Latin American Food Summit

Posted by Timothy Dzurilla May 30, 2008

A world summit on the issue is planned for Tuesday in Rome, where world leaders hope to find some solutions to the increasing food crisis.

Yesterday, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development published a report warning that food prices may not decrease for another decade as global consumption trends acclimatize to new demands and shifting eating habits globally.

The World Bank reports a global rise of 83% in food costs as a result of new eating trends (such as the increased consumption of meat in the quickly emerging economies of China and India), demand for bio-fuels, severe droughts and floods attributed to global climate change and deforestation, and skyrocketing cost of oil (and therefore the cost of transportation of produce).

The results of this have been as benign as an increase in Spam and Ramen noodle sales in the United States to violent riots in Haiti costing the lives of dozens.

Some of the most recent proposed solutions have been re-examining the illegality of genetically modified foods in Great Britain, a "fat tax" on high calories foods in the United States, and shifting to different staple crops such as potatoes in corn and rice dependent societies.

The World Bank recently gave $1.2 billion in food grants to augment the sums already approved by many developed nations to help offset the unaffordable costs in developing nations.