Since 2006, food prices around the world have risen by 60 percent. High prices have created a public outcry — from tortilla riots in Mexico to protests over grain prices in parts of Africa.

Every year, this global food crisis is commemorated around the globe, on World Food Day, Thursday, October 16, by groups that want to increase awareness and year-round action to alleviate hunger. But, this year, in the midst of a credit crisis, and as the world’s richest nations come together to respond to save the financial markets, there is a sense that there isn’t the same urgency and coordinated international response to create global food relief programs.

A Frightening Prediction:

The World Bank predicts that high food and fuel prices will increase the number of malnourished people in the world by 44 million this year to reach a total of 967 million.

World Food Watch in Focus:

Worldfocus reports from Argentina, India, Kenya, and the Ukraine on the global food crisis. Watch the four-part series. (Originally aired: 10/9/2008). Producers Bryan Myers and Megan Thompson and correspondent Edie Magnus report on the food crisis from the grocery aisle to the countryside in Buenos Aires, where citizens are trapped by food inflation, a slumping economy and one of the worst droughts in almost 50 years. Watch. (Originally aired 10/8/08).

See how bloggers worldwide are covering global poverty and hunger, and the top submissions for the HungerBytes Video Contest, a YouTube and World Food Programme video contest on hunger.

Hunger in the U.S:

David Beckmann of Bread for the World addressed the problem of hunger within the United States on Bill Moyers Journal. Watch. (Originally aired: 4/11/08).

Amid global concerns over food prices, the highly contested Farm Bill has major implications for U.S. food and agriculture policy. Watch: NewsHour,
NOW on PBS “A Growing Hunger”, and EXPOSÉ on THE JOURNAL “Cash Cows and Cowboy Starter Kits.”