Food prices rise worldwide

Worldwide prices for meat, dairy and cereal products continued to rise last month, a United Nations report finds.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found average food prices rose by 1.4 percent in September following steady July and August prices, according to The New York Times. Corn and soybean prices reached record highs as drought conditions in the United States, Europe and Russia limited agricultural production. With a 7-percent rise, dairy-product prices increased the most, driven by higher animal-feed costs, while meat prices increased by 2.1 percent.

The global increases put developing countries at particular risk, said Colin Roche of the nonprofit international aid group Oxfam. “Governments must ensure that these high prices do not tip more vulnerable people into hunger,” Roche said in a statement. “We cannot afford to sleepwalk into the next food crisis.”