Causes of the food price increases include rising oil prices, surging demand for grain (to largely produce meat) especially in China, and greater use of biofuel.
Libya abolished taxes and customs duties on food products, and Morocco tried to offset a surge in grain prices.
Last year's surge in grain prices, caused by earlier bad harvests, is unlikely to be repeated this year.
But here in Hebei Province, the policy hurt farmers who were already struggling to cope with soaring animal feed costs, driven up by a global surge in grain prices.
The surge in grain prices were also making it more difficult for some producers to secure bank loans.
Of more significance to the environment, experts suggest, is that while farmers may have had a financial incentive to participate in the program a decade or two ago, the recent surge in grain prices -- driven in large part by the demand for corn ethanol -- has swayed many farmers to put their land back into production.
The increasing mismatch between available resources and surging demand has pushed China abroad in search of grain to feed livestock.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — America's stockpiles of corn and soybeans will be drawn down to thin levels this year, the government said in a reporton Wednesday that sent grain and oilseed prices soaring and added to concerns over surging world food prices.
Rich whites moaned that there would be no more holidays abroad or fancy foreign cars; more seriously, the poor watched food costs rise, as prices of oil, transport and imported grain all surged.
Also in May, poultry processor Sanderson Farms, based in Laurel, Miss., reported a drop in fiscal second-quarter profits as feed grain costs surged, but still managed to top Wall Street expectations.
