Spectre of food rationing hits US

The spectre of food rationing arose in America today as retailers began imposing limits on rice and flour sales following bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing global prices for staple foods.
Wal-Mart’s cash-and-carry division, Sam’s Club, announced that it would only sell a maximum of four bags of rice per person to prevent supplies from [...]

American retailers ration rice in response to global food crisis

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German Farmers Threaten to Suspend Milk Deliveries

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The Role of Speculators in the Global Food Crisis

Spiegel
Vast amounts of money are flooding the world’s commodities markets, driving up prices of staple foods like wheat and rice. Biofuels and droughts can’t fully explain the recent food crisis — hedge funds and small investors bear some responsibility for global hunger.
Not long ago, Dwight Anderson welcomed reporters with open arms. He liked to entertain [...]

Africa’s food shortage knows no bounds

The United Nations’ food agencies in Rome are now openly warning that food shortages threaten famine in the poorest African countries, among them Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal. But what about the wealthier African countries? Is all well there?
For an answer, I asked my friend Yussuf Kajenje, a former journalist and father of three who [...]

Haitian food crisis sending refugees to the sea

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Years of poor decisions created food crisis: FAO

Poor policy decisions over the past two decades have combined to create the current food crisis and resources must now be focused on the 2008 harvest, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday.
The United Nations has warned that millions of people are threatened by hunger around the world because of [...]

A vicious circle of misery

In El Salvador’s markets, the buzz of bargaining once echoed in the narrow streets as ordinary people tried to stretch their meagre budgets and fill their families’ stomachs for another day.
Now, anger and silence have overtaken the marketplace, as the price of the most basic staples – rice, corn, flour, beans – has rocketed out [...]

Brown sounds retreat on biofuels

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The Seeds of Disaster

Washington Post
For consumers and businesses in the United States and Europe, bubbling inflation and rising oil prices bring varying degrees of hardship, producing a nuisance for some and raising solvency issues for others. Elsewhere in the world, these factors threaten more existential consequences. World Bank data show rising commodity prices have prompted a dramatic spike [...]