the least nodes all stood individuals are colored whatever the rights or wrongs of this particular issue, tattoos themselves remain very popular, especially for young people like casio, back at the crowds or to shop. he's having a favorite cartoon character inked onto his arm for the moment snoopy will be there in just black and white. but castle says he's got plans for more colourful tattoos . some day soon dawn, it came alger zera, berlin. ah, this is al jazeera, these are the headlines. 3 white men who chased and murders 25, your black jogger, a mar, danbury, in the us state of georgia, have been sentenced to life in prison. 2 of the defendants will serve their sentence without the possibility of parole. authorities in kazakhstan,

say they've detained the former national security chief on suspicion of treason. after days of protests, cassock president says he's authorized his forces to fire without warning. india has recorded more than 840000 new daily cove at 19 cases. and you 7 month high is capital you. deli, is among the worst hit region and is under curfew. your micron variance is no dominant across other cities. half natal has more full new delhi. the government has a mandate for international travelers who now have to quarantine at all for about a week. on the 8th day, they have to take a laptop and upload that test on a government portal so that the authorities know india already requires international travelers to test negative before boarding a flight to india. now, domestically, most of the country is under some form of restriction. the number all covered 19

related deaths. mexico has passed $300.00 thousands, only about half the adult population as fully vaccinated. public health officials say tourism is spurring, arrives in infections. germany's bringing in extra restrictions, writs bars and restaurants after a rise in aw mccomb cases, only people who have tested negative or received vaccine booster will be allowed into venues. but quarantine rules are being relaxed for vaccinated. people who come into contact with someone who's tested positive pakistan's interior ministry says at least 16 people who hosen, to death, se trying to watch the for snow homes, winter. many had ignored warnings advise from them not to go outside lessons and less stranded in marie around 30 chromosome. ne of his lum above. the trustees supplies have been disrupt. it's well, those are the headlights, the stay with us inside story is up. next. what happens in new york has implications all around the world. it's the home of the united nations. it's

a center of international finance, international culture. to make these stories resonate requires talking to everyday people to normal people, not just power brokers, and that's where al jazeera is different. the mayor of the city announced that he was doing the way with the curfew. that was supposed to get everybody. it's international perspective with the human touch zooming way in, and then pulling back out again. food prices runs sharply and 2021. the un says they were the highest in a decade, warns there are no guarantees. they'll fall this year. what's behind the slide? and what will it take to bring prices down? this is inside story. ah. hello, welcome to the program. i'm kim vanelle. for many 2021 offered hope of some return

to normality. but as countries pushed to reopen after months of lock downs and tightly controlled borders, economist began to warn of a new looming crisis. the rising cost of food for you and food agency says prices jumped 28 percent during the year, reaching their highest level since 2011. in december, they eased slightly, but before that had been climbing for 4 months in a row. the surge is being blamed on a number of factors including supply chain bottlenecks and increased costs for raw materials and energy. higher food prices contribute to higher inflation, which affects consumers around the world. the u. n's food at the agriculture organization tracks prices. it found that all categories showed sharp increases in 2021. crucial food, staples, like mays and wheat surged by at least a 3rd. the cost of vegetable oil hit an all time high and 65 percent up on 2020, and sugar cost more than it has been 5 years. the u. n was the situation shows no

sign of improving this year. and could force dramatic changes in the way people eat . as always, poor nations are disproportionately affected, especially those reliant on imports. the un says the region most at risk of famine and food insecurity is sub saharan africa with the situation getting out of control in places like democratic republic of congo, nigeria, south sudan, and central african republic. and of contest on more than half the population is expected to face life threatening hunger this winter. food prices there have sort urgent aid is needed to save next year's harvest. and in latin america, the pandemic has pushed countries like venezuela and peru even further into food insecurity, with significant increases in poverty and hunger. the, let's now bring in a gas. joining us from cape town is jane. that is the senior directorate in the department of environmental and geographical science at the university of cape town

