Another thing pushing up prices is the cost of diesel. This runs the food distribution system, at least in most of the "developed" world. Diesel-powered ships move food, jet fuel is close to diesel, home heating oil is also....

Back in the bad ol' 70s there were all sorts of ideas put forward to help reduce "our dependence upon foreign oil" (pick your country, I was in Ireland when the Whidee Island disaster instituted rationing). I had a problem with, for example, home methane digesters (although they might still be feasible for a family farm), but research into such areas as biomass conversion, tidal power, wind power, and many other all but ground to a halt when the price of oil went down.

Now we pay the price for complacency, and for forgetting that R&D is basic to any economy.

I think I'm going to plant a fairly serious garden this year....