2007–2008 world food price crisis

World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the first and second quarter of 2008,[1] creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations.

[27] These reports, therefore, conclude that usage in industrial, feed, and input intensive foods, not population growth among poor consumers of simple grains, has contributed to the price increases.

[citation needed] Destabilizing influences, including indiscriminate lending and real estate speculation, led to a crisis in January 2008 and eroded investment in food commodities.

The crisis can be seen, in a sense, to dichotomize rich and poor nations, since, for example, filling a tank of an average car with biofuel, amounts to as much maize (Africa's principal food staple) as an African person consumes in an entire year.

The report discusses some existing problems and potential risks and asks the Brazilian government for caution to avoid jeopardizing its environmental and social sustainability.

The report also says that: "Rich countries spent up to $15 billion last year supporting biofuels while blocking cheaper Brazilian ethanol, which is far less damaging for global food security.

"[58][59] (See Ethanol fuel in Brazil) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the rise in food prices is due to poor agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations, not biofuels as some critics claim.

[citation needed] However, a World Bank policy research working paper released in July 2008[52] says that biofuels have raised food prices between 70 and 75 percent.

[78] Other events that have negatively affected the price of food include the 2006 heat wave in California's San Joaquin Valley, which killed large numbers of farm animals, and unseasonable 2008 rains in Kerala, India, which destroyed swathes of grain.

The storm surge inundated rice paddies up to 30 miles (48 km) inland in the Irrawaddy Delta, raising concern that the salt could make the fields infertile.

[85] These countries in North Africa and Middle East consume over 150% of their own wheat production;[82] the failure of this staple crop thus adds a major burden on them.

According to him "60,000 km2/year of land becomes so severely degraded that it loses its productive capacity and becomes wasteland", and even more are affected to a lesser extent, adding to the crop supply problem.

Ozone levels in the Yangtze Delta were studied for their effect on oilseed rape, a member of the cabbage family that produces one-third of the vegetable oil used in China.

[94] As grain prices increased, China's numerous small-holding milk farmers, as well as producers of feed for cattle, were unable to exist economically.

[100] The price rises affected parts of Asia and Africa particularly severely with Burkina Faso,[101] Cameroon, Senegal, Mauritania, Côte d'Ivoire,[102] Egypt[103] and Morocco seeing protests and riots in late 2007 and early 2008 over the unavailability of basic food staples.

Other countries that have seen food riots or are facing related unrest are: Mexico, Bolivia, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh,[104] Pakistan,[105] Sri Lanka,[106] and South Africa.

[108] 10,000 workers rioted close to the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, smashing cars and buses and vandalising factories in anger at high food prices and low wages.

[114] Cameroon, the world's fourth largest cocoa producer, saw large scale rioting in late February 2008 in Douala, the country's commercial capital.

Protesters set up barricades, burned tires, and targeted businesses that they believed belonged to the Biya family, high members of the ruling party, the government, or France.

By 27 February, a strike was taking place in thirty-one cities, including Yaoundé, Douala, Bamenda, Bafoussam, Buea, Limbe, Tiko, Muea, Mutengene, and Kumba.

[118] On 31 March, Côte d'Ivoire's capital Abidjan saw police use tear gas and a dozen protesters injured following food riots that gripped the city.

[119] In Egypt, a boy was killed from a gunshot to the head after Egyptian police intervened in violent demonstrations over rising food prices that gripped the industrial city of Mahalla on 8 April 2008.

[122] On 12 April 2008, the Haitian Senate voted to dismiss Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis after violent food riots hit the country.

[128] In April 2008, the Latin American members of the United Nations' FAO met in Brasília to confront the issues of high food prices, scarcities and violence that affect the region.

So, no comparison..."[135] Comments by the Justice Secretary, Raul Gonzalez, the following day, that food riots are not far fetched, were quickly rebuked by the rest of the government.

Twenty-four people were arrested and detained in a response that one local human rights group claimed included "torture" and other "unspeakable acts" on the part of the security forces.

[citation needed] In 2008, The Christian Science Monitor, neweurasia, and other media observers predicted that a nascent hunger crisis would erupt into a full famine as a consequence of energy shortages at the time.

[144] Food riots in southern Yemen that began in late March and continued through early April, saw police stations torched, and roadblocks were set up by armed protesters.

[147] According to FAO director Jacques Diouf, however, the World Food Programme needed an immediate cash injection of at least $1700 million,[11] far more than the tens of million-worth in measures already pledged.

[159] The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, however, warned against "a false sense of security", noting that the credit crisis could cause farmers to reduce plantings.