"Why your chicken rice just got pricier"

An excellent article in the local newspaper the other day. Excellent not because it has revolutionary content but because it bothered to explain why the food got expensive rather than the usual explanation of inflation and what not.

I especially love the title of the article and when they question:

"WHAT do the price of corn in Malaysia and oil in America have to do with your chicken rice?"

Surely I can somehow mention this in my research:

The price of corn, the main ingredient in chicken feed, has gone from $420 to $820 a tonne, triggering a 20 per cent hike in the price of fresh chicken, said Poultry Merchants' Association secretary Chew Kian Huat.

He added that corn prices worldwide are at a high because of increasing demand for grain from the biofuel industry.

News reports also attributed high corn prices to rising demand from developing countries, rising populations around the world, and a shortage in supply due to frequent floods and droughts.

As for oil, the cause is a combination of political instability in the Middle East, the surge in global oil consumption and worries about tight global energy supplies.

Oil prices, which hit a high of US$96 ($139) this month, are also adding to the costs of importing and transporting chicken.