New food worry: China

Rising food prices have been a problem worldwide for the past year. According to the United Nations today, they might be about to get a lot worse.

The UN's food agency issued an alert today that warned that severe drought in China imperils the country's wheat growing capacity. The dry spell — China's worst in 60 years — is also, the UN says, leading to water shortages for both people and animals.

China is currently self sufficient in grain production, but if drought forces the country onto international markets to help feed its giant population, that could spark even higher prices around the world.

“China’s grain situation is critical to the rest of the world — if they are forced to go out on the market to procure adequate supplies for their population, it could send huge shock waves through the world’s grain markets,” Robert S. Zeigler, the director general of the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines told the New York Times.