Farming, inflation are food for thought

When it comes to agriculture and inflation, top minds at home and abroad think somewhat alike.

This can be seen in the opening line of International Food Policy Research Institute Director Joachim von Braun's paper to the China Development High-Level Forum, which begins Saturday in Beijing. It reads: "World agriculture is in a crisis".

In the paper, exclusively obtained by China Daily, Braun said the surge in food prices has become "a major political concern" because of its role in inflation, its impact on the entire economy and its adverse effects on the wage-earning poor and middle class.