Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Program is quoted thus: “We’re concerned that we are facing the perfect storm for the world’s hungry.” She said that her agency’s food procurement costs had gone up 50 percent in the last five years and that some poor people were being “priced out of the food market.”

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization was quoted as suggesting that: “…all countries and international agencies would have to “revisit” agricultural and aid policies they had adopted “in a different economic environment.” For example, with food and oil prices approaching records, it may not make sense to send food aid to poorer countries…...” End quote.

The spike in food prices is also not so good for tropical forests.