Australian wheat belt area of Wimmera, northwest of Melbourne. From the rice paddies of Asia....

This file photo taken on November 14, 2006 shows farmer Marshall Rodda inspecting his stunted wheat stalks, normally thigh high, and which have only managed only a few inches growth in the parched earth of the Australian wheat belt area of Wimmera, northwest of Melbourne. From the rice paddies of Asia to the wheat fields of Australia, the soaring price of food is breaking the budgets of the poor and raising the spectres of hunger and unrest, experts warn. In Australia, which usually ranks second after the United States as a global wheat exporter, several years of drought cut harvests to just 13 million tonnes last year from an average of 22 million tonnes.