-Reuters   Red-hot food inflation that has vexed policy makers around the world seemed to take a breather last month, when corn and wheat prices tumbled on reports that crop shortages were easing. The sell-off was also driven by global economic worries that prompted funds to exit grains in droves. But prices are climbing again, and have already made up half of June's losses. The sell-off masked an unnerving reality: The world remains...

-The United Nations   The United Nations today declared that the world has completely eradicated a cattle disease that has killed millions of bovines for millennia. It is the first animal disease to be officially declared eradicated – and only the second disease ever, after smallpox. A resolution approved by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at its meeting in Rome today stated that the world was free of rinderpest, or...

-The United Nations   A former Brazilian food security minister will become the first person from Latin America to head the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations agency leading international efforts in the fight against hunger. José Graziano da Silva, who has served as a senior regional official for FAO since 2006, will take up the post of Director-General on 1 January next year after beating five other candidates during...

From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars. In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in...

-Reuters   The world's trading nations are succumbing to protectionism in the wake of the global financial crisis, limiting exports of food and raw materials and installing new import barriers, the WTO warned on Friday. Commodities export restrictions from Indian cotton and Ukrainian wheat to Chinese rare earths and coal are "not without hazards", the World Trade Organization said in the report that assesses the protectionist behaviour of more than 180 nations. The...