Soaring food prices are raising new questions of whether the world will be able to feed itself at a time when energy costs are increasing, the climate is changing, and arable land and water resources are becoming scarcer due to poor management practices and rapid urbanization.

The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions, according to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It is the poorest people, he says, people living on one dollar a day or less, who are hit the hardest. "When people are that poor and inflation erodes their meager earnings, they generally do one of two things: They buy less food, or they buy cheaper, less nutritious food. The result is the same - more hunger and less chance of a healthy future.