THE FEED & FOOD CRISIS

摘要

As the first estimates of the 2008-09 harvest year are revealed, unrest in the emerging world continues to grow over the sky-rocketing price of grains, particularly rice. At home, feed costs are still at astronomical levels and they are at last beginning to translate themselves into high prices for livestock in the market place - and into higher prices in the shops. On the grains front, higher prices do seem to have had the effect of encouraging wheat producers significantly to increase production but, taking increased consumption into account, the degree to which stocks are rebuilt is likely to be small. In the meantime, US cutbacks will mean that world maize stocks are set to decline in the coming season. Roger Dean has been delving into the figures and reckons that really significant reductions in feed material costs are not about to happen any time soon