Food Crisis (ecoworldly.com)

According to the World Bank, global food prices were 57% higher in March than in the same month of 2007. World rice prices have risen 96% and more for some types, between October 2007 and April 2008.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all food in the US is forecast to increase 3.5% to 4.5% in 2008, as retailers continue to pass on higher commodity and energy costs to consumers in the form of higher retail prices. The CPI for food increased 4.0% in 2007, the highest annual increase since 1990.
The total spent for all food consumed in the U.S. was $1,082.5 billion dollars in 2006, a 6.6 percent increase from $1,015.1 billion in 2005. Source: ERS Food Expenditure Data Series
India’s inflation accelerated to 7.41% in the week ended March 29, the quickest in more than three years, in the wake of the biting food crisis. India has since banned most exports of its rice as a precautionary measure to feed more of her people and avoid social unrest. In comparison, inflation in Vietnam rose 21.4% in April, the highest since 1992.
It has also been reported that price increases globally, up to the end of March 2008 were as follows: Wheat: 130%; Soya: 87%; Rice: 74%; Corn: 31%.
In efforts to alleviate suffering in poor nations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has upped spending on farming projects by 50% or US$240 million, from US$160 million in 2007.
Inflation in Britain, which has recently embraced increased biofuel usage by way of new regulations, climbed to 3.5% in March, up from 3.2% in February 2008.
Global development aid devoted to agriculture have fallen to just 4%. The World Bank’s agricultural development financing, through its agencies, has steadily dropped over the years from a peak of 30% in 1980 to only 12% in 2007.
Around 30% of the United States’ corn production will be used to produce biofuels by 2010.
UN’s World Food Programme has an estimated funding shortfall of US$500 million to enable it feed the world’s poor and already global charities have cut their food supplies by 73%, effectively keeping 73 million people even hungrier.
By 2050, world population will have grown to 9.2 billion people, compared to current figures of just under 7 billion.