I knew rising energy prices affected the price of food because so much of the food we consume is transported from where it originates to our convenient grocery stores, and that there were other connections, as well. However, it was news to me to learn what a direct connection there is between the price of oil and scarcity of food in many parts of the world, as this rather depressing article, “An Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories,” in the NYT explains.
This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food. . . .According to the F.A.O., food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. . . .
A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food. . . .
Many of the hardest-hit victims of rising food prices are in the vast slums that surround cities in poorer Asian nations.
Here’s more on Bobby Fischer, a remembrance in the NYT: “
