World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.
Six candidates have been put forward by member nations of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to succeed Senegalese Jaques Diouf as Director General in elections to be held in June.
North Africa and Middle East civil unrest can be expected to spread to several other countries if as anticipated the FAO Food Prices Index for January 2011 confirms the December 2010 tendency when the “basket” of food staples reached a new peak.
The contribution of fish to global diets has reached a record of about 17 kg per person on average, supplying over three billion people with at least 15% of their average animal protein intake.
FAO has called for veterinary and border control authorities in Asia to be on alert for animals showing signs of infection by Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), following an unprecedented outbreak of the livestock-affecting sickness in South Korea.
South Korea's farm minister has offered to step down over the worst outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country's history.Almost three million cattle have so far been culled at a cost of $1.34bn (£841m) since the disease was first confirmed last November.
The United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, global food prices index reached a record high in December, 2010 reported the organization this week. The FAO food index tracks a basket of 55 key food commodities including items such as wheat, cooking oil and fats and sugar.
Agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean has had a dynamic development growth during this decade but it has not been sufficient to reduce rural poverty in the region according to a report from FAO and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cepal.
World Bank president Robert Zoellick expressed concern about the renewed speculation with agriculture commodities which in the last months have seen prices of food in developing countries soar
The increase in demand for meat will force world production to more than double by 2050, when the globe’s population is estimated to reach 9 billion, according to Arturo Lavallol a member of the International Meat Organization (OPIC) currently holding its 18th congress in Buenos Aires.