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The Environmental Food Crisis
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 | The surge in food prices in the last years, following a century of decline, has been the
most marked of the past century in its magnitude, duration and the number of commodity
groups whose prices have increased. The ensuing crisis has resulted in a 50–200%
increase in selected commodity prices, driven 110 million people into poverty and added
44 million more to the undernourished. Elevated food prices have had dramatic impacts
on the lives and livelihoods, including increased infant and child mortality, of those already
undernourished or living in poverty and spending 70–80% of their daily income
on food. Key causes of the current food crisis are the combined effects of speculation in
food stocks, extreme weather events, low cereal stocks, growth in biofuels competing for
cropland and high oil prices. Although prices have fallen sharply since the peak in July
2008, they are still high above those in 2004 for many key commodities. The underlying
supply and demand tensions are little changed from those that existed just a few months
ago when these prices were close to all-time highs. |
| | Year of Publication: 2009 |
| | Author: UNEP |
| | ISBN No: 978-82-7701-054-0 |
| | Price US $: 25.00 |
| | Stock Number: 3767 |
| | PDF Available at: The Environmental Food Crisis |
| | Number of Pages: 104 |
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