There's allot of rhetoric out there about food lets try to break some points up here and discuss them.
-Yes, speculation in the markets is driving the price up ultimately supply/demand & carry over stock is driving price. I don't think it's fair to have this argument without acknowledging that in the past speculation made food cheap and helped drive farming innovations. wheat is not only cheaper today per bushel than 500 years ago it's much more plentiful ! IMO...The breaking point isn't speculation and certainly speculation has made food production very successful enough so for the next point.
-Enough food to feed the world....maybe? Food aid hasn't helped the poor hungry nations feed themselves it's simply created more people dependent on food aid. Additionally, there's a population explosion happening in many of these poor countries that can't feed themselves many double, triple some even quadruple the fertility rates of developed countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_rate
-By 2030, world population is expected to hit 8.3 billion, standard of living is expected to push food consumption demand by 50 percent
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24942035/
-Among the many problems food production face one that isn't being talked much openly. The top grain producing countries China, India, USA & Russia right now,,.. Today! are farming at an unsustainable level to meet demand. Most aquifers used for irrigation in these countries are being used at an irreplaceable rate. In the USA the Ogallala aquifer( fossil aquifer) accounts for 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States.
"For fossil aquifers—such as the vast U.S. , the deep aquifer under the North China Plain, or the Saudi aquifer—depletion brings pumping to an end. Farmers who lose their irrigation water have the option of returning to lower-yield dryland farming if rainfall permits. In more arid regions, however, such as in the southwestern United States or the Middle East, the loss of irrigation water means the end of agriculture."
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aquifer_depletion
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