Japan is a market pioneer again: the first industrialised nation with no butter

The manager of the Z-one supermarket, five minutes from Prada’s flagship store and in the heart of Tokyo’s chicest residential area, shrugs her shoulders and suggests margarine.
Japan, she says apologetically, has nearly exhausted its butter reserves. When the shop will next have any, she whispers, is anybody’s guess.
Even as the elderly shopkeeper explains the acute [...]

Haiti: Once-Vibrant Farming Sector in Dire Straits

Student activists in Haiti are calling for an overhaul of the nation’s agriculture policies, which they say have resulted in Haiti importing more than half of its food while local farmers are mired in poverty.

Pakistan: poverty unveiled

Here

Global Hot Spots of Hunger Set to Explode

As food prices continue to escalate worldwide, some of the poorest nations in the developing world are in danger of social and political upheavals.
The unrest, which is likely to spread to nearly 40 countries, has been triggered largely by a sharp increase in the prices of staple commodities, including wheat, rice, sorghum, maize and soybeans, [...]

Food crunch

World food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and the prices of most food crops are at a record high. Global cereal prices are expected to remain high in 2008 mainly because of drought-like conditions in major cereal exporting countries and low world stocks, warns the latest Food Outlook report of FAO.
The [...]

Sugar prices could more than double in two years

Here.

US chicken company renews attack on fuel ethanol

US poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride on Monday launched a new attack against the US ethanol industry, saying it has hurt the chicken industry by making corn feed unaffordable.
“Soaring feed ingredient costs fuelled by the federal government’s misguided ethanol policy has created a crisis in our industry,” said CEO Clint Rivers.
The company said it plans to reduce weekly chicken [...]

Europe Defends Biofuels as Debate Rages

DW
Europe defended biofuels against charges that their production is a “crime against humanity” that threatens global food supplies. Yet pressure continues to mount for the European Union to back off on its biofuel targets.
 
The European Union said it is sticking to its biofuel goals despite mounting criticism from top environmental agencies and poverty advocates.
“There is [...]

Food stamps for Russian poor

Russia could introduce vouchers for bread for low income citizens – in order to protect them from price increase.
Although the country’s staple food prices remain officially frozen until May 1, the cost of bread and other basic food items has still been rising.
In Russia’s Far Eastern region of Sakhalin the price of a loaf of [...]

Bangladesh: Rice price stabilises but shortages continue

Here.