Given the world-wide concern about rising food and energy prices, the research team has used IMPACT to examine the importance of key factors that are driving these trends—including rapid socio-economic change and the resulting change in diets, as well as policy-driven factors such as the explosion in crop-based biofuels production. The nutrition module of the IMPACT model also allows us to see the implications of these price trends on calorie availability and child malnutrition. The medium- to long-term projections in IMPACT, as discussed in several quantitative studies and scenario exercises, show a relaxation of price spikes for some commodities, but continued upward pressure on many commodity price trends, due to both environmental and socio-economic factors.

See the Food Prices topic page.