Search

Food prices are soaring across the world. The causes are a complex mix of global and national factors and are not only related to disruptions through the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. Policy-makers and central banks need to counteract present food price inflation trends and fight the consequences to reverse the current trend of increasing global hunger, our authors maintain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article estimates a worldwide aggregate supply response for key agricultural commodities—wheat, rice, corn, and soybeans—by employing a newly-developed multi-country, crop-calendarspecific, seasonally disaggregated model with price changes and price volatility applied accordingly. The findings reveal that, although higher output prices serve as an incentive to improve global crop supply as expected, output price volatility acts as a disincentive. Depending on the crop, the results show that own-price supply elasticities range from about 0.05 to 0.40. Output price volatility, however, has negative correlations with crop supply, implying that farmers shift land, other inputs, and yield-improving investments to crops with less volatile prices. Simulating the impact of price dynamics since 2006, we find that price risk has reduced the production response of wheat in particular—and to a lesser extent, rice—thus dampening price incentive effects. The simulation analysis shows that the increase in own-crop price volatility from 2006–2010 dampened yield by about 1–2% for the crops under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapidly rising and more-volatile food prices of recent years are a significant indication of changes in global markets and a signal of resource scarcity. They pose new challenges in terms of food and nutrition security at the worldwide level. This article traces the main drivers and impacts of food price increases, and proposes institutional changes in the world food system to help overcome chronic supply constraints through enhanced productivity, combined with actions to address new causes of food price volatility, such as financialization of commodity markets and linkages to energy markets. The price crises of 2008 and 2011, and to a lesser extent in 2012, have been met with often, uncoordinated national policy adjustments with international implications. To prevent such collective actions failures in the international food system, comprehensive institutional changes are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ending food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition is a pressing global ethical priority. Despite differences in food production systems, cultural values and economic conditions, hunger is not acceptable under any ethical principles. Yet, progress in combating hunger and malnutrition in developing countries has been discouraging, even as overall global prosperity has increased in past decades. A growing number of people are deprived of the fundamental right to food, which is essential for all other rights as well as for human existence itself. The food and nutrition crisis has deepened in recent years, as increased food price volatility and global recession affected the poor. In a strategic agenda, it will be necessary to promote pro-poor agricultural growth, reduce extreme market volatility and expand social protection and child nutrition action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of EuroChoices is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The author reflects on the global credit crisis and its affect on food prices. He argues that the crisis will have long-lasting effects on people in emerging nations, impacting the people most in need. Topics include a discussion regarding investments in agricultural research and development (R&D), statistics related to the world's poor and the amount they spend on food, and ways in which food price bubbles can be avoided.

Highlights: [•] We analyze empirically the drivers of food price spikes and volatility. [•] Supply and demand fundamentals and speculation are significant drivers. [•] Financial crises increase food price volatility. [•] Speculation had a strong impact on maize and soybean price spikes in 2007/2008. [•] Food price volatility is increasingly affected by energy markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: National decision makers must understand the degree to which their country and population groups within it are exposed to the negative effects of higher global food prices or could exploit new economic opportunities offered by higher prices. This paper provides a conceptual overview of the range of data and analyses that will permit leaders and analysts serving them to assess the broad implications of higher global food prices for a country and its population groups. What we find is that there are a relatively small number of types of policy responses that governments might take in the face of a food price rise. Consequently, relatively well-defined sets of data need to be compiled and types of analyses used by government to generate the information needed to broadly guide efforts to prevent food price increases from becoming crises and to derive any possible benefits. International joint action can be employed profitably both to collect this data and to build national capacity to conduct the analyses needed to guide policy formulation and general program design in the face of the risks and the opportunities of higher food prices and to evaluate the effectiveness of those policy responses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]