This report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations prompted an article in this morning’s Globe and Mail. With rising oil prices putting pressure on farmers operating costs, the price of food is continuing is strong push upwards, putting pressure on developing countries and will lead to inflationary challenges in the developed world – which may in turn prompt a the rise in interest rates we’re all anticipating.

Some interesting facts:
Sugar Price index is up 2% over last month, Meat Price index is up 16% from this time last year. The cereal price index (wheat, rice, maize) is up 3.7% this month, its highest level since 2008, and the overall food price index is up 2.2 from last month, the highest since 1990 when prices started being recorded.

Yesterday, Warren Buffet spent 3 hours with the team at CNBC answering questions, providing insight, and waxing investment philosophy. You can find more of CNBC’s around the clock coverage of all things Buffett on the “Warren Buffet Watch” and blog.

A great weekend read is famed investor and business leader Warren Buffet’s annual letter to shareholders. As an admitted Buffett follower and Berkshire Hathaway shareholder, I have been anticipating this letter since the turn of the new year. You can find the letter for reading on the Berkshire Hataway website.

As expected the business news media have started with their interpretations and insights about his letter. Author of “Too Big to Fail” and Editor of NY Times “Dealbook” Andrew Ross Sorkin (who is one of the selected media panelists at the annual meeting in April 2011) has provided his report in this mornings’ edition of the NY Times. You can read the article here.

This morning on globeadvisor.com this article on the tobacco industry in China was a little bit of an eye-opener. While we have known for sometime that tobacco is big business, its social capital has fallen dramatically and the voice of pro-smoking advertisements and promotion has largely been curtailed in North America. In china however, its a totally different story. Big business and big cost. I am curious to know what the equivalent Canadian figures are. I will do some digging to see if I can find out.

China is starting to wake to the health-care costs of its citizens’ enthusiastic tobacco habit.

Profits from producing cigarettes – the country makes and consumes more than any other nation – will not be enough to pay the eventual cost of smoking-related diseases, according to China’s Center for Disease Control.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, which clears all film and TV in China, this month told producers to reduce the number of scenes involving tobacco products.

Some statistics:

Sources: Newsweek; the Hollywood Reporter; World Lung Foundation

300 million

Number of smokers in China.

800

Brands of cigarettes produced

in China.

2.3 trillion

Cigarettes produced in China in 2009.

2 million

Number of Chinese expected to die from tobacco-related illnesses each year by 2020.

1 million

Chinese die from tobacco-related illnesses each year.

$75-billion (U.S.)

Tobacco tax collected by the Chinese government in 2010.

Released this week by Fast Company magazine, an article was produced that provides a summary of the top 50 most innovative companies. Some surprises, some amazing businesses, and its no surprise that Apple is leading the way at number one. I have copied the top ten and provided links to their summaries in the article below. Keep innovating.

A great talk from former US President Bill Clinton at Yale University. Bill in my mind, is one of the best speakers in the world, his ability to communicate the importance of the issues he raises is remarkable. Take note of the facts and figures he has committed to memory. Its’ amazing. This is a great message to graduating students.

Here are two more interesting articles from Canadian publications that address the food crisis that is looming. Rocketing food prices are becoming a serious concern and as you can read from the Montreal Gazette article, it’s having a significant impact in our world.

The first article titled “Rain in Saskatchewan, revolution in Egypt: How soaring food prices helped topple dictator” examines how poor harvest’s in Canada may have directly contributed to the uprising in the middle east. An exert can be found below.

Did wet weather last summer in Saskatchewan help bring down Hosni Mubarak?

The surprising answer is yes, and the chain of events that links a poor 2010 wheat harvest in Western Canada to recent political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East – which culminated Friday in the forced resignation of Mubarak, the much-loathed Egyptian president – is raising difficult questions about world food production amid the cries of joy emanating from Tahrir Square in Cairo.

When a well-educated but impoverished vegetable seller in Tunisia set himself on fire in December, an act of protest widely viewed as the spark that unleashed this young year’s unrest across the Arab world, soaring food prices were identified as a major source of grievances in each country swept up in the furor, including Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Algeria.

The second article, from the Globe and Mail “Surging corn set to fuel widespread price hikes” discuss how corn, which is linked directly to a number of products we consume regularly will drive an increase in food prices, but also in the other products in which corn is used, fuel and fertilizers being examples.

Looking for a good indicator for where food prices are headed? Watch corn.

Corn’s impact on the food industry is unlike that of any other agricultural commodity. At its most basic level, corn is a food staple for billions of people around the world and a key ingredient in dozens of products like breakfast cereals, baked goods, breads, tortillas, chips, soft drinks and even bourbon. But its reach goes much further.

This is the most infectious music I have heard in so long. It has been around for a while, and its been in my itunes for sometime – and yet it wasn’t until this weekend that I really started to discover the ‘magic’ of this band. The following clips highlight a few of my favourite songs, and they really demonstrate what  a great performance they put on – and you can feel the authenticity and positivity in their passion for their music. I am absolutely in love with their music. I will make sure that I seem them live this year somewhere. I can’t wait for the release of the front man Alexander Ebert’s solo album on March 1st of this year either. The already leaked tracks “Truth” and “A Million Years” are incredible as well.