The Economist on the food crisis

How many people live on $1 a day?

Food | The silent tsunami | Economist.com

...Roughly a billion people live on $1 a day. If, on a conservative estimate, the cost of their food rises 20% (and in some places, it has risen a lot more), 100m people could be forced back to this level, the common measure of absolute poverty. In some countries, that would undo all the gains in poverty reduction they have made during the past decade of growth...

Did you guess a billion?

In addition to the editorial, the Economist has essays on Bangladeshi and Chinese responses to food concerns. In the past the Economist has criticized China's insistence on food self-sufficiency, but they seem to have forgotten that.

They don't have any answers except the most obvious -- we need a billion in food aid quickly and stop the idiotic biofuel subsidies.

We need to a bit more creativity here ...