British supermarkets are remarkable. Yesterday I purchased
sausages and beefburgers at 5p each. A kilo of flour (24p) a
kilo of Oats (63p) and a kilo of rice (42p). tesco value range, morrisons 2 for 1 offers and Iceland frozen foods make this the cheapest country for food on the planet..

Mark, epping, Essex

If everyone on the planet became vegitarian there would be no food shortages. It is criminal to grow food to feed to animals who are then slaughtered and fed to us, when we could give the crops directly to people. I can't belive politicians don't seem to mention this.

Sean Naylor, London, UK

Just because the initial approach to BioFuel may as well have been managed by a Chimp, an ignorant backlash only demonstrates a complete lack of intelligence and knowledge. Roll on second generation BioFuels, derived from waste cellulose rather than food crops.

Andrew J Iddon, London, UK

All I can say is Google 'Peak Oil'. Food price is linked to energy price and any commodity where demand outstrips supply will become more expensive. The limits to growth have been reached and the sooner we come to terms with this the sooner we can work on mitigating the problems. We need to rethink the way we grow food, travel and use energy. We need governments to stop listening too special interest groups and focus on policy reform and we need that to happen now.

Iain McPhee, Hobart, Tasmania

The time will come when some type of 'gruel' (remember the Matrix?) will be made to feed people. It will be tasteless but full of the necessary vitamins/minerals/proteins to sustain life.

Give it 50 years and we'll all be eating it and remembering the days when we could eat a chicken :)

John, Manchester, UK

..And all these causes of the supposed increase in market produce all happened in a few months, right? Puhlease! It seems to me that every entrepreneur and industry is looking to cash in on this credit crunch. The 'mugs' are the consumers.

Annie, Cambridge, UK

Yet again American vested interests are destroying the world. Their subsidy of ethanol is a crazy plan when there are 75 million new mouths to feed each year.

the biofuels industry is a joke. But too many rich Americans are n a gravy train - and you know who controls the White House, don't you?

garry w, London,

We grow fuel for our huge cars while the poor of the world go hungry. What decadence.

neil, waterford, ireland

Overpopulation of our planet is the cause of all our problems! There has to be a point at which governments and world leaders decide to manage human population growth, or shall we let nature take its course via starvation, disease and war. We only have so much land to farm.

paul wood, Hornchurch, England

In the UK haven't we had lots of warnings recently about the dangers of obesity and how we are overweight as a nation?

Isn't it therefore a good thing if food is more expensive?

Julian, Chester,

This issue does confirm the efficiency of free-market economics. The government mandates biofuels, thus creating demand, and the free market responds. Unfortunately, the demand does not come directly from consumers. The know-all government bureaucracy has created a case of unintended consequences

Larry W, Orlando, FL

This food for fuel nonsense has go to stop.

Larry W, Orlando, FL

Here we see another victory for the new religion. People are now starving because of an obsession with the detailed chemical balance of the atmosphere. (Fact: the world has grown cooler since 1998). The millions of surplus deaths from malaria, due to the DDT ban, are not enough for them.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

The situation with rising food prices could ameloriate as suppliers react to firm and growing demand. North American agricultural productive capacity is severely repressed in reaction to the previous lack of markets. When big buyers come with hard contracts, the suppliers here are going to deliver.

Linda Dial, Calgary, Canada

Well the chickens have come home to roost!
Too many people and not enough food. Humanity has got some very tough decisions to make over the coming years about the over population of the world.
Who is going to play God and decide who lives and dies?
Or will bird flu be the answer?

Pete, St Albans, England

Here is a idea, put food in bellies and not cars ! It takes 450lbs of corn to fill my tank. This would feed a man for a YEAR ! Even a politician should be able to see the fallacy of eco-fuels. Pride is truely the deadliest of sins in this case.

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Tx

France Info radio did an interview last week with a world food production expert. He says that there is NO FOOD SHORTAGE. He said that Hedge Funds (Banks) have purchased commodity futures to corner the market on food, worldwide and to charge all the traffic will bear. Sound bytes only now???????

victor compton, Cherbourg, France

We worry about articial food colours, use huge quantities of alternative natural materials, and stop the use of bio tech developments, which could enable increased production, whilst the poor starve. This is a very real crisis with a lot more consequences than we can yet imagine.

David House, Wisbech,

Blow back from government intervention. Way to go ethanol mandates!

john, gibsonia, United States

What's the bet the RPI basket of goods used to measure inflation, changes from milk, bread and butter, to something not inflating at 60%... such as breezeblocks, mulch, and 'best of Gary Glitter' CDs...

Jonathan, Baldock, UK

Whats the problem, for years we've had rising house prices, which everyone said was good. Surely this is good as the food in the fridge is worth more than last year, same as petrol in my car.

Like houses, everyone was delighted when prices were going up, simply in food and you'll be a winner.

Paul, Camberley,

Thank you ecologists and George Bush for the loopy idea of corn for fuel. Now everything is going to be scarce.

