U.N. says markets are to blame for world food crisis

[Hannah Bell]

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Global investment funds and the weak dollar are largely to blame for high world food prices, a senior official of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday.

"The crisis is a speculative attack and it will last," said Jose Graziano, the UN food and farm organization's regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"This is not a conspiracy theory," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080410/wl_nm/brazil_un_food_dc

[MissHoneychurch]

1. I doubt that

it has more to do with China and India growing so fast and starting to eat "Western" food. Also it has to do with biofuel. It brings money, therefor farmers prefer to grow the stuff for that instead of growing stuff for food.

[Hannah Bell]

2. Sorry, you're wrong. China is basically self-sufficient in wheat & rice,

two of the three grains that have spiked the most, & India does pretty well.

Look at the ag statistics. Last year was a record global rice harvest, & last year's wheat harvest was better than 2006's.

If you start looking at the data: USDA, FAO - there's no shortage of grain.