(Jamaica-gleaner) Since the start of April, Haiti has been experiencing protests over rising food prices. However, these protests became violent this past week. The protests have been triggered by rising food prices, both as a result of international factors such as oil price and grain price increases and the impact of bad weather on agriculture, creating shortages in production and consequently, an increase in agricultural and food prices. The price of rice in Haiti has doubled from US to US for a 120-pound pack. Gasolene has risen three times in the last two months. Countries as diverse as Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica import most of their food. Food prices have risen around the world on average by 40 per cent since mid-2007 and the price of staples has risen by 80 per cent since 2005. René Preval said that Haiti was paying the price for global price rises and the bad policies of the last 20 years. The United Nations warns that the security implications of the growing food crisis should not be underestimated since "food riots are being reported across the globe". Thirty-three countries are particularly vulnerable and riots have taken place in 14 in the past two months. The UN has even linked the food crisis with climate change. It said the number of reported natural disasters have doubled from an average of 200 to 400 over the past 20 years. The implications for countries like Jamaica are clear. After we have exhausted our ability to subsidise, suspended the Common External Tariffs to reduce the cost of imports, and reduced taxes on foods and cut our profit margins, if these should happen, how will we protect ourselves from new rounds of price increases in the coming months and years? The oil price crisis has an impact on the food crisis. It directly leads to increases in transportation and production costs, but as more and more grain is used as biofuels substitute a grain shortage results that forces up the price of grain based food and the price of flour and products like bread. More than 20 million acres, previously in food, have been devoted to biofuels. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation says we should not expect grain prices to go back to where they were and the UN World Food Programme said consumers should expect high food prices for at least another 10 years.

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