£18 a pint – 'the price of global warming'

Published on Tuesday 27 October 2009 21:30

SOARING food prices could leave UK consumers forking out almost £6.50 for a loaf of bread and more than £18 for a pint of beer by 2030, unless urgent action is taken to avert dangerous climate change.

A study for Friends of the Earth examining how warming temperatures could affect food supplies said the prices of basics such as bread, rice and pasta could all spiral in the next two decades, leaving millions hungry in the UK. Yields of staple crops are predicted to fall as global temperatures rise, while climate change will put extra pressure on land and resources such as water, with more droughts, floods and extreme weather events expected.

The report by, Oxford University lecturer Ray Hammond, is based on price increases recorded by the World Bank and projections by the International Food Policy Research Institute.