China is able to guarantee stable domestic food supply and price level due to the abundant grain reserves, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Tuesday.

With no quick fix available to stem the spiralling prices of everyday food items, the worsening situation in which the common citizen finds himself is being cited as the main reason behind the rising cases of suicide in the country.

GM foods can save the day

Macro economic imbalances are the talk of the day. The ongoing global food crisis, with agflation sweeping across the world, is attracting heated discussion everywhere. Food and fuel have never been intertwined so closely. Since commentators in the West have identified the supply gap on account of increasing demand in the world's two fastest growing economies

Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion, has written one of the most linked comments [hyperlink] in recent blogospheric history. Posted at Martin Wolf's quasi-blog, it's on the food crunch: * Chinese are eating cows which are eating grain which would otherwise have been eaten by Africa's poor. * Americans are turning grain into ethanol which would otherwise have been eaten by Africa's poor. * Europeans are banning genetically modified crops, which are Africa's main hope of growing enough grain to feed its own poor.

THE PERPETUALLY outraged in the political spectrum on Tuesday got fresh ammunition for their anti-US rhetoric when the White House faulted India and China for the surge in oil prices. The statement comes three days after politicians here interpreted a statement of President Bush

Mogadishu residents protested for a second day on Tuesday against food traders who are rejecting old currency notes, fuelling tension as residents go hungrier, witnesses said. Hundreds of youths barricaded roads, stoned vehicles and burned tyres in parts of the bombed-out Somali capital demanding that traders accept the worn-out Somali notes from residents desperately in need of food and other essentials.

The finance minister, Mr P. Chidambaram's proposal to impose a blanket ban on trading in food futures in India to contain prices has drawn sharp criticism from economists, one of who described the move as a "political gimmick." Mr Chidambaram, speaking at Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in Madrid on Monday, said, "The pressure is to suspend a few more food articles. If people perceive that commodity futures trading is contributing to a speculation-driven rise in prices, then in a democracy you will have to heed that voice."

The current crisis proves that agroenergy is not responsible for price rise. The deterioration of terms of trade is one of the historic factors behind underdevelopment, which should be understood not as a stage of development but rather a specific and distorted form in which peripheral economies are inserted into the world capitalist system. For the majority of these economies, colonial relations built around the export of raw materials were the primary cause of this trait.

The Asian Development Bank wound up its annual meeting Tuesday amid fears over soaring food prices and a debate over its role and relevance in Asia's rapidly changing economic landscape.