Global Food Prices Still Rising

Two separate sources have found that global food prices are still on the rise since 2012, thanks to a surge in dairy costs.

According to the United Nations' food agency, global food prices rose 1 percent in March thanks to dairy costs. And while the food prices have fallen since the drought-caused spike in the summer of 2012, prices have increased for the past two months.

Cereal prices have remained fairly calm for these past two years, but the increased cost of grains since 2000 is still having an effect on global food prices, Worldwatch Institute's Vital Signs says in a press release. Their study found that food prices have grown 2.7 percent in all of 2012, reaching price levels as high as those in the 1960s and 1970s.

The increase in food price can be attributed to climate change, biofuels production, import rates, trade policies, low levels of stocks, and rising energy and fertilizer prices, Worldwatch Institute says. For corn, wheat, and rice alone, prices have jumped more than 80 percent since the early 2000s.