Endless Appetites

Food security, the availability of food and reasonable access to it, has become one of the hottest topics of the year, growing in importance with every spike in agricultural commodity prices, of which there have been many since 2007. While 2010 prices rises have not been as severe as 2007 and 2008, they are still up double-digits with grain up 33% and fruits up an absurd 62%. These increases have led to hunger, starvation, and often civil unrest. Why is this happening just when such huge progress has been made in productivity? Could it be that the very markets first established in Chicago in the 1800s to help stabilize agricultural commodity prices have become a hedge funders casino where the rich really are taking food out of the mouths of the poor?