Global Business Today 7th Edition by Charles Hill

Exercise 7

One estimate suggests that if food prices rise by one third, they will reduce living standards in rich countries by about three percent, but in very poor ones by about twenty percent. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, unless there is a change in policies cereal prices will rise by 10-20 percent by 2015, and the expansion of bio-fuel production could reduce calorie intake by 2-8 percent by 2020 in many of the world's poorest nations. Should rich countries do anything about this? If so, what?