Food That can’t be right!
Amid the bad news that has caught us backfooted and flailing of late comes this: according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, world food prices are at a 15-year low, driven thence by bumper harvests and vast stockpiles, and marking the longest period of decline since you wore Doc Martens and patchouli. In September, prices fell again, for the sixth consecutive month, with sugar and dairy produce showing the biggest price drops, followed by cereals and oil. And before you get all Old Testament on us, warning of locusts and blight, this situation is good for another couple of years, with wheat production, just for example, heading for a new record in 2014. Overall, cereal production is expected to total 2.5 billion tons this year, an upward revision of 65 million tons from the initial FAO forecast in May.
Comment: Which suggests they have many, many economists working there.