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July 25, 2008 5:34:09 PM CDT

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Rice Is the New Oil

Posted Apr 27, 08 3:31 PM CDT in World,  US 

(Newser) – Even as the burgeoning price of oil slaps consumers at the pump, a darker global market crisis looms as rising commodities prices compound the pressures of poverty worldwide. The UN has said that spiking food prices have started "a silent tsunami threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger." Newsweek investigates the causes, which are both complicated and simple.

Crop failures are part of it, as are the fuel prices that drive up the costs of transport and fertilization. Investor speculation has played a role, as has government policy, but the main driving factor is increased demand. Rising standards of living in places such as India and China mean that more people are eating better, and more, than ever before.

Source Newsweek

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Inflation at the wholesale level in the U.S. soared in March at nearly triple the rate that had been expected as the costs of energy and food both climbed rapidly.   (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
World rice prices have risen sharply this year because of growing demand and poor weather in some rice-producing countries.   (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)
Bags of jasmine rice are shown on a shelf at 22nd & Irving Market in San Francisco, Friday, April 25, 2008. U.S. rice futures have hit a record high amid global food inflation.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Kashmiri children eat rice outside a roadside hotel in Srinagar, India. Some Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, recently suspended rice exports to guarantee their own supplies.   (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
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China  • United Nations  • India  • food  • food prices  • poverty  • hunger  • speculation  • rice prices  • hunger riots


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