Experts have warned that vital corn-producing and soybean-producing states in the U.S. are in the throes of intensifying drought conditions — a revelation that has resurrected concerns of sparking another global food price shock. In 2008, it was a spike in food grain prices in global markets that led to widespread rioting and political instability across nations.

In a report released last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor agency (USDM) noted that “The widest drought to grip the U.S. in decades is getting worse with no signs of abating