This
week we learned that the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, restricted
sales of rice to a maximum of four bags per visit and made clear there
were no restrictions on the amounts of flour or oil "at this time".

In
an article entitled "High Food Prices – A Harsh New Reality" published
by The World Bank, it even predates the upswing in commodity prices to
2001 attributed to "large structural shifts in the global economy
-including growing demand in China and India…" Among various factors it
mentions "higher energy and fertilizer prices; increased demand for
biofuels…and droughts in Australia and other countries."  The most
troubling statement in this document is that there is "no relief in
sight".

Certainly global warming is a factor not to be ignored
according to United Nation scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change the prospects are that many crops would shift away from
areas close to the Equator, sadly, away from the poorest nations that
happen to be in those areas.

A year ago in April the BBC and other
news media echoed a letter written by the ailing Cuban leader in which
Mr. Castro said a US drive to back crop use for fuels would raise
prices and cause more hunger in developing countries.

The head of
the UN World Food Programme termed this crisis, which already triggered
riots in all continents as "A silent tsunami which knows no borders
sweeping the world"
If this were just another conspiracy theory it would be an odd one to say the least.
Wal-Mart,
The World Bank, Fidel Castro and the head of the UN World Food Program,
along with growing crowds of protesters and rioters are seeing a crisis
worse than the Recession that has already set in for US economy.

Kudos
to English Prime Minister Gordon Brown for steering the efforts to
understand and tackle this global crisis, it's the turn now for the
current US administration and the presidential hopefuls to bring some
American Ingenuity to the table before food supplies run scarcer and
become unaffordable.