Crhis Donaldson, San Diego, USA

So as food prices go up, maybe obesity and related health costs will go down. Maybe people will walk more as fuel costs rise, and that will help health and air quality. Things will balance out in the long run. We don't need to panic.

Chris, Las Vegas, USA

I don't think "greenies" were ever especially taken in by the idea of biofuels. It was obvious that it wasn't a great idea and was a 'solution' peddled by the transport industries that meant they could just tweak their fuel-burning engines a little bit rather than actually innovate. It was too easy.

Rachel, Bristol,

This is deliberate famine by those in control of governments.
There is no need to use food as fuel. There is a government-made energy shortage. Our elitists think there are too many people and this is just population control.

Sandra Usher, Bonita Springs, Fla. , USA

Andre, land used for cattle is not necessarily good land for corn. Cattle are also significantly less expensive as a matter of equipment for small farmers to market. Just an FYI ....

Randy, Bedford, USA

No of people whose food energy needs can be met by food produced on 2.5 acres/land:
If the land is producing rice: 19
If the land is producing corn: 17
If the land is producing wheat: 15
If the land is producing chicken: 2
If the land is producing beef: 1 person
Source: The Food Revolution

ph, London,

Time to start making farming an attractive profession again. We also need to start phasing out inefficient foods that take lots of land to feed comparatively few people (beef e.t.c).

Andre, Portland, USA

We live in a city in Northern Canada. The price of food has never been that expensive and we never worried about it until our grocery bill went up by $30.00 for a week. We're looking to buy in bulk basic supplies, worried gas and food will go up even more. It's not just the poor that suffer.

Karen Martel, North Battleford, Canada

Even in New Zealand, exporting dairy products, fruits and meats, we are forced to pay "export prices" for foods. Our affluent dairy farmers, during times of drought or flood, suddenly become socialists and lobby for "relief" payments from the tax-payers! We urban shoppers always seem to lose-out.

Ron Durham, Torbay, Auckland, New Zealand

Sainsbury's and Tesco can, up to a certain point, take the hit of higher prices - but they won't! Certain of their products are at the same level as a few months ago, despite the increase in commodity prices.

Trev, London,

Could this be a case of a self fulfilling phropesy where someone in the media makes the prediction of food shortages and it then becomes a fact because people start to believe it?

Russ, Pasco, USA

To Jon from BC

Our bodies weren't made for anything in particular but evolved as simple carb / protein consumers. Complex carbs were never part of our diet until a "couple of days ago" when we discovered crops and agriculture. Prior to that it wast just meat and berries.

Bertie, London, UK

Just stop eating beef and our food problems will be gone. It's that simple. The amount of energy & land resources used to feed cattle is astounding. Our bodies were made to live on a diet of Carbs and some protein and fat. A balanced Vegetarian diet more then adequately supplies that balance.

Jon, British Columbia , Canada

Oil, therefore energy costs are the single biggest reason for the increase in food costs!! It goes into every input cost. World wheat supply is down becasue of weather conditions(floods in the U.S. & droughts in Austrailia). Do research. Also Biofuel money stays in the US and not the Middle East !

Jason, Des Moines, USA

This is what happens when one follows 'Greenie' policies.

Ian Burgess, Bristol,

Use food for domestic comsumption and energy I say. It's pretty unhealthy to eat oil.

Ryan, Boston, USA

Cheap food allowed people to buy cars and TV's that told them to buy more cars and TV's and bigger houses to put them in. Food's the new moral compass, whether we like it or not. Overconsumption? You can't stop eating , but you can park the car and walk, tear down the garage and plant a garden.

Dan Conine, Belgium, Wisconsin, USA

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to connect the dots from this managed shortage to that managed promotion of Frankenfoods. We are all being played.

Charles Elliott, Baton Rouge,

The most likely scenario is that Raw Produce is being Buffered to artifcially raise prices. As long as there are Eu Farming Subsidies there will be overproduction.

All information tfrom food producing bodies is Tainted with self interest.

Nick, Emsdetten, Germany

'Gordon Brown responded to mounting concerns about the global rise in food prices by signalling that he ***MIGHT*** scale back Britain’s commitment to biofuels'

Is there any action obviously right enough that our Prime Minister can act on it without ridiculous delays!?

Sam, London,

Ther's a World food shortage simply because there are too many people in the World. The countries where rioting has taken place are countries that have rapidly expanding populations.

Mr G, Leeds, UK

Stop with the climate junk and stop paying farmers to not grow crops. Bet that would add a lot of food to the system.

de, akron oh, usa

No mention of Gordon Mugabe's currency devaluation pushing up food prices here so high.

Paul, Coventry,

Raise the price and no one will be able to buy. I think it is all about greed.

D. Linc, Fallon, USA

Isn't this just what Fidel Castro said sometime last year?

Another question - wouldn't this food price problem be solved if the EC relaxed its high import charges on African food? And wow wouldn't that solve another problem - that of African poverty?

Jim, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

And the Government reckons that inflation is less than 3%? Who are they kidding?

Julia D, London, UK