Rising Food Prices, Health Concerns Prompt Shifting Diets Worldwide, Oxfam Survey Says

"Rising food prices, hovering near record highs after a spike in grain costs, are changing diets particularly in developing countries such as Kenya, according to a survey issued by charity Oxfam on Wednesday," Reuters reports. The survey was conducted in 17 countries (6/15).

"The majority of people in most countries surveyed said they're no longer eating the same kind of food as they did two years ago, with 39 percent globally blaming rising food costs and another 33 percent citing health reasons," CNN reports. "Seventy-six percent of respondents in Kenya told Oxfam that they've changed their diets, with 79 percent blaming food prices. In Mexico, 65 percent of respondents changed diets, with more than half blaming prices as well," the news service writes. The survey shows that diets around the world "are changing fast and for too many people it is a change for the worst," Oxfam Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs said, adding, "Huge numbers of people, especially in the world's poorest countries, are cutting back on the quantity or quality of the food they eat because of rising food prices" (Thompson, 6/15).