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On Wednesday the United Nations’ monthly Food Price Index report was released. The Food Price index showed a rise in prices for the seventh consecutive month, and prices are the highest they have been in the 21 years since the UN began keeping track. In addition to the many factors fueling uprisings and protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, rising food prices are being pointed to as a significant cause. According the US State Department over 60 food riots have taken place worldwide in the last two years. In a press conference on Thursday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was asked about the Fed’s role in rising food prices. Bernanke said the Fed had no responsibility for rising food prices, and said the causes lay with the regulators of emerging markets and a global demand for more “sophisticated diets.” Meanwhile Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Robert Alvarez finds there is a direct link between the sky rocketing cost of food, and Wall Street. Alvarez writes that deregulation taking place under President Clinton through the Commodities Futures and Modernization Act of 2000 has led to wealth for Wall Street and near-starvation for many in the Middle East.

GUEST: Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies

Read Robert Alvarez’s article here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/04-4