Economist on 'Agflation'

This story appeared in The Economist in Dec 07. Here are the main points:

• Food prices (real) fell by 3/4 during 1974-2005
• Since 2005 prices have jumped 75%
• Underlying reason for agflation is diet changes caused by growing wealth of emerging economies
• Meat consumption of Chinese consumer 20Kg in 1985 and 50Kg in 2007
• 8Kg grain used to produce 1Kg beef
• Additional 200m-250m tons of grain is fed to cattle now compared to 1980
  
• Another reason, US ethanol subsidies - 30m tons of extra maize in 2007
• In 2000 15m tons of maize was used to make ethanol, now it is 85m tons
• In 2007 US maize harvest has been 335m tons a lot of it at the expense of other crops
  
• Result - it will hurt urban consumers but will benefit farmers and ag communities
• High grain prices persuading people to clean more forests
• Share of public spending on agriculture in developing countries has fallen by half since 1980