Food Prices Go Up, Creating ‘Food Gaps’ in Poor Countries

<div style="text-align: center"><img src="/files/u2/feature2.jpg" title="photo" alt="photo" height="125" hspace="3" vspace="3" width="125" /></div>Just as food aid for developing countries is stagnating, food prices are rising. It's a troubling combination, <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February08/Features/RisingFood.htm" target="_blank">according to a recent article</a> published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. The ERS tells a now-familiar tale: Oil prices are up, rising food prices. Corn is increasingly used for fuel, not food. And so food prices, once declining, are now on the rise.<br /><br />What will happen as very poor countries are required to spend more of their incomes on imported food? The ERS projects that a "food gap" will increase in across the globe — the most in Latin America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, food aid donations have remained constant.<br /><br />One "silver lining" discovered by the ERS is the potential of biofuel production to help rural economies.