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The price of food: ingredients of a global crisis
Prices are surging for food commodities worldwide, posing a tough policy challenge for developing countries - can they protect poor consumers without crushing new opportunities for farmers?
Heidi
Fritschel is a writer and editor.
This
article is also published on the website of the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Poor
consumers across the globe are protesting
about their rising food bills. In December 2007, Mexicans rioted in
response to an enormous jump in tortilla prices, which quadrupled in
some parts of the country; in January 2008, Indonesians took to the
streets to protest high soybean prices; in February, protesters in
three major towns in Burkina
Faso,
angry about the rising cost of food and other basic goods, attacked
government offices and shops; unrest linked to food markets has
occurred also in Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan,
and Yemen.






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