"... I never understood what the reason was for the recent spike in food prices ..." Increases in population, the inability to feed it's own population and the

"... I never understood what the reason was for the recent spike in food prices ..." Increases in population, the inability to feed it's own population and the drop in global rice production has caused increased rice prices in Philippines. The Philippines is now totally dependent on rice imports. Increased grain prices are certainly the result of complex combination of increased demand for wheat, the price of oil, introduction of competing bio-fuels ~ http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,contentMDK:21727859~menuPK:258657~pagePK:2865106~piPK:2865128~theSitePK:258644,00.html http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT... "... Does anyone here know of a good study that explains this? ..." The world bank has a good set of reports ~ http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentMDK:21665883~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469372,00.html http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,print:Y~... there is also a wikipedia link ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_crisis