The continuing food crisis global policy reforms lag.

The world is now nearly five years into what has come to be known as the “food crisis”, sparked in 2007 by rapid spikes in international prices for basic commodities. Commodity prices doubled, the estimated number of hungry people topped one billion, and food riots erupted in more than 30 countries. A second price spike in 2010-11 drove home that this was not a one-off event, that the policies and principles guiding agricultural development and food security are deeply flawed. The glo bal food import bill for 2011 soared to an astonishing $1.3 trillion. There is now widespread agreement that international agricultural prices will remain signifi cantly higher than pre-crisis levels for at least the next decade.