Record high food prices are moving to the top of the agenda for many Asian policymakers.

The cost of simply staying alive is getting higher, with no end it sight.

The United Nations’ food agency (FAO) said on Wednesday that food prices hit a record high last month, moving beyond levels of 2008, when riots broke out in countries as far afield as Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti. Food inflation in many Asian countries, including China and India, is already in double digits.

“I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if 2011 resembles in many ways 2008,” said Frederic Neumann, regional economist at HSBC in Hong Kong. “Food price inflation could really go into double digits across the region.”

“We do believe that the structural drivers behind high food prices are likely to persist for some time,” agreed Luke Matthews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Indonesia’s president called on Thursday for households to plant food to help combat inflation.

Source; Reuters

Second day of riots in Algeria over the price of food

Rioting youths set fires, smashed streetlights and ransacked storefronts Thursday in the second day of rampages in the Algerian capital over rising food prices and chronic unemployment.

Helicopters circled, stores closed early and security officers blocked off streets in the tense working-class Algiers neighborhood of Bab el-Oued, near the city’s ancient Casbah.

Source; Associated Press

My comments;

The cost of food is one statistic that you don’t need a Ph.D in economics or social policy to understand.

People have to eat. The more money they spend on food, the less they’ll have to spend on everything else. If they can’t afford to buy food, there will be civil unrest, riots, etc.

Revelation 6:6 says;

“And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.’”

This is a prophecy about inflation, specifically linked to the price of food, and we can clearly see this prophecy beginning to be fulfilled.

What we can do about this is, as usual, pray and get ourselves right with God. We should also form closer relationships with each other and support each other. When one is hungry, others who have more than enough should share with them.

Also, this is yet another reason to fast. Fasting is commanded by the Bible for Spiritual reasons, but there are also physical benefits and in a world where food is becoming more scarce those who fast a few days a month will be leaving more food for others.

Also, incidentally enough, I think the President of Indonesia has a good idea about planting our own gardens in our windowsills, backyards etc. It will help alleviate the scarcity of food and also make us more self reliant.

Written by Aaron