The Causing Factors of the Food Crisis
To a great extent, the increase in food prices has obviously been attributed to global markets. Global markets have now played an important role in determining local prices since more often various food are made available by importing from far away. Prices of imported food prices could therefore be subjected to any increase in fuel prices. Additionally, modern food production also relies on petroleum-based product such as fertilizers or petroleum-dependent technology such as farm equipment and transportation.
Shortages and soaring prices for edible oil such as palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils have also made food more costly. Corporate farming has also exerted enormous impact on food availability when conversion of cropland from food production to growing raw materials, such as corn, for ethanol production takes place. The biofuel craze driven by high profitability has taken arable land away from food production that ultimately results in increase food prices. On one hand, farmers who grew rice and other food staples have also switched switching to more profitable cash crops or driven to sell off agricultural land for other money- making uses.
Indeed, there are many factors and reasons that contribute to the underlying cause of the current food crisis. In Haiti and Egypt, for example, no scarcity in food was reported. However, it has been the high prices that made the food in accessible to the masses. On the contrary, the