The Food Price Index Chart Looks Like a Mountain Range

Source: Swinnen and Squicciarini, "Mixed Messages on Prices and Food Security", Science

Food price index. Weighted average of meat, dairy, cereals, oil and fat, and sugar price indices. The average during 2002–04 is set to 100. Data from UN FAO, deflated using the World Bank Manufactures Unit Value Index.

The effect of global food prices on poverty is complex. On the other hand, the huge increase in food prices in in 2007 and again in 2010-11 has had to have had serious negative effects. Indeed, I wonder how much it influenced common people in north Africa during the Arab Spring to express their concern that things were getting worse instead of better, and governments had to change!