Major problems are starting to arise in the world in regards to rising food prices and food shortages. Mostly bad weather conditions are responsible, as many exporting countries have experienced floods or dry conditions, therefore reducing the availability of agricultural commodities.
Poor countries have been most affected by the rise in food prices, as they rely more heavily on imports. The food price index has gone up 32% between June and December 2010. The consequences could not only be disastrous famines but also deadly riots, such as the ones that ensued food shortages three years ago.
In developed countries, the situation has been much more tame. For example in the US, food prices rose only about 1.5% in 2010. Economists are concerned that commodity prices will go up more dramatically and worsen inflation. Consequences are higher meat and dairy prices, which are exceedingly consumed in developed countries. Moreover, inflation could trigger a rise in interest rates.

As economists have suggested, an important action to undertake would be to make adequate stockpiles of key agricultural commodities. This would reduce speculative pressures on food prices.
Also, improving agricultural techniques in developing countries could be a solution. In many of these countries, rudimentary techniques are still used. If developed countries helped them modernize their methods, train and empower farmers, production would increase drastically; therefore increasing food supplies. This would also reduce their dependency on imports, develop a stable economy and revenues for the farmers. For example, in Malawi in 2006, introducing soil fertilizers augmented agricultural production by 50%.
What could also be put into place is reducing wastage in developed nations. We live in societies where food is abundant and very much wasted while 1 billion people worldwide are under-fed. To be produced, products such as meat and dairy require a lot of resources and are flooding the market,