Reading the World Bank's new report on the tremendous increase in food prices we're seeing across the globe, it starts to look like if there were a recipe for driving food prices sky high, we're following it like a scrupulous cook. The WB attributes the fact that, say, the cost of ton of exported Thai rice has risen from $365 in January to $560 last month, to three main factors, each of which we seem to be pursuing with aggression: a dependence on biofuels; high energy costs, and a weak U.S. dollar.

So, in case we needed some reminders of why pandering on ethanol instead of creating sustainable energy policies, entering into unnecessary foreign wars, and destabilizing the global economy with dumb, dumb investments are all bad ideas, there's the fact that folks from Sri Lanka to Burkina Faso to Costa Rica are finding it tough to get enough good food to eat.

Of course, when food prices rise to unsustainable levels, the problem isn't just about food alone: the increase in wheat prices in Yemen, says the WB, is threatening to roll back all the gains in poverty reduction made there since 1998.