Food Prices At All Time High In 2011

Eleanor West•Updated: June 8, 2015 1:23 pm EST

Lately, the news about food prices has been anything but uplifting, and Minnesota-based farm commodities trader Cargill recently confirmed that it's not likely to get better soon. Speaking at the Kingsman Sugar Conference in Dubai on Saturday, Paul Conway, Vice Chairman of Cargill said, "You don't have to be a reviving bull on commodities to believe that the era, which went from the '50s, '60s to '70s and early '80s, of ever decreasing food prices in real terms has probably come to an end."

In 2008, when the skyrocketing price of food led to riots in countries around the world, the FAO price index — set by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — averaged 200 points. Last year, the average was a staggering 228 points, 23 percent higher than in 2010.

While food prices have declined by 11 percent since December 2011, the cost of many commodities like wheat and raw sugar remain at price levels almost double those in 2005.