Chart of the Week: Food Is Getting Pricey

These charts from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization show the increasing global cost of food.{"food prices"} Food prices hit a new high in 2010, as climate disruption and commodities speculation took their toll:

The UN's food index of 55 food commodities (that would make an interesting ETF) has also hit a record of 214.7 points. When derivative markets are linked to commodity trading, the huge concentration of capital in the financial sector can cause unusual food price volatility:

The world's breadbaskets of the United States, Russia, China, Brazil and Argentina all experienced drought, heat waves, flooding, or freezing in 2010. The fact is that world is living on the edge of widespread famine. Technological innovation, sometimes referred to as the "green revolution" has kept food supplies ahead of ever growing demand:

But agricultural markets have become so finely balanced that local production disruptions can reverberate throughout the world's food supply. Many climatologists think that global climate change will bring more frequent and severe weather events that will inevitably disrupt food production. Permanent precipitation and temperature pattern changes will be the new normal, not the subject of cynical political debate.

[chart source: marketoracle.co.uk]