Over the past two years, food prices have soared -- and plummeted. As crops are increasingly shifted to biofuel production, will food prices soar again? Will people starve as a result? What are the hidden relationships between the food on your plate and the gas in your car? Will economic recovery lead directly to massive price inflation in both food and energy? In this book, one of the world's leading experts untangles the complex global relationships between food, energy, and economics and helps readers come to their own conclusions about the future of food. Pat Westhoff reveals what really causes large swings in food prices and what is likely to cause them to rise and fall in the future. Westhoff discusses all the factors that drive changes in the cost of food: not just biofuel production, but also weather, income growth, exchange rates, energy prices, government policies, market speculation, and more. Next, he walks through several of the most likely scenarios for the future, offering insights that will be indispensable to consumers, commodity speculators, and policymakers alike.

帕特里克•韦斯特霍夫 Patrick Westhoff

韦斯特霍夫毕业于爱荷华大学的政治经济学专业，之后服役两年时间，期间与小型农场主一同工作。在田纳西大学获得拉美研究的硕士学位后，韦斯特霍夫回到了爱荷华州，并于1998年在爱荷华州州立大学获得农业经济学的博士学位。

从1992年至1996年，韦斯特霍夫作为一名经济学家参加了美国参议院农业、营养和林业委员会。他参与了许多重要法案的制定，其中包括1996年农业法案。

韦斯特霍夫的大部分职业生涯都在与“粮食与农业政策研究院”一同研究农产品市场和政策的相关问题，其研究结果被许多机构采用，包括美国国会、联合国粮食与农业组织、经济合作与发展组织，以及欧洲、亚洲、非洲、拉美洲的国立研究院。在2007年11月，韦斯特霍夫被任命为“粮食与农业政策研究院”密苏里大学分部的联合主席。他也在密苏里大学农业经济学院教授课程。