in rome. there is a, a c, n senior economist at the united nations food and agriculture organization. and scott from new delhi is the percent hop. she's professor of economics at embed call university delhi, a variable. welcome to each of you. thank you for joining us here on inside story. i'd like to begin with you about as a, about the on just a quaint to have you as what is it that has driven food prices. so holly, well as you nice, i guess summarize there are we talking about food prices? if you're wanting to measure of international price going up in international markets and composed of many commodities, each of them for different reasons. so it's been hard to say, this is the reason for the meat went up. for one reason or another did rise the increasing prices to start looking back. i would say during the last quarter in

2020 and then it continued continuously all the way to now. yes, there was a little bi line and you also mentioned that it was also going to be defined during july except those 2 months. you had every month going up. if i were to generalize, i would have said that the demand surprise is strong world world level despite health issue. despite the corporate and all the expect. ation that perhaps countries will be important less and so forth. you know, really materialized, you may continue strong and supply side. we have few problems, especially for crops this week. let's say production, short, all the major exporting countries were to blame. but also, you know, as you mentioned, issues a combination of factors take to get it on the supply side. that may surprise you man, situation type for almost all the 4 or 5 category of commodities. now

the issue is that it's been continuous, it's been going up. yes, you said that it was decline, but you would have expected that usually before the pressure down demand will that won't level but the whole situation. so you need to be printed use and i would say more. ok, let's cross over jane, by the way in cape town. jane africa subsaharan, africa in particular, as we discussed earlier, is one of the places most at risk of food insecurity. what impact to these high prices having there so much of that, it was already in crisis before the sued price increases. so we know that estimation, but about just the veterans population already go hungry and the 3 quarters are unable to afford a nutritionally adequate diet. and so when you compound the impact of others, the price increases, we see the effect. and obviously a lot of focuses is on those kind of complex affected countries like softer done

likes, interest or public and we see critical food insecurity there. so for example, is after done is estimated about 70 percent of the population will need food relief . however, i think we, we maybe get to hold up in those, those conflict perfect countries and fail to recognize the magnitude of the christ across country as a whole. and many, many households are kind of at the, on the cusp of being for the food insecure. and these 3 price increases will push them into that next, next crisis. before we move on and cross over to new delhi, i just want to ask you 4 of us because you're off and we can, we can use java and you know, we forget that. but not everybody uses this jargon. what do we mean by food insecure? so so food institute is different to hunger. so food insecure is really that the uncertainty about where you're going to come from about being unable to access an adequate diet. so often it extends beyond based under and really age that,

that challenge of getting a nutritious by of knowing where you're going to come from and having kind of rely them to why. and so we think about food insecurity as being based on that food available. are you able to access it physically, economically, socially? are you able to utilize the foods that you get and is that system stable? recently there was also added on another to i mentioned by agency. so what kind of, how do you have in that system and how sustainable is to do system that's providing ok. let's go up to new del 80 percent. how. what impact a these highest food prices having in india and what was the situation like before? 2021. that of subtlety 0. firstly, been talk about the impact of inflation. india is in a slightly different base because we don't see any high field installation here yet . as far as staples are concerned, that which is also because the means think concise and meet india is food or is

sense sufficient in terms of production. so we don't depend on the boards and the production of these products have not been affected in the goal. would years either, but for food such as balances and oil, india has also seen very high inflation over the last many months. and these are crucial compliments of diets in india as being the main source of protein. it belongs, being the main source of fact in indian diets. so that inactive and b c a t in people's dies that they're not able to consume enough of these foods. and this needs to be seen in the context of on food insecurity and my nutrition and india even before 2021 for long been all of that on the india seen high levels of economic growth in terms of might in addition be not made much progress. and this some date, i would suggest that 2 thirds of indian population could not afford the balance

