While we complain about gas prices, people are starving due to food prices

[Northstarmom]

<p>And some think that it’s a tragedy to have to go to their safety school for college.</p>

<p>"(CNN) – Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world’s attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.</p>

<p>“This is the world’s big story,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.</p>

<p>“The finance ministers were in shock, almost in panic this weekend,” he said on CNN’s “American Morning,” in a reference to top economic officials who gathered in Washington. “There are riots all over the world in the poor countries … and, of course, our own poor are feeling it in the United States.”</p>

<p>World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean “seven lost years” in the fight against worldwide poverty.</p>

<p>“While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day,” Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.</p>

<p>“The international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the U.N.'s World Food Programme to meet emergency needs,” he said…</p>

<p>“In just two months,” Zoellick said in his speech, “rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice … now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family.”</p>

<p>The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said – meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food."
[Riots</a>, instability spread as food prices skyrocket - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/index.html]Riots”>Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket - CNN.com)</p>

[razorsharp]

<p>Maybe the Chinese are right - one child per family means more food to feed everyone.</p>

[great_lakes_mom]

<p>The world produces plenty of food. But using it for ethanol has jacked up the price, and made grain unaffordable for those on the economic margins. One Bangladeshi child uses few resources. Five Bangladeshi kids use few resources, aside from perhaps the parental struggle to feed them all. My American kids use far more, oil, grain, energy, etc.</p>

[Bailey21]

<p>

NEW YORK–CNN/Money –- Gasoline prices in the United States, which have recently hit record highs, are actually much lower than in many countries. Drivers in some European cities, like Amsterdam and Oslo, are paying nearly 3 times more than those in the United States

</p>

<p>Netherlands Amsterdam $6.48
Norway Oslo $6.27
Italy Milan $5.96
Denmark Copenhagen $5.93
Belgium Brussels $5.91
Sweden Stockholm $5.80
United Kingdom London $5.79
Germany Frankfurt $5.57
France Paris $5.54
Portugal Lisbon $5.35
Hungary Budapest $4.94
Luxembourg $4.82
Croatia Zagreb $4.81
Ireland Dublin $4.78
Switzerland Geneva $4.74
Spain Madrid $4.55
Japan Tokyo $4.24
Czech Republic Prague $4.19</p>

[dbwes]

<p>We’ve been spoiled by our gas prices for a very, very long time – long enough that we lost everything we learned in the 70s and went into the SUV-gas guzzling ways of the turn of the last century.
northstarmom – thank you for posting this. I feel like I am sometimes chastised by other posters when I suggest we all use a little perspective about this college admissions stuff.</p>

[sueinphilly]

<p>[Weekly</a> Retail PrPemium Motor Gasoline Prices (Including Taxes)](<a href=“http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html]Weekly”>http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html)</p>

<p>I like this chart better. Up to date and includes taxes.
This is the price in US dollars per gallon. The price in europe in 1996 is similar to what we are paying here now. I bet their average mpg is much higher also. Americans have been spoiled for a long time.</p>

<p>[US</a> Gas Prices](<a href=“US Gas Prices”>http://gas-cost.net/)
Across the board, European models get an average of 52 MPG versus 32 MPG for the US version of the same car. So the same car on European roads gets 60% better gas mileage than on American roads.</p>

<p>Interestingly this 60% difference is not limited to the Ford Focus which gets the best mileage of the set, the difference averages also 60% for all cars. The difference is widest for the BMW 3 series: gas mileage on the European 1.8D is 80% better than on the smallest gasoline engine offered in the US (BMW 328).</p>

<p>So you may wonder: “How do the engines differ?”</p>

<p>European cars are powered by turbocharged “common-rail” diesel engines. This type of engine has been widely used in Europe for the last 10 years. They don’t need spark plugs, run on diesel fuel including bio-diesel and have a high compression ratio of 17 to 25:1 versus 9:1 found on a typical gasoline engine, making them that much more efficient.</p>

[tega]

<p>Bailey21, public transportation is very efficient in a lot of the countries you listed, so I think people will always have an alternative if they can’t afford the gas.</p>

<p>A lot of crops are being used to produce ethanol that is why the prices have skyrocketed more than inflation. The ethanol producers are demanding more, and are also willing to pay more.</p>