This opinion piece by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman discusses the escalating prices of wheat, corn, rice, and other food basics and the likely causes, including the change in diet of the Chinese population to include more meat, the escalating price of oil, and bad weather in key agricultural areas.

In the past few years, prices of wheat, corn, rice, and other agricultural commodities have been on the rise, leading to the limitation of exports by certain countries to protect domestic consumers. Contributing factors to this situation include:

• The growing number of people in emerging economies who are now eating more meat, which takes 700 calories of animal feed to produce a 100 calorie piece of meat.
• Modern farming is energy intensive, therefore higher oil prices have driven up agricultural costs. Higher oil prices are also related to the growth of emerging economies.
• Bad weather in agricultural areas has affected world production of major crops.
• The rise in ethanol and other biofuel production accelerates climate change by promoting deforestation. It also detracts from the land available to grow food.