diet before we began. and of course the band to make because of the lock down, somebody can only slow down be again, have a lot of evidence showing that the situation was there are many more people have fallen below the poverty line and are not ira. what would, what you would define as being food insecure, even this, not that they're sleeping hungry, but not getting inadequate day. i don't, as i see on you mentioned demand and supply as, as, you know, sort of generalizing but, but 2 of the big issues at play. i was interested to read about the role of energy prices and, and fertilizer. because you know, as governments spend money and, and energy prices go up, what me, what impact is that going to have as we go head into 2022. yes. in fact the, the concern that we we rethink the community. surely we'll

have to keep in mind for that month because usually. ready not the culture you do get high prices, you know, for one reason or another but or the culture is, is quite, quite a strong response. foreman's go best. high prices may be bad for consumers, producers and fall is differently. we try to make the best out of it, but this assumes that the cost of production is not going to go out as much or even exceed. in this case, there isn't much in terms of investing and increasing production. and this is always the danger. it doesn't happen often. what happens very package just somehow . you're confronted with the situation where fertilize, the prices are big skyrocket. and for many parts of the world, farmers would say, wait, wait a 2nd, i'm just going to put that on the ground because it's just going to cost me so much . and my profit margin may, will be frank. so is not really

a deal that would get that sort of the response that we would normally get in terms of increasing production. and this comes right at the time when you know, climatic conditions, extreme weather conditions as wrong time can really, really destroy, you know, let's say the prospects basically all the way, all right, to day for the sake. so it is a warning situation. a price is high, surprise, barely adequate, and having some certainty about production. now, fertilizer is being part of it is actually also energy price. actually, most of it is because of prices and gas prices and what happened to it. and this is just one aspect where energy comes into play. let's say we the be the prospects that you're now, but those from all the other aspects of any of the industry, dependence on energy shoot, not conventional, so for transport and so forth. and then there is no, no more than a decade a,

a alternative way. probably you have different re encouraged it, bigger production off. let's say it's an on biodiesel. so for, for a corner and, you know, from, from under agriculture, crops stop or production of biofuels and that usually happens. you man gets a stronger and stronger the higher the energy prices go. which means that you also have that distraction that we seem to be getting. now i'm not, i don't want to join a very dark picture about this old thing. there is still time. we don't know exactly what the production solution is going to be just. busy a year to be true. well, i think we need to be more careful than usually on the year because we are starting it after like 14 months of increasing prices and the food inflation that's mentioned basically, procedures in many countries on top of inflation in krisha is coming from basically

all sides because of the cold weekend. ok, i want to pick up on something you said in and cross over to jane battersby. just mentioning the weather and climate change. what impact if any, has weather and climate change had on what we're seeing now in terms of, of the skyrocketing food process? it's, i'm heading across the board often trying to think about an individual country and it's climate dimensions. and so, you know, it is of africa, we've had regional droughts, we recently had a massive increase in price and simply because of a drought in a particular region in the country. and yet we're also experiencing the global effects. so the, the very high oil prices we, oil prices with experienced are the result of gas and lexy area. and so we need to think about how a globalized system is resilient and vulnerable to, to these some, these climate sharks. i think one of the questions we need to think about then is

how do we make the system more resilient to these ongoing shocks that are going to become increasingly present in our systems and indeed, are they ok deficit. how i want to ask you about china one analyst posited another potential reason for the rising prices. china is hoarding supplies . the u. s. department of agriculture saying, trying to is expected to have 69 percent of of the entire world maze reserves in the 1st half of the crop here 2020 to 60 percent of its rise, 51 percent of its weak wheat. rather, what's your take is china also to blame i think was linking this to what the previous speaker said, and i don't know what the true picture in china is. we don't know the data. but what we do know from a state in india is that, that is also the question of who controls the systems. and as you're getting into more globalized systems, be audibly to all these kinds of shots of

