Food Prices to Stay High Amid Underinvestment, Climate Change, IFAD Says

[phantom power]

Global food prices will remain high as underinvestment in agriculture over decades has left supplies unable to meet demand, according to a United Nations agency.

“We are just depleting our stocks and now we have this high population growth,” Kanayo F Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, said in an interview. “Prices won’t come down overnight. They are going to stay high for some time to come.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/food-prices-to-stay-high-amid-underinvestment-climate-change-ifad-says.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. Speculation is what's behind this. nt

[jwirr]

3. Speculation may be a part of it but with a drought and floods and

heat waves crops are not doing well. Add the rising price of transporting the foods all around the country and you do not need speculation to keep food prices high. And this is not just in the USA, it is world wide.

[NickB79]

2. "Some time to come"

Just curious, but what do they see at the end of this cycle (however long that might be) to bring prices back down?

[GliderGuider]

4. A decline in demand????

It's a nasty thought, but demand destruction is the only thing I see that will bring food prices back down.

[Nihil]

5. Trying to keep up hope?

> what do they see at the end of this cycle (however long that might be)
> to bring prices back down?

Maybe they recognise that they're not coming back down but want to push away
that point until people have got used to the higher prices as "the new normal"?

:shrug: