Viewing food prices from a global perspective

Since I like to think about agriculture from both a global and local (and everything in between) perspective, I thought that this article was very interesting. World bodies say global food prices to rise

I found this fact from the article astounding - "Food consumption in developing countries has grown by up to 30 percent a year over the past decade as incomes rose, while consumption in developed countries changed little, the agencies [U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] said."

We focus on obesity and reducing food consumption in the US, but food consumption is increasing in the world. And this is not due to shear numbers of people alone. People in developing countries are using their increased income to purchase more food.

Even as many in our rural communities support local farming operations, the world is still very much connected and market prices will continue to be driven by forces beyond our community.