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Tag Archives: food prices
A Tale of Two Studies
Don Mitchell of the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group has released an official version of his analysis of biofuels’ impact on the rise in global food prices. An early version of the study was leaked to the Guardian in London on July 4. Mitchell attributes 70 to 75 percent of the increase in food commodities prices to “biofuels and the related consequences of low grain stocks, large land use shifts, speculative activity and export bans.” Read More >
Purdue University Weighs In on What’s Driving Food Prices
The Farm Foundation recently released a report prepared by Purdue University agricultural economists on the forces driving food price increases. They conclude that higher food prices are the result of the complex interaction of global changes in supply and demand for commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, as well as growth in production of biofuels. According to the authors, these factors have combined to rapidly raise demand for U.S. grains beyond current production, leading Read More >
Not a Secret After All
On Friday July 4, The Guardian newspaper of London published a story (“Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis”) about a “confidential,” unpublished World Bank report it had obtained purportedly demonstrating that biofuels are responsible for 75 percent of the global rise in food prices. “The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body,” according to The Guardian. In Read More >
Food Supply Will Meet Demand
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and OECD released their annual Agricultural Outlook yesterday. It makes a strong case for increasing global agricultural production by increasing yield on existing acres – one of many solutions biotech can help provide. Adverse weather conditions in major grain-producing regions, coupled with low stocks, were enough to trigger the current sharp rises in food prices even if all other factors were equal. Productivity gains from increased yields will Read More >
Will the Press Set the Record Straight?
Last week, Roll Call revealed that the Grocery Manufacturers Association paid for a PR campaign aimed at blaming high food prices on biofuels (call it the ‘vast chicken wing conspiracy’). But since the revelation, there’s been very little effort in the press to set the record straight. The USDA this week held a press conference to tell reporters the true causes of food price increases. And on Tuesday this week, Michael W. Masters, Managing Member Read More >
