BBC NEWS | Special Reports | The cost of food: Facts and figures

The cost of food: Facts and figures
Explore the facts and figures behind the rising price of food across the globe.

Line graphs showing rising food prices 2005-07 and price rises by food type, 2007

Graphic illustrating price rises in corn, rice, soya and wheat

As biofuels get the blame, the BBC provides a FAQ which provides some analyses into the real causes.

What are the main causes?

The first reason why prices are rising is growth in the world’s population, which is expected to top nine billion by the middle of the century.

That is an incredible number of mouths to feed and will put pressure on a range of resources, including land, water and oil, as well as food supply.

But lurking behind the headline figures for population is an even more significant factor pushing up prices, and that’s the economic miracle driving emerging economies such China and India.

To put it bluntly, rich people eat more than poor people, and all this economic growth is generating a whole new tier of middle-class consumers who buy more meat and processed food.

The FAO estimates that processed food now accounts for 80% of food and beverage sales.

What other factors are involved?

There is also the added environmental pressure all these extra people are loading onto the planet, as well as the impact of climate change.

Desertification is accelerating in China and sub-Saharan Africa, while more frequent flooding and changing patterns of rainfall are already beginning to have a significant impact on agricultural production.

And global warming has played a significant role in another driver of rising prices: the shift in agricultural production from food to biofuels.

Ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US corn crop by 2010, dramatically curtailing the amount of land available for food crops and pushing up the price of corn flour on international commodity markets.

So what is happening in India? The report argues that the real issue is the purchasing power of the poor and farm productivity.

There has never been an acute shortage of food in India, not even during the infamous famine in Bengal in 1943 in which more than 1.5 million people are estimated to have died of starvation.

The problem then – and now – is entitlement or access to food at affordable prices.

Given the low purchasing power of India’s poor, even a small increase in food prices contributes to a sharp fall in real incomes.

The current crisis in Indian agriculture is a consequence of many factors – low rise in farm productivity, unremunerative prices for cultivators, poor food storage facilities resulting in high levels of wastage.