Food Prices Keep Edging Up. Potatoes to the Rescue, Again?
Well, food prices have been rising for some time, as I’m sure you have noticed at your local mega-mart. Unfortunately (the dismal in dismal science), these prices reflect the reality of world prices, and the world’s poor are feeling it much more than you. Even rice prices are going up, as global rice reserves are at a 25 year low. Indeed, the Philippines retail food sector is HALVING rice portions to help ease demand. As potatoes have served the role for centuries, the UN is looking to them to help fill in the gap that they are experiencing over at the World Food Programme. Make no mistake about it, this is a serious situation (people are dying waiting for bread in Egypt). Will there be riots? Hopefully it will not come to that.
For those who don’t know, this is the kind of stuff that got me interested in economics. Lots of people want to get all hand-wavy with the “right to food” stuff. I don’t necessarily disagree with that, but capacity (aka capabilities) is important, and capacity is where human rights meets economics (among other things). [BSG, The Wire, Hero, you just like being depressed, don't you? uhh...]
