According to a news report, an expert has warned of "food riots" coming to the UK
According to a news report, an expert has warned of "food riots" coming to the UK.
Here is the full report as posted on the Sky News website (via Yahoo):
A senior economist at the worldwide bank HSBC has warned of civil unrest in Britain if food prices continue to soar.
Speaking
on Jeff Randall Live, senior global economist Karen Ward cautioned that
the UK could experience the kind of food riots seen in other countries.
"Even in the developed world I think we have very, very low wage
growth, so people aren’t getting more in their pay packet to compensate
them for food and energy, and I think we could see social unrest
certainly in parts of the developed world and the UK as well."
She went on to highlight the link between high food prices and the escalating cost of crude oil.
"More and more we are seeing that some of these foodstuffs are
actually substitutes for energy itself, particularly biofuels. So I
think the energy markets are a significant contributor to these food
price gains."
The comments come as the United Nations warned the cost of food is
now at the highest level for 21 years and set to rise further.
Food costs have gone up for eight months in a row, with the National
Farmers Union forecasting the trend will continue for the rest of 2011.
The cost of basic foodstuffs has been caused by increasing demand and
extreme weather destroying crops and has been partly to blame for the
unrest sweeping the arabic world.
Rising prices contributed to riots across North Africa and the Middle
East in the past several months that have toppled leaders in Egypt and
Tunisia.
Wheat has nearly doubled in price over the past six months and rising
demand has caused the cost of sugar to rise by 14% over the past 12
months.
