World food price crisis 'here to stay'
Pastor Dale Morgan
World food price crisis 'here to stay'*
By David Blair in New York
Last Updated: 1:43AM BST 19/05/2008
High food prices are here to stay and the world needs a "green
revolution" to feed its rising population, the senior humanitarian
official at the United Nations has told The Telegraph.
Sir John Holmes, Britain's former ambassador to Paris who now serves as
the UN's under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, said structural
changes in the global economy are the cause of the sudden rise in food
prices.
"It is possible that in the next two or three years prices will come
down a bit from the peaks we've seen in the last few months – but not to
where they were before," he said.
Sir John said the emergence of hundreds of millions of middle class
consumers in China and India has increased demand for food. High oil
prices make transporting food more expensive. The supply of grain has
been hit by bad weather and the transfer of land to grow biofuels
instead of food crops.
With the global population forecast to reach nine billion by 2050
compared with six billion today, Sir John said, the world needed a
"green revolution", especially in Africa.