The fluctuations in fertilizer prices remained moderate over the last fifty years, apart from the 1974 and 2008 price surges, which coincided with the last two world food crises (see Chart 1). In November 1974 and in June 2008, emergency meetings werecalled at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome to review problems of food shortages in low-income countries. The first fertilizer price surge was sharp but short. The fertilizer price index tripled from 1973 to 1974; but the bubble burstquickly. By 1976, prices were slightly lower than they were in 1973. Will the 2008 fertilizer price surge end as the 1974 surge did?
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