The soaring price of food staples — including rice, flour and cooking oil — in 2008 drove frustrated consumers out into the streets in angry and sometimes violent protests. More and more countries would grapple with food crises and chronic hunger, officials with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said.

More than a year later, food shortages continue, though global prices have stabilized. Prices for meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats have dropped from their 2008 peak, as shown in the chart of food price indices below. However, sugar prices have increased.

Still, leaders continue to warn food crises remain a persistent threat. In late September 2009, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, along with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, spoke of the need for a new and co-ordinated approach to dealing with food shortages.

"This is an issue that affects all of us because food security is about economic, environmental and national security for individual homelands and the world," Clinton said.

Ban warned the crisis was far from over, citing a weak economy that has reduced the purchasing power of consumers, and depleted grain reserves. In mid-November, the FAO will hold another World Summit on Food Security in Rome.

In October, the FAO also suggested that in order to feed the world's 9.1 billion people in 2050, agricultural investments in developing countries should increase to $83 billion US.