Global food prices are on the rise again. In January, the food price index (see Fig. 1) exceeded the level witnessed during the peak of the 2008 food crisis when rice prices nearly tripled. The second food crisis in 3 years has led to riots and protests in many developing countries and has raised a serious question among many whether cheap food has become a thing of the past. It is also worthwhile to note that the International Monetary Fund food price index had been on the rise long before the 2007-08 spike, and, in the last 10 years, the index has nearly doubled even without taking into account both the 2007-08 and the 2010 spikes. Many of those who brushed aside the 2008 food crisis as a one-off event primarily driven by commodity speculation and panic among major rice-growing countries have started looking at the severity of future global food insecurity.
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