A brutal convergence of events has hit an unprepared global market, and grain prices are sky high. The world’s poor suffer most. Hunger related riots have occurred in 17 countries. Food is becoming speculation tool replacing mortgages.

Excerpts fro an eye-opening article in the Washington Post

The globe’s worst food crisis in a generation emerged as a blip on the big boards and computer screens of America’s great grain exchanges. At first, it seemed like little more than a bout of bad weather….

At the same time, food was becoming the new gold. Investors fleeing Wall Street’s mortgage-related strife plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into grain futures, driving prices up even more. By Christmas food was becoming the new gold. Investors fleeing Wall Street’s mortgage-related strife plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into grain futures, driving prices up even more.

… The food price shock now roiling world markets is destabilizing governments, igniting street riots and threatening to send a new wave of hunger rippling through the world’s poorest nations.

…To quell unrest, countries including Indonesia are digging deep to boost food subsidies. The U.N. World Food Program has warned of an alarming surge in hunger in areas as far-flung as North Korea and West Africa. The crisis, it fears, will plunge more than 100 million of the world’s poorest people deeper into poverty, forced to spend more and more of their income on skyrocketing food bills.

“This crisis could result in a cascade of others . . . and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

The feature also has a link to a photo essay.