According to an Associated Press (AP) report, food prices are soaring worldwide and we probably won’t see any relief for the next ten years.
Countries from Equador to Italy, Japan to Mexico are seeing food prices jump up astronomically. Many families are finding that the cannot feed their families. The poorest countries are the worst effective, but even is more prosperous countries, such as egypt and Italy, violence and protests over food prices are emerging.
AP reports: “’It’s not likely that prices will go back to as low as we’re used to,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, economist and secretary of the Intergovernmental Group for Grains for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.’”
Food subsidies from governments will be needed to get people through this period. The UN is requesting that donor countries step up their contributions to support the UN’s World Food Program, which is facing a $500 million shortfall.
While prices are expected to stabilize in the long term, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s preliminary projections predict that consumers will face at least ten more years of expensive food prices.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food prices are expected to rise another four percent.
Reasons for the high food prices worldwide include rising petroleum prices that have an effect on shipping food, the increase for the demand for meat in rapidly developing countries such as China and India (also contributing to a shortage of grain) and the demand for corn and other raw materials to manufacture biofuel. More and more countries are turning to biofuel because of the high price of oil, and this is leading to a shortage of corn sugar and soybeans for many years to come.
Because of these predictions, it is more important than ever to get your food bill under control. Use coupons, shop the loss leader sales and stockpile when you can. Cook from scratch and find ways of stretching your food resources.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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