Food prices highest since 2008
Food prices began to climb in the second half of 2010 and are at their highest since the 2008 crisis, according to new figures released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In mid-2008, international food prices reached their highest level in 30 years, sparking one of the worst food crises in recent times, toppling at least one government and pushing more than a billion people into hunger.
The global average price of food - including cereals, cooking oil, meat and dairy products - was 25 percent higher in December 2010 than in December 2009, said Abdolreza Abbassian, secretary of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains at FAO.
