The U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization reported that global food prices rose to a record high in January.
“Poor families in the underdeveloped countries spend up to 80 percent of their
income on food” (cnn.com, Feb. 3) The rising cost of food has pushed some 44
million people into poverty since June 2010, according to the World Bank.
The FAO food index, which measures the cost of a basket of basic food supplies,
rose by 3.4 percent last month. This is the seventh consecutive monthly
increase, and the highest level reached since records began in 1990. According
to the World Bank’s Food Price Watch, prices have increased 15 percent between
Oct. 2010 and Jan. 2011, and are 29 percent higher than a year ago. The food
prices are unlikely to decrease in the coming months.
Increasing food prices and
starving people are a result of the inherent inequality within global
capitalism, as well as the depreciating U.S. dollar and most other currencies.
