I know what some people will say when they read this: that the two crises have nothing to do with each other. But I can't help connecting them as I read the headlines in the financial and international press.

The first is the food crisis – the explosion in the cost of food that has touched off riots around the world. It seems to have taken us all by surprise. The news media failed to see it coming, and even the experts seem unsure of why it is happening and what to do about it.

The international price of rice has shot up like a rocket since the beginning of the year – from a little over $300 to as much as $1,000 a ton. It sparked violence in Haiti that cost the prime minister his job, and caused unrest in Africa and Asia, where rice is the staple food for 3 billion people. The cost of other grains - wheat, corn and soybeans - has also surged. The price of one type of wheat recently jumped 25 percent overnight. There have been bread riots in Egypt and even pasta protests in Italy. North Korea, which has long lived on the edge of hunger, is facing a huge humanitarian crisis. And the World Bank says 33 countries risk social upheaval as a result of the soaring food prices.

Panic buying by countries, such as the Philippines, that need to import rice has led to export restrictions by rice producing countries, including Vietnam, India, China and Cambodia. That may give a little relief to domestic consumers, but will push the price up even further for the rest of the world.

The big question is what has caused this explosion in grain prices to occur in so many countries at the same time? Climate change may be part of the answer. So, too, is the rise in living standards in India and China, where people now eat more meat. It requires ten times more grain to produce meat than it does to feed people on cereals directly. Government subsidized production of corn to make biofuels is taking a growing portion of that crop out of the food chain. And the rising price of oil has pushed up the cost of fertilizers and fuel for farmers.

Josette Sheeran, head of the UN's World Food Program – the world's biggest distributor of food aid – describes what the crisis means for people in the worst-hit countries: “For the middle classes, it means cutting out medical care. For those (who live) on $2 a day, it means cutting out meat and taking the children out of school. For those on $1 a day, it means cutting out meat and vegetables and eating only cereals. And for those on 50 cents a day, it means total disaster.” The explosion in food prices means that the WFP will need an additional $700 million just to distribute the same amount of food as last year.

Seven hundred million dollars? That's peanuts compared to the billions investment banks and hedge funds around the world have lost in the recent months through greed and reckless risk-taking in the subprime mortgage and credit markets. It's also small potatoes, compared to the total of $29 billion the world's top 50 hedge fund managers earned for themselves last year.

But what does the financial crisis have to do with the food crisis?

Many American farmers blame the recent wild gyrations in grain prices on a surge of money – as much as $300 billion - that has been pouring into the food, metals and energy markets from the hedge funds and other financial institutions. In short, as a recent New York Times article reported, the farming community believes Wall Street has played a role in shoving up grain prices. Or, as The Times of London commented more bluntly, “The same people who brought you the subprime crisis and the credit crunch are partly responsible for ($10 a gallon) diesel and food riots in Haiti and Egypt.”

A cheap shot, perhaps, and probably unfair, but when I think of the food crisis I can't help thinking of the commodity speculators that have reaped billions at the expense of the poor. My mind works that way.