Food Prices Are Soaring Everywhere!Between 2005 and 2008, average world prices for rice rose by 217%. As it pertains to wheat, the recent droughts and wildfires in Russia caused the government to ban grain exports for the remainder of the year, which in turn caused wheat prices worldwide to spike. Although the recent downturn in the economy took pressure off rising food prices as demand decreased slightly, rising incomes all over the world and increased food consumption, particularly in China and India, have resulted in a new demand/supply equilibrium: prices have adapted upwards.
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Increasing food prices can in part be attributable to an increase in the costs of inputs required to produce food such as energy, land, seed and fertilizers. Several years ago, the U.S. and Europe began promoting ethanol research, giving farmers financial incentives to sell corn and other crops for use in biofuels. However, corn ended up being used to try to help cars run more efficiently rather than in the production of food. As a result, there is less corn product to meet customer demands for consumable corn.
As mentioned previously, large populations in India and China have recently found themselves with enough disposable income to purchase meats and other pricey foods. In economics, this principle is known as
Engel’s law, which states that the healthier a country’s economy, the more food its population consumes. A rise in the demand for meat means an increase in meat prices and an increase in meat production. This raises the demand for produce which is used to feed farm animals. Developing countries such as India and China are even harder hit by high food prices because of their inability to produce food domestically and their resulting reliance on imports. Finally, weather patterns affect the price of food. Droughts, floods and wildfires have all caused food harvests to be affected, decreasing supply. Many experts worry that these environmental occurrences are symptoms of climate change.
The globalization that is endemic to modern commodity markets makes some speculation inevitable, but it's not just speculation that's driving global food prices.