Category: Food Price Index

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Global Food Price Jitters

Touch the Soil News #1247 (Feature photo – Grain Harvest – Public Domain) Over the past 10 years, the global food price index has experienced some dramatic volatility. The food price index follows basic commodities such as meat, grain, dairy, vegetable oils and sugar. Since the largest portion of the global population eats very low on the food chain, significant upticks in the index can send 100 million people into hunger almost overnight. While the news is not of a scope to send food tremors around the world, the January 2018 food index rise of 1.8 percent is the largest in some time. You can read the full report here:…

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Food Prices & Social Justice

Touch the Soil News #1036 (Feature photo – Large Piles of Grain after Harvest in the U.S. – Public Domain) Food prices (or the price of anything for that matter) are subject to a number of financial activities and maneuvers. These things can impact the ability of literally 1-3 billion people who are on the bottom end of earning power. There are things like increases in interest rates that dampen spending power, currency speculation that can increase the cost of goods for people whose currency is weaker and commodity speculation that can literally make food on a dinner plate unaffordable – or so cheap that it puts farmers out of…

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What Is the Food Price Index?

Touch the Soil News #638 The Food Price Index is a global average of the costs of: Meat – poultry, beef, pork Dairy – butter, cheese Cereals – wheat, corn, rice Vegetable oils – palm oil, canola oil, soybean oil, etc. Sugar – cane and beet sugar The base date of reference is 1/1/2004. This means on this date the index showed all commodities at 100. For February 2017, the Food Price Index stood at 175.5 – which means the global cost of basic foods has gone up 75.5 percent over the past 13 years. The importance of the food price index to Americans – like folks of all other…

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More Powerful Than Politicians

Touch the Soil News #544 The global financial system and the world’s resource limitations – having evolved together over the last few centuries – represent a momentum that eclipses any world leader. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a division of the United Nations that keeps tab on the price of food. The variables that drive the price of food are weather, demand and the ability of the global financial world to deliver purchasing power to the masses. The FAO food price index was established using a base of 100 which represents the price of many different agricultural commodities as of the year 2004. In the aftermath of the…

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Low-Price Food Tremor

Touch the Soil News #465 Wheat farmers in America rise and fall on the USDA’s reports of production. If the USDA reports production is up, speculators say there is an oversupply and farm prices often collapse. The USDA’s August 2016 World Supply Report reveals that the world will produce 743 million metric tonnes of wheat this season. This is 4 percent more than what was produced in the 2013 season. Since 2013, wheat prices and profitability of wheat farming have plummeted. The seal of the USDA. Unfortunately, the production estimates of the USDA often are the basis for speculation that can artificially drive prices down (hurting farmers) or drive prices…

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Food Tremor – A Spooky Thing

Touch the Soil News #441 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a division of the United Nations. The FAO sits on the pulse of world food. The FAO maintains a Food Price Index. The Index follows the fluctuations in food prices. The flow of food to people only happens to the extent that there is money to facilitate the connection of supply and demand. The FAO Food Price index is the first warning signal that in a world organized around monetary mediums – price escalations can quickly overwhelm global resources (distribution and acquisition). The efficiency of money to connect supply with demand falls far short. Hence, over the past…

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