Given the fears set off by the agricultural disasters of the summer, the latest report on food prices from the United Nations has to be counted as good news. The Food and Agriculture Organization reported Thursday that global prices rose 1.4 percent in September from the previous month.
Prices increased only 1 percent in the all-important cereals sector, with gains in rice and wheat prices somewhat offset by a drop in corn prices. The overall figures suggest that the price run-ups that accompanied this summer’s weather problems in several producing countries – including the United States, the world’s largest grain exporter – are now largely factored into the market.
And, barring some fresh disaster early in the Southern Hemisphere’s growing season, it probably means we will get through this year without witnessing the peaks in global food prices seen in 2008 and 2011. Those, readers will recall, set off global unrest and prompted renewed commitmentsto agricultural development in poor countries.
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http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/a-modest-rise-in-global-food-prices/