(October 10, 2011) Food prices are likely to become more volatile in coming years,
increasing the risk that more poor people in import-dependent countries will go hungry,
the United Nations said in an annual report on food insecurity published on Monday.
Global food price indices hit record highs in February and were a factor in the Arab
Spring of unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Prices have since eased but
the U.N. report said economic uncertainty, low cereal reserves, closer links between
energy and agriculture markets and rising risks of weather shocks were likely to cause
more dramatic price swings in the future. "Food price volatility featuring high prices
is likely to continue and possibly increase," the Food and Agriculture Organisation,
FAO, the World Food Programme WFP, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development,
IFAD, said in the joint report. It noted that demand from consumers in rapidly growing
economies will increase, population continues to grow, and further growth in biofuels,
that displace food crops, will place additional demands on the food system. The report
said that poor farmers and consumers in small importer countries, particularly in
Africa, would be more vulnerable to shortages as a result. It said short-term price
swings had long-term impacts on development, depriving young children in vulnerable
areas of key nutrients, which permanently cut their future earning capacity and increase
their likelihood of remaining poor. The report found that many African countries
and other import-dependent regions continued to suffer problems caused by the world
food and economic crises of 2006-2008. And it said crises such as the current famine
in the Horn of Africa were challenging the U.N. goal of cutting the number of people
suffering hunger to roughly 600 million people by 2015, compared to 1.02 billion in
2009.