Symposium: Causes and Consequences of the Food Price Crisis
October 10, 2008
Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
On October 10, 2008, the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics at the University of California hosted a symposium to present the main results of recent research on the current food price crisis conducted at UC Berkeley and UC Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Audience members represented various disciplines, and the presentations provided non-technical summaries that facilitated the understanding of the main issues and consequences relevant to the food price crisis. More in-depth results will be available via working papers posted online at the Symposium’s website: http://are.berkeley.edu/foodcrisis/.
According to contributors to the Symposium, the most probable causes of the food price crisis include: an increase in oil prices, the increase in biofuels demand supported by government policies, government attempts to manipulate imports and exports, increased demand cause by rising income in developing countries, slower growth in agricultural productivity, and the weak U.S. dollar. All of these factors were discussed at the Symposium, in addition to the consequences of the food price crisis in both developed and developing economies and on rural and urban populations. It was stressed that although smallholders are producers, they are net buyers of food, and therefore, the rural poor is ultimately suffering the most from high food prices. Consequences reach well into the long term for these populations specifically because money must be diverted away from schooling and healthcare in order to provide enough food for the household. For more background and the source, please visit: http://are.berkeley.edu/foodcrisis/intro.pdf to download the Issues Brief: Causes and Consequences of the Food Price Crisis from the Symposium webpage.
The Global Livestock CRSP has made available nine podcasts for those interested in hearing the individual speakers and their topics at the Symposium. Corresponding slides and Power Point presentations are also available from the Symposium’s website: http://are.berkeley.edu/foodcrisis/slides.html. Feel free to download these files to follow along with the speakers.
Click on the names and titles to download the podcasts.
Episode 1. Welcome – Larry Karp
Episode 2. Causes of the food crisis – Aaron Smith and Gordon Rausser
Episode 3. Biofuel policy and food prices – David Zilberman
Episode 4. Speculators, storage, and food prices – Brian Wright
Episode 5. Agricultural research & development and food prices – Julian Alston
Episode 6. Identification of the vulnerable in developing countries – Alain de Janvry
Episode 7. Measuring consumer price response in developing countries – Ethan Ligon
Episode 8. Effects on US consumers and producers and subsidy payments – Daniel Sumner
Episode 9. Panel discussion – Alex McCalla, Gordon Rausser, Daniel Sumner, Brian Wright
