The Consumer Federation of America and the Grocery Manufacturers Association hosted a food policy conference on Monday where participants discussed the need for a more open flow of agricultural products in order to increase food supply, particularly in poor countries, and reduce prices, particularly on staple crops such as rice and corn. Gawain Kripke of Oxfam America claimed that high food prices could drive an additional 100 million people around the world deeper into poverty.

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Robbin Johnson, a teaching fellow for the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, said the U.S. agricultural trade policy must be reshaped to fit a global food system transformed by globalization.

Johnson said past policy decisions have brought “high import barriers and preferences for local production over imports, so we depend less on markets as a result,” he said.

“The global markets are going to have to adjust to this increased demand, and make sure that the most vulnerable and the poorest are taken care of because while there is dramatic growth in some areas of the world, there has been absolute stagnation in other parts,” [Gawain] Kripke said.

-Chris Scott