WalletYou may have noticed that your bill from the local grocery store has been on the rise. This is because commodities worldwide have been on the rise. There are many factors that explain this increase in prices and a few of the major issues are outlined here in this New York Times article by Paul Krugman. He writes: “Cheap food, like cheap oil, may be a thing of the past.”

Emily Previti of the Press of Atlantic City writes:

“The average price of bread - $1.32 per loaf - has increased by nearly 32 percent during the last three years. Goods that contain wheat and soybean oil will continue to rise in 2008 by between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent, according to the Economic Research Service, a service offered by the USDA. “

In her article “Bread, milk, egg prices spike, draining locals’ wallets,” she writes about how Americans in her area are changing their habits to adapt to the rising costs of food.

But what about people in other countries?

“This is the new face of hunger, increasingly affecting communities that had previously been protected. Inevitably, it is the “bottom billion” who are hit hardest: people living on one dollar a day or less. When people are that poor, and inflation erodes their meager earnings, they generally do one of two things: They buy less food, or they buy cheaper, less nutritious food. The result is the same — more hunger and less chance of a healthy future”
says Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the UN in his Washington Post article, “The New Face Of Hunger”

How are increased food costs affecting you and are there ways that we, as a community, can confront this issue effectively?

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