Question

how do fuel prices both high and low contribute to our globalized food economy

Answer 1

The present world food system is highly dependent on fuel and transport. In the near and medium term, fuel will almost certainly become less affordable, making the new, highly fuel-dependent agricultural production system less safe and feeding less affordable. Therefore, food self-sufficiency needs to be encouraged and the need for fuel inputs to the food system at all rates minimized.

The relation between food and oil is structural, and in recent years prices of both food and fuel have risen and fallen more or less in tandem. Modern agriculture uses oil products for fueling farm equipment, transporting additional inputs to the crop, and transporting crop production to the end user. Oil is also used in agricultural chemicals as inputs too. Consequently, rises in oil prices put pressure on all these elements of the commercial food systems.

In addition, as oil prices increase, demand for biofuels, the only non-fossil liquid fuels capable of replacing petroleum products in current combustion engines and motor vehicles, is also growing. Biofuels are also also made from maize and other agricultural products. With the rise in demand for these renewable fuels, crop prices are pushed upward, making food even less affordable.
Export-led farming strategies are also rising the world; vulnerability to high oil prices. Most donor agencies also urged the less developed countries to concentrate on cash crop production at the expense of local consumer staples