Nations' top agriculture official has warned.
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, said food prices had become an "even more serious problem" in the past few weeks as wholesale price increases began to be passed on to consumers.
"Many [countries] will have to take hard decisions because of the impact of food prices on their populations," Mr Diouf told the Financial Times. "In some countries there will be price controls, some will scrap import tariffs on food to minimise the impact of rising costs and others will increase food subsidies."
Russia is introducing price controls on some basic foods in an effort to prevent spiralling prices from denting the Putin administration's popularity ahead of parliamentary polls in December. The country's biggest food retailers and producers reached an agreement to freeze prices at October 15 levels on selected types of bread, cheese, milk, eggs and vegetable oil until the end of the year.
Morocco recently cut wheat import tariffs and Egypt has increased food subsidies. Food price inflation in developing countries has risen in the past year to a rate of about 11 per cent while non-food inflation runs at a rate of about 7 per cent, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.
Russia's move is the latest sign of surging agricultural prices becoming an international political issue. Food prices are rising, in some cases to record highs, on strong demand from developing countries; a rising global population; more frequent floods and droughts caused by climate change; and the biofuel industry's appetite for grains.
"If prices continue to rise, I would not be surprised if we began to see food riots," Mr Diouf said, noting that in the past year Mexico, Yemen and Burkina Faso had witnessed social unrest because of high food prices.
The FAO's food price index has risen to its highest level since its inception in 1990. Wheat and milk prices reached a record high this summer while other agricultural commodities, such as corn and meat, are trading well above their 1990s price averages.
The FAO estimates that low-income, food-importing countries will spend about $28.1bn (£13.7bn, €19.5bn) between July 2007 and June 2008 importing staples such as wheat, rice and corn, up almost 15 per cent from a year earlier and double what it cost in 2000.
At the FAO's annual meeting in Rome next month, Mr Diouf will propose a "high level conference on world food security" that would aim to agree on measures to cool down rising food prices.
"The problem right now is that domestic and short-term considerations are driving agriculture policy," he said.
Oh right, price controls. Those always work, right?
Yeah, price controls really worked out well for the Soviet Union, huh?
Ol' Pooty-poot, still a commie at heart with not a clue about economics.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you make people burn food for fuel instead of oil for fuel, there is going to be less food and hence higher priced food.
Who do higher prices hurt first? Why, of course it is the poor that these same people always claim to care so much about.
The Law of Unintended Consequences wins again.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Well, if there is supposed to be a right to “affordable” housing and health care, I didn’t expect there to be much lag before those same socialists started clamoring for “affordable” food.
Mass starvation is not an Unintended Consequence of socialism - it is one of the many benefits!
They do always work, if you like shortages.
Soylent Green is plentiful and nutritious...
Food price controls, followed by . . . ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . (wait for it) . . . three . . . two . . . one
FAMINE!!
Well, those that commented earlier pretty much said the same thing that I was going to say.
So, let me just add this:
Part of the problem of rising food prices everywhere, and ESPECIALLY in Mexico is due to ethanol production.
I’m all for alternative energy sources, but when you turn one of the more efficient food sources (for people and for feeding our meat, dairy and egg producing animals) into a fairly inefficient fuel source and government mandates its use in vehicle fuels, the cost of everything goes up all that much more than it would due to normal economic forces.
If something is as predictable as the sunrise, can you really call it an “unintended” consequence?
Darn, Now you beat me to what I thought might be sort of an original comment (for this thread).
I wasn’t copying, honest. One of those GMTA situations*.
*Great Minds Think Alike; But some great minds type slower than others ;-)
don’t we have a problem with too much corn in the form of HFCS and the wrong omega 6 to omega 3 ratio?
Not even one word about increased cost of production.
RE: “The Law of Unintended Consequences wins again.”
Your assessment with regards to the idiocy of making fuel from food stocks is correct.
There is perhaps one flaw in your conclusion however with regard to “The Law of Unintended Consequences”
You are too generous.
If it it is in the elitist’s intention to eliminate all but around a half a billion people on the planet (which I think is likely).
Starvation, disease, war... are all ways of arrive at that number.. with starvation being one of the easier to achieve.
So the consequences of such policies which incite or perpetuate those things are likely well known and fully intended..
W
Because people love food shortages.
Maybe so, but that’s a whole different subject, only peripherally related to the topic at hand IMHO.
Nutritional ‘perfection’ becomes a rather distant goal for most people when they can’t afford to buy their staple foods.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.