Purdue Study Cites Complexities for Food and Fuel Prices

A Farm Foundation’s recent report, written by Perdue University economists, lists many complexities for the rising food and fuel costs. The study, What’s Driving Food Prices?, identifies three broad sets of forces driving food price increases: global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels. “Today’s food price levels are the result of complex interactions among multiple factors. However, one simple fact stands out: economic growth and rising human aspirations are putting greater pressure on the global resource base,” says Farm Foundation President Neilson Conklin. “We made no attempt to calculate what percentage of price changes are attributable to the many disparate causes and, in fact, think it is impossible to do so,” says... [read full story]