Global food prices rise 10% in July; World Bank President says increase threatens health of millions

"The World Bank said Thursday that drought in the U.S. and Eastern Europe crop centers sent global food prices soaring by 10 percent last month, raising a food security threat to the world's poorest people," Agence France-Presse reports (8/30). "From June to July, corn and wheat prices rose by 25 percent each, soybean prices by 17 percent, and only rice prices went down, by four percent, the World Bank said," according to Reuters, which adds, "Overall, the World Bank's Food Price Index, which tracks the price of internationally traded food commodities, was six percent higher than in July of last year, and one percent over the previous peak of February 2011" (8/30).

"Food prices rose again sharply threatening the health and well-being of millions of people," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement, AFP notes (8/30). "In recent months, watchdog groups around the world have expressed frustration with a perceived lack of both urgency and creativity on the part of national and multilateral policymakers in dealing with the return of food prices to near-crisis levels," Inter Press Service writes and includes reaction from representatives of several organizations (Biron, 8/30).