a southern country making certain kinds of decisions or climate changes. one part of the word affecting the whole month, oil prices going up and so on. so i think all of this actually and the experience of the into go to deal with the last 2 years and always what it really wants us to is to ask rather questions on how to be moved towards more decentralized systems. like i was saying in the context of india, inflation is in those crops which we import props, which we had a sense of urgency in about 30 years back bunsen oil, for example. similarly in the base of rice and meat because we have enough, it really doesn't affect india. what is happening in other countries. so i would say, rather than pointing fingers, it's also time to look at a more decentralized full system even live in a country like in the country. like, and i would say it's been very centralized at the national level. something that communities have control over where farmers get, i mean the reader rises and at the same time that the mix of the crops that have

been growing in different parts of the word is suited to the local environment at the local to my i know and there's another example which is put forward, which is katara during the blog paid, cut, our move to become much more self sufficient in terms terms of it's food production . i'd come back to you about the on what initiatives are there out there right now to try and ease up. i know you don't want to be to doomsday, maybe not an impending crisis, but to ease the situation that we have now. you know, as, as jane was saying, your, how do we make the food supply system more resilient? well, either way, you know, we've been trusting the markets. and we, we, i think markets have more or less international markets have more or less delivered on, on what we expect to supply just and so forth. we have issues back, you may recall 200-891-0118 lot of explore restrictions that

interference in the market actually resulted in much higher prices. right at the time was the issue. in fact the restrictions and rice exports. one reason today to be talking about high prices, what we don't probably see is sort of a crisis scale we saw last time. is that incidently right along the one of the very few countries are few commodities where we prices spell in 2021. competing 2022, i think on average for the set. and that's why we're calling from india superior to depletion in india. this issue is because of quite an apple rice situation. so what i'm trying to say here is that you learn quite a bit from the last. and i think what we learned is that if you just go and add hall measures and you are an important export is bound to only create problems of

the world level below to actually create problem domestically eventually for your own benefit from the price. would not this fall, this very market approach has more or less worked quite well, and we hope that it could be sustained. and this could be in itself a sort of like at the international level, what has been happening for last crisis was stablished and of agriculture marketing formation system. i g 20 is also hosted here. and actually one objective is that all the exclusions and importers will major ones are part of this group. they get together once a month to discuss world. we do discuss what's happening, the statistics numbers and also policy. and i think this is, this has helped us quite a bit, at least if nothing for coordination of the policy. i think this is probably just because one of the things that could be single out for all the international side

in helping to create a more stable, predictable markets. if i may just conclude on this because china was mentioned in china, i just mentioned the statistics about china. but. busy you have to be very careful . the u. s. number about reserves in china was interpreted in some corner. this is china gone to the market and bought all this things that were 50 percent off the world. but that's not what us the a man, and that's not the real situation. these are stocks in china today and need to present more than 50 percent of the global see are having a bad, a really low and those numbers are not official numbers because trying to does not publish them and beat us the us and other information sources. we don't have knowledge about the stocks not just for trying to look for almost in that country. so that is a reserve that has been carried over from one year to another. it doesn't mean it can be useful or you can just be fed to people tomorrow. you need china important

science. and this year, at the beginning of the year, we saw prices went up last because of trying to develop the medical corps. the demand for should be and if you map for me at the very beginning of the year because it be okay to pick 6, i hear i hear what you think. yeah, i hear what you're saying. i know this is exactly why we invite people like you on is to get to the bottom of statistics like that, which on face value can be quite shocking. coming to you jane bed is be with talk about, you know, at the macro level, the level of policy of government, of, at a global level. but on the human level, when food becomes very expensive and the quality of, you know, the cost of living is already very high. what sort of societal impact do you think we might see? i mean, we've seen process across the world. this year will last year in 2021 over the rise and called rising cost of living. i know that you can't simplify something to say, you know, food is expensive, therefore people are protesting. but do you think we might see, you know,

