Aug. 6, 2007 (LPAC) - Food, including fresh vegetables, has generally been inexpensive and abundant in modern China, but prices have shot up in recent months all over the country. In June, China's consumer price index rose to a 33-month-high of 4.4%. A full third of the CPI is based on food prices, and these have been rising steadily since the beginning of the year, shooting up 11.3% in June, leading to a public outcry. Pork prices were up almost 60%, and eggs up almost 40% in June. Rising feed costs, which are affected by national and international grain prices, transport, bio-fuel insanity, and other production costs, as well as an epidemic of swine disease, have fed the rising prices.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao toured food markets in Beijing on Aug. 4 to demonstrate to the population that the national government is taking the issue seriously, and pledged to increase pork production and prevent hoarding.
Dr. Robert Zeigler, the head of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, traveled to the U.S. last year to warn the Congress that falling rice stocks, rising rice prices, and collapsing grain research funding had created a crisis in China and Asia generally which was close to exploding.
