This past year, food prices have […] skyrocketed, causing hardships among the poor and large shifts in income between countries and between rural and urban areas.
The most basic reason for the rise in natural resource prices is strong growth, especially in China and India, which is hitting against the physical limits of land, timber, oil and gas reserves, and water supplies.
There is an urgent imperative to raise food productivity in poor countries, especially in Africa, which needs its own "Green Revolution" to double or tipple its food production in the coming few years. Otherwise, the world's extreme poor will be hardest hit by the combination of rising world food prices and long-term climate change.
From the Daily Star [subscription required].
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