Rising Food Prices Affect Everyone
credit: Bob Jagendorf
World food prices are on the rise, and consumers are beginning to feel the pinch. The rising cost of flour has made the price of bread and cereals begin to climb, higher meat prices have caused many third world consumers to up their vegetable consumption, and now increased rice costs in Asia are cause for concern and, in some cases, riots.
In the Philippines, activists wait with baited breath to see if hungry citizens will pile into the streets, protesting the growing costs of their favorite staple. Rice is the way they feed their bellies and nourish their children, and costs have more than doubled since 2004 and have increased 50% in just the last two months, a phenomena that echoes problems also seen in other parts of the world.
Experts blame rising fertilizer and fuel prices, which have caused not only production costs to rise, but also food transportation expenses to steadily climb. Though many haven’t noticed the slow increase, the neediest are always the first to feel the pinch. And, sadly, though aid organizations’s budgets have remained stagnant, the quantity of food that they have been able to distribute to the world’s citizens has been significantly decreased.
Though shelf prices are significantly higher, farmers around the world report that their profits are actually decreasing, which only adds to the problem. Pests attack crops, exporters pay less, and underpaid workers are feeling stressed. And everyone, both first world and third world, are beginning to struggle to put necessities on the table. For many, the only answer to is begin rearranging their tables and start re-budgeting their grocery lists.
Tags: Budgeting | Economy & Business News | Food Prices | Philippines
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under Economy & Business News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