and impact society as a result of food becoming more expensive? absolutely, so we've been doing research throughout this, this time period, seeing, seeing the impact of it on individuals and households and seeing how people are changing their diets. changing their food, pushing patterns, reducing their culture, but also the impact that it has on people psyche the impact that it has on social networks when they become too strain. and yes, long term we offering social protests sometimes not explicitly about me, but we believe our author base protests and addresses but i think also part of the solution to these challenges. also, risks in understanding how people navigate these questions and see how people seek out these points of resilience. seek out the diverse students system, seek out the, the kind of more social less market based systems and seeing how to build visit in

those systems may well provide us with a buffer to some of the worst excesses of the food crest price crisis. at the moment, the percent, i know that you are a professor of, of economics. you're also a food security specialist. in terms of politics though, do you think they're all eyes will now be on policymakers to get the right balance to find a way to, to lift economies, post pandemic. but also ensure that the, the cost of food doesn't go up too much. absolutely. so even if you look at the last time when there was this kind of global, a full pres, inflation after 20089, we did see what is called food riots in many parts of the world. and also under protest, which we're not about food, but many scholars of then linked it to the fact that the installation, the food items were so high and which led to a lot of discontent among people resulting in in brought this in. i think now that

kind of would say that says even more seat is concerned because given always its own sort period, when people have been losing jobs in gums have been going down. and on top of that, mental raises increase and it's bound to become a social problem as well, along with being the more electrical issue that you have a health plan to make on the one hand. and on the other side, people are not able to feed themselves enough. so this is something that all governments would be questioned about and shouldn't be the only concern. it's unfortunate that many are still not seeing the crisis, but it is something that so stating at us very quickly. we've got about 45 seconds left. it's a big question for a quick answer to you. deeper center i how do you think policy makers will respond in terms of, you know, is this an opportunity to rethink how we do better, how we do better in terms of rising prices? how we do better in terms of supply chains?

so i don't think that it is an opportunity for us to completely ping our foot systems, rather than having b solutions like in india, are now about 80 percent of the population that be subsidized, ice and beach. but that's not enough. what we need is a more in depth looking into the system by a diet, which means we're looking at agriculture differently. what i was saying earlier, thinking about a more be centralized system, but i do crops growing using a i think all of this can be done. there's a lot of research and ideas on how this could be a t, all right, and this might be ok. we have to leave it there for time. thank you so much for joining us. all about guess jane bad as b a is a about the on and depressing and we appreciate it and thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website challenges or dot com. and for the discussion,

go to our facebook page since facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. handle is at a date inside story from me can vanelle and the whole team here, and they'll have a january on that just i you year we look back on us president joe biden supposed deal in office 12 months on from the capital building by be part of the stream enjoy most social media community. as sierra leone recovery from civil war continues. we mock 2 decades since the end of one of africa's most political complex, the bottom line, steve clemons dives headlong into the u. s. issues that shape the rest of the world as we enter the 3rd year having 19,

we go back to woo hm. where it all began and investigate how far we've come. since the pandemic stuff, january on a just the rod on and counting the cost inflation supply chain. why resume on the chrome? i've defined 2021. so what's in store for 20? $22.00. we have a gram profit. john's, at the heart of china's economic woes, will beijing be able to revive the growth and going mainstream? is it another, begin a crypto currency? counting the cost on al jazeera and talked to al, just a wild alarm. we listen, design is are making serious efforts in order to in t and to stop, to turn the we meet with global use maintenance, talked about the stormy stant. imagine how we understand the differences and similarities have cultures across the world. said no matter what

lucy does, laura will bring you the news and current affairs that matter. to you, al jazeera ah, ah, castanan detains its former intelligence chief on suspicion of treason. after days of violent protests, ah, hello, i am. how am i he had seen this is al jazeera life from doe ha. also coming out at least 16 people freeze to death in northern pakistan. thousands more stranded after heavy snowfall. a weekend curfew is imposed in new delhi.