The price of food is rising throughout the world, affecting especially the world''s poorest regions.

The high cost of energy that makes it more expensive to produce food, increasing demand in emerging economies, the use of grain as a fuel source and weather -- drought and floods in different regions that have damaged crops -- are factors in a global food crisis, said the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director, ELCA Global Mission.

Those factors have combined with food security issues -- international trade policies, access to markets, government subsidies of farmers, and global distribution of wealth and resources -- and a widening circle of long-term issues -- environmental degradation, oil depletion, population pressure and water scarcity, Malpica Padilla said.

"Our church has consistently and persistently addressed many of these factors in its year-in and year-out work to reduce hunger and poverty. Indeed, rural development and food security issues have been key elements of our World Hunger work," he said.

"Today we see these factors reinforcing each other in a truly vicious cycle that makes it increasingly difficult for families to get enough to eat. Given predictions that food prices will continue to rise, we are particularly concerned about those who are the most vulnerable, including those who live on a dollar or less each day, those who are refugees, and those, like AIDS orphans, who are dependent on others to provide food and shelter," Malpica Padilla said.