Food price spikes
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| Heard the one about the hungry farmer? It’s no joke. Small-scale farmers produce much of the world’s crops, but many don’t have enough to eat. |
After decades of progress, the number of people without enough to eat is actually increasing. It could soon top one billion. That's more than one in seven people waking up hungry and going to bed hungry. Today. In the 21st century.
Food price spikes are a big part of the problem. Because when you spend more than half of your income on food, as many poor families do, even small increases can have a particularly devastating effect.
What causes food price spikes?
Failed crops, often caused by our changing climate, hit food prices hard. So does the rising cost of oil – used to grow, fertilise and transport food. Dysfunctional commodities markets mean that food prices go up faster and higher than they should.
But despite all these complex causes, the effects on poor people are painfully simple. Parents choose between feeding their children and feeding themselves. Whole communities face an uncertain future, because all anyone can think about is where their next meal will come from.
It's time to grow out of food price spikes.
The way to grow
Food price spikes happen because of things like climate change and rising oil prices – so a major part of the solution involves getting those root causes under control.
But what's also needed is more effective global handling of food price crises when they do happen. That way, the poorest families have somewhere to turn even when things do get desperate – and when they suddenly can't afford even the meagre amount they could afford a week earlier.
For our world to grow together, we need to get food price spikes under control.
Oxfam in action
Oxfam is working with farmers in the developing world, helping them adapt to our changing climate and demonstrating how productivity can increase with investment and through sustainable techniques such as organic fertilisers.
Improving livelihoods in Indonesia
The rising price of basic necessities, inadequate sanitation and the effects of global climate change are having a devastating impact on communities in Flores, Indonesia. We're helping local communities learn new farming techniques and practices that will provide food security and a sustainable income.
Rice revolution
Alvaro and his wife Pascoela live in the village of Beco in Covalima, East Timor. Since joining a farming co-operative supported by Oxfam, they are using innovative growing techniques to improve their crop and their family income.
What a global food crisis looks like: Oxfam's food prices map
Food prices have hovered near an all-time peak since late 2010 sending tens of millions of people into poverty. Oxfam's new interactive map shows how poor communities across the world are being hurt by high and volatile food prices. This 'food price pressure points map' provides a global snapshot of the impacts of the global food price crisis.
A campaign for everyone who eats food and the billions of men and women who grow it, to share solutions for a more hopeful future in which everyone has enough to eat.
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