What does oil have to do with the price of bread? A lot

LONDON


We’re aware of this, usually in a marginal way, when we go to the supermarket or look at our weekly spending, but its connection to the larger crisis is elusive.

We might know, on some level, that the world’s billion very poor people, who often spend up to 90 per cent of their household budget on food when it’s expensive, are dramatically affected by these undulating prices. Earlier this year, there were pasta protests in Italy, baguette uprisings in France and full-scale food riots in Haiti and Cameroon.

But what does it have to do with the price of a loaf of bitumen? In other words, why have food prices come to track oil prices?

Globe and Mail