Title: World Food Crisis: What's Behind It What We Can Do -World Hunger News
Headings: The world food crisis: what is behind it and what we can do
The world food crisis: what is behind it and what we can do
The root causes
The population factor
Regional free trade agreements and the World Trade Organization
The United States: growing the crisis at home
The grocery bill
Food banks: canaries in the mineshaft
Are Farmers Benefiting?
Food, finance and speculation: bailing our way out of crises?
Solving the food crisis—fixing the food system
Localize food power!
1) Support domestic food production internationally based on social, ecological, and economic justice and the right to healthy food.
2) Stabilize and guarantee fair prices to farmers, workers, and consumers by re-establishing floor prices and publicly-owned national grain reserves at home and abroad.
3) Halt agrofuels expansion.
4) Re-regulate finance sector investment in food commodities.
5) Promote a return to smallholder farming.
6) Support Agro-ecological and locally-based approaches to food production and food system management.
7) Food sovereignty: democratize the food system!

Content: The U.S. Department of Agriculture claims agrofuels are responsible for anywhere from 5-20% of grain price increases. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has put it at 30%. A leaked World Bank report claimed it was 75%. Speculation —deregulation and poor oversight have contributed to the speculative bubbles in the futures markets. Following the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, investors searched for places to put their money. When they saw food prices going up, they poured investments into commodities futures, pumping up the price of grains and worsening food price inflation. The root causes
The food crisis is a symptom of a food system in crisis. Bad weather, high oil prices, agrofuels, and speculation are only the proximate causes of a deeper, systemic problem. The root cause of the crisis is a global food system that is highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shock. This vulnerability springs from the risks, inequities, and externalities inherent in food systems that are dominated by a global industrial agri-foods complex.