page_title: 2007–2008 world food price crisis
hierarchical_section_title: 2007–2008 world food price crisis
caption_attribution_description: Global trade in soybeans and soybean products has risen rapidly since the early 1990s, and has surpassed not only wheat—the traditional leader in agricultural commodity trade—but also total coarse grains (corn, barley, sorghum, rye, oats, millet, and mixed grains). Continued strong growth in global demand for vegetable oil and protein meal, particularly in China, is expected to maintain soybean and soybean-product trade well above wheat and coarse grains trade throughout the next decade. Wheat, coarse grains, and oilseeds (including soybeans) compete with each other and with other crops for limited cropland. Higher prices for vegetable oils, partially the result of increased demand for biodiesel, are bringing previously uncropped land in Brazil and Indonesia into soybean and palm oil production.
context_page_description: World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the first and second quarter of 2008, creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. Although the media spotlight focused on the riots that ensued in the face of high prices, the ongoing crisis of food insecurity had been years in the making. Systemic causes for the worldwide increases in food prices continue to be the subject of debate. After peaking in the second quarter of 2008, prices fell dramatically during the late-2000s recession but increased during late 2009 and 2010, reaching new heights in 2011 and 2012 at a level slightly higher than the level reached in 2008. Over the next years, prices fell, reaching a low in March 2016 with the deflated Food and Agriculture Organization food price index close to pre-crisis level of 2006. As of May 2017 they have not reached crisis levels again, despite prices increasing.
  The initial causes of the late-2006 price spikes included droughts in grain-producing nations and rising oil prices.
context_section_description: World food prices increased dramatically in 2007 and the first and second quarter of 2008, creating a global crisis and causing political and economic instability and social unrest in both poor and developed nations. Although the media spotlight focused on the riots that ensued in the face of high prices, the ongoing crisis of food insecurity had been years in the making. Systemic causes for the worldwide increases in food prices continue to be the subject of debate. After peaking in the second quarter of 2008, prices fell dramatically during the late-2000s recession but increased during late 2009 and 2010, reaching new heights in 2011 and 2012 (see 2010–2012 world food price crisis) at a level slightly higher than the level reached in 2008. Over the next years, prices fell, reaching a low in March 2016 with the deflated Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index close to pre-crisis level of 2006.  As of May 2017 they have not reached crisis levels again, despite prices increasing.
  
  The initial causes of the late-2006 price spikes included droughts in grain-producing nations and rising oil prices. Oil price increases also caused general escalations in the costs of fertilizers, food transportation, and industrial agriculture. Root causes may be the increasing use of biofuels in developed countries (see also food vs fuel), and an increasing demand for a more varied diet across the expanding middle-class populations of Asia. The FAO also raised concerns about the role of hedge funds speculating on prices leading to major shifts in prices. These factors, coupled with falling world-food stockpiles, all contributed to the worldwide rise in food prices.
caption: Chart of global trade volume in wheat, coarse grain and soybeans 1990 to 2008, and projected to 2016. United States Department of Agriculture, 2008.
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