Food prices soaring worldwide

iPedro · by **iPedro** on Thu, Mar 27 2008, 9:30 PM

By KATHERINE CORCORAN, Associated Press Staff Writer
Mon Mar 24, 1:51 PM ET

If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.

From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.

The world's poorest nations still harbor the greatest hunger risk. Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.

But food protests now crop up even in Italy. And while the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.

"It's not likely that prices will go back to as low as we're used to," said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Currently if you're in Haiti, unless the government is subsidizing consumers, consumers have no choice but to cut consumption. It's a very brutal scenario, but that's what it is."

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caker · by **caker** on Thu, Mar 27 2008, 9:45 PM

That's for sure!! I went grocery shopping today, you look here and there and it seems like everything is going up every week anywhere from $.50 to $1. It would be different I suppose if I could say the 'quality' is better, but it isn't and if you notice some things are shrinking (volume, weight), while the price is going up, so it isn't as though you are 'getting more for your money.' I definitely wonder how much worse it will get before it gets better. :jumm:

I don't know about elsewhere, but out here there seems to be some pretty serious talk about truckers striking because of the price of fuel-oh my goodness.

ur1nonly · by **ur1nonly** on Thu, Mar 27 2008, 11:37 PM

yup... everything is going up and it sucks. seems like they're hitting the right spot... our wallets! the ways the come up with to keep taking our money so easily

Food prices soaring worldwide

Food prices soaring worldwide

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