World Bank decries rising food prices

The World Bank has decried rising food prices saying it is ready to help governments respond to a broad-based run-up in grain prices that has again put the world’s poorest people at risk and could have lingering detrimental impacts for years.
World Bank Group Jim Yong Kim in a statement issued in Washington said “We cannot allow short-term food-price spikes to have damaging long-term consequences for the world’s most poor and vulnerable. The World Bank and our partners are monitoring this situation closely so we can help governments put policies in place to help people better cope,” Mr. Kim a public health expert is facing his biggest challenge in two months on the job.
A severe drought in the U.S. Midwest has cut projected grain yields dramatically, reviving memories of 2008 when a sharp increase in food prices caused riots in some countries and raised questions about the use of crops to make biofuels. Wheat prices have jumped more than 50 per cent and corn prices more than 45 per cent since mid-June, with dry conditions in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, excessively wet weather in Europe and a below average start to the Indian monsoon season adding to global crop worries.
Prices for soybeans, a critical food and animal feed crop, also have risen almost 30 per cent over the past two months and nearly 60 percent since the end of last year.
“When food prices rise, families cope by pulling their kids out of school and eating cheaper, less nutritious food, which can have catastrophic life-long effects on the social, physical, and mental well being of millions of young people,” Kim said.