Weekly Reader | Lead Story

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re you noticing fewer snacks in your cupboards? Smaller portions on your dinner plates? Are your lunch boxes missing an extra treat or two? If so, you aren’t the only one. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food prices rose 4 percent in 2007, compared to an average 2.5 percent annual rise for the last 15 years. The agency predicts next year will be worse, with a rise as high as 4.5 percent.

For example, a gallon of milk cost an average of $3.08 in February 2007. This February it was $3.87. The cost of a dozen eggs rose from $1.75 to $2.17. That might not sound like a lot, but those pennies add up fast. And the mounting costs are hitting many U.S. families hard.

Worldwide Problems

People in the world’s poorest nations are having an even tougher time. The United Nations (U.N.) recently reported that more than 100 million people worldwide are facing poverty from a “silent tsunami” of sharply rising food prices. In some countries, people are taking to the streets to protest the spike. A riot recently broke out at a rally in Haiti, where food prices have doubled in the past year. Though most people there earn less than $2 per day, a pound of rice costs about $1. . There have also been riots in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Egypt, in Africa; and Indonesia and Bangladesh in Asia.

Think About It

1. How might an increase in gas and oil prices affect the price of food?

2. How is the rise in food prices like a “silent tsunami”?

“This is the new face of hunger—the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are,” said Josette Sheeran, who runs the U.N.’s food program. Experts say many factors are contributing to the rising cost of food, including the increasing cost of oil and gasoline, droughts in some food-producing countries, and an upsurge in demand from countries such as China and India.

Though the U.S. is struggling with higher food prices, it has pledged $200 million to the United Nations for emergency food aid. Sheeran says that the United States provides half of the world’s food assistance.

Help on the Way?

Ban Ki–Moon, the head of the United Nations, said he planned to work quickly to get aid to people in need. “We must make no mistake, the problem is big. If we offer the right aid, the solutions will come,” he said.

Learn how you can help end world hunger and poverty here.

Play games and learn about food safety and healthy eating, at the USDA’s kids sitehere.

Can you unscramble this egg–cellent photo jigsaw?

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