Signs of a global food crisis

Throughout the world, countries are grappling with higher food and commodity prices as demand continues to grow.

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June 15, 2011

A man sorts out peanuts as he shells them on the ground in Beijing. China's inflation rose to its highest level in nearly three years in May, thanks largely to stubbornly high food prices, adding to economic and social strains that have fanned recent protests.

/ AP

June 14, 2011

A woman selects vegetables at a market in Sofia, Bulgaria. Consumer price inflation edged up to 4.8 percent on an annual basis in May from 4.6 percent a month earlier, data from the statistics office showed on Tuesday. The center-right cabinet expects inflationary pressure, caused by high global fuel and food prices, to ease later this year.

Stoyan Nenov / Reuters

May 14, 2011

Customers shop for potatoes at a market in Caracas, Venezuela. Soaring food prices have become a daily battle for Venezuelans, forcing many to change their eating habits, cut back on their shopping lists or set aside more of their earnings to feed their families.

Fernando Llano / AP

May 13, 2011

A butcher enters a near empty meat cooler in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan farmers say the weather during the past two years -- severe drought followed by heavy rains -- has hurt the output of some products like milk and beef. They also blame government price controls and seizures of farmland for causing a decline in investment. The oil-exporting country is coping with one of the highest inflation rates in the world, 22.9 percent as of last month, and food prices are rising even faster.

Fernando Llano / AP

April 21, 2011

A man carries five sacks of rice at the La Saline Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Soaring food prices aren't new in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which is heavily dependent on imports. Prices are on the rise again, mirroring global trends, and the cost of gasoline has doubled to $5 a gallon. Haitians are paying more for basic staples than much of Latin America and the Caribbean, according to an Associated Press survey.

Ramon Espinosa / AP

April 11, 2011

Vo Thi Quan, 44, left, her husband Hanh, 46, top right, and their two daughters, Tuyen, right, and Trieu, have dinner with rice, leafy green spinach fries, tofu and an omelet, which costs about 27,000 dong ($1.32), at their home in Thuan Thanh, Long An province, Vietnam. As world food prices surge to the highest levels ever recorded due to a combination of production constraints and rising demand from expanding middle classes, many poor families teeter on the edge, and the mothers often quietly bear the brunt.

Le Quang Nhat / AP

April 4, 2011

Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Gary Niemeyer readies his Dekalb seed corn for spring planting at his farm near Auburn, Ill. Dekalb is one of Monsanto's leading North American brands. While most of the American economy has struggled the past few years, companies with a hand in agriculture have enjoyed a good ride. High food prices that have pumped up farmer income have also improved the fortunes of companies like Deer & Company, ADM, Monsanto and Syngenta.

Seth Perlman / AP

March 16, 2011

Five-year-old Zhong Chuhan holds up the fins of a fish as her mother, Li Mingxia, right and her father, Zhong Sheng, watch her during dinner at their home in Beijing. The starkly contrasting fortunes of two Chinese families, one affluent and one low income, offer a glimpse into how soaring food prices are playing out in the developing world. Rising affluence has taxed the ability of farmers to meet growing demand while the rural labor pool dwindles. The result: Rising food prices hit those on fixed or stagnant incomes hardest.

Ng Han Guan / AP

Feb. 16, 2011

Pesos lie on top of a local delicacy, "balut" (day-old duck chick) in Manila, Philippines. Rising food prices have pushed about 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since June, the World Bank said Feb. 15.

Ted Aljibe / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 16, 2011

Workers load sacks of rice onto a truck inside a government-run National Food Authority warehouse in Taguig City, outside Manila, Philippines. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said that rising food prices were at "dangerous levels" and could add to fragile social conditions in the Middle East, and that their impact bears watching in Central Asia.

Erik De Castro / Reuters

Feb. 10, 2011

An employee packs freshly baked rolls into boxes at the Dganit Ein Bar bakery near Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has come under heavy political and public pressure to act in the wake of rising fuel and food prices stemming from global increases in the cost of commodities.

Nir Elias / Reuters

Feb. 10, 2011

A vegetable seller waits for customers at a market in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. India's food inflation eased earlier this year in January on moderating prices of fruits and vegetables, but annual headline inflation in January remained high.

Amit Dave / Reuters

Feb. 5, 2011

Farmers water a dried-up plot of wheat near Huaibei, in central China's Anhui province. China is sending relief teams to eight drought-stricken provinces that grow more than two-thirds of the country's wheat.

/ AP

Feb. 4, 2011

A vendor arranges fish for sale inside a wet market in Pasay, outside Manila. Food prices rose an annual rate of 3.1 percent, up from 2 percent in December 2010, suggesting that rising commodity prices that are challenging policymakers across Asia, were building as an issue in the Philippines, too.

Romeo Ranoco / Reuters

January 11, 2011

A chef poses with a handful of rice inside a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan. Growing populations, changing diets and insatiable demand for grains, meat and vegetables is putting pressure on global food production and prices like never before.

Nicky Loh / Reuters

Jan. 7, 2011

Youths face off with police in the Belcourt district of Algiers. Algerian police deployed heavily outside mosques amid fears that new riots over rising food prices and chronic unemployment could break out after prayers. Youths in the North African nation rioted for days after sudden price hikes for staples including sugar, flour and oil.

/ AP

Jan. 4, 2011

Crops are inundated by the rising floodwaters west of Rockhampton, Australia. The destruction of crops intensified pressure on food prices.

Janie Barrett / AP

Sept. 11, 2010

Central Illinois farmers harvest corn near Monticello. U.S. reserves of corn hit their lowest level in more than 15 years in 2010, reflecting tighter supplies that are likely to lead to higher food prices in 2011.

Seth Perlman / AP

Oct. 13, 2010

Farmer Adam Wallace unloads harvested corn from his truck at a grain elevator near Curran, Ill. Increasing demand for corn from the ethanol industry is a major reason for climbing demand, and rising prices, on that crop.

Seth Perlman / AP

May 4, 2008

Pakistani men struggle to get a piece of bread during a distribution of food outside the Data Durbar mosque in Lahore, Pakistan.

Emilio Morenatti / AP

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