For HungerWednesday, we have this insightful interview over at grains.org, of Timothy Lang, a Professor of Food Policy at City University in London and a leading authority on food.  “The steep rise in the price of basic food commodities on the world market this year came as no surprise to him, for he has been warning for some time that the world is “sleepwalking into a crisis”.
So, Professor Lang, is the crisis you predicted finally upon us?
Well, there is quite a lively debate about that. Some analysts say that the world is currently only experiencing a “blip” and that the rise in prices is temporary. Once the crisis has passed, the long term decline in commodity prices will continue. Indeed, history seems to be on the side of “blip” theorists. If you look at US wheat prices from 1860 to 2000, there were occasional “blips”, when prices rose sharply in response to a short-term crisis of one kind or another (during the First and Second World Wars, and in the early 1970s). But once those crises were over, prices resumed their long-term decline. “Blip” theorists say that this is what will happen now.
Continue reading Mr. Tim Langs interview about the food crisis…