The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the price of a “basket” of food commodities is at its highest point since the FAO started keeping record in 1990. The previous all time high was last month. This month’s record is 2.2 percent above that.
The food price index measures a compilation of the prices of several different kinds of basic food commodities, like meat, cereal, sugar, dairy, etc. This is the eighth consecutive month that prices have increased. And it would seem that there is no sign that food prices will level off anytime soon; rising oil prices tend to also push up food commodity prices because the cost of shipments increases. With $100/barrel of oil, we can only expect food prices to continue to increase to new record highs.
We are, I would think, not at the worst of it yet. We really ought to be bracing ourselves for a serious humanitarian emergency in the coming months.