Squeezed – Highlights from Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility, Year 1 Results

High and rising food prices are no longer a surprise, but rapid price changes and the cumulative effects of five years of price rises are still squeezing people on low incomes: people are working harder and longer but wages are not keeping pace with inflation, so they are adapting where and how they can.

The first year results from a four-year study of how food price volatility affects everyday life, described in Squeezed, find important changes in people’s wellbeing and development in areas of life that policy neglects – domestic care work and informal social safety nets.

This report provides reasons to prepare for the next food price spike and recommendations on how best to do so: widen social assistance for the most vulnerable; be ready with temporary spike-proofing action; monitor the real impacts on people’s lives and wellbeing; rethink social protection policy to ‘crowd-in’ care and informal social assistance; and enable people to participate in policies to tackle food price volatiality.

 
Read the Report:
Squeezed - Highlights from Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility, Year 1 Results