I have been trying to find a comparison of retail prices for food around the world.

[JDPriestly]

Does anyone know where that might be. AOL has one, but it mostly focuses only on industrialized nations.

I found this on energy prices.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/food-price-comparison-around-the-world/?photo=2#!fullscreen&slide=988853

Could someone help? I am interested in the prices of food for consumers around the world. I am also interested in the cost of housing in various countries. I would like to know how far paychecks stretch in various countries.

Thank you.

[enlightenment]

1. The Economist does a yearly housing comparison, if that helps.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/11/global-house-prices

Interactive chart - it appears preset at US/UK/Japan but you can change the countries.

I'm not familiar with this site, but it does look like it could allow you to compare food prices:

http://www.numbeo.com/food-prices/

[leveymg]

2. There's the Economist's "Big Mac Index", but that isn't food (or about food costs, it's about

currency arbitrage).

Try Googling, "global comparison of staple food costs". Lots of stuff out there:

About 1,980,000 results (0.40 seconds)
Search Results

Food Price Comparisons Around the World - DailyFinance
www.dailyfinance.com/photos/food-price-comparison-around-the-world/‎
The average American consumer can't help but complain about food prices these days. The cost of various staples just seems to keep rising. But how does what we pay for certain items in the U.S. compare to countries around the world?
Comparing basic Food and Staple Prices around the world., page 1 ...
www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread873130/pg1‎
Aug 19, 2012 - I thought it would be interesting to compare basic food prices around the world as they are talking doom and gloom with all the droughts and ...
Global food prices in 2011: Questions & Answers | Oxfam International
www.oxfam.org › Home › Campaigns‎
World food prices reached a new historic peak in January 2011, exceeding prices ... Rice prices fortunately remain fairly stable with prices in December 2010 less than ... The current situation is similar to 2007-8, but there are some differences:.
The Market Monitor - Trends of staple food prices in vulnerable ...
reliefweb.int/.../world/market-monitor-trends-staple-food-prices-vulnera...‎
Oct 29, 2012 - This bulletin examines trends in staple food and fuel prices, the cost of the ... most vulnerable to the tightening of the global grain markets. ... 9 percent respectively during Q3-2012 compared to the same quarter of last year.
Food Price Watch - April 2011 - World Bank
www.worldbank.org › Site Map › Index › FAQs › Contact Us‎
Apr 8, 2011 - Global food prices remain high, partly due to increasing fuel prices, and the ... A comparison of price changes within countries shows that price spikes, ... Key staples that remain significantly higher than what they were at this ...
Another blow for families: Fastest rise in prices of staple foods in five ...
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Food-prices-fastest-rise-5-years-blow-families.ht...‎
Feb 11, 2011 - Research by price comparison website MySupermarket.co.uk ... 'According to the United Nations, global food prices hit a record high last month ...
USDA ERS - International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns ...
www.ers.usda.gov › Publications › TB: Technical Bulletin‎
Sep 25, 2013 - ... Patterns: An Update Using 2005 International Comparison Program Data ... However, adjustments to price and income changes are not uniform across all ... Staple food consumption changes the least, while consumption of ...
World food prices and protectionism | vox
www.voxeu.org/article/world-food-prices-and-protectionism‎
May 9, 2012 - International food prices are on the rise and becoming increasing volatile, ... If we compare these prices with those of the last two decades, the ... by new export restrictions in staple and non-staple food products, respectively.
[PDF]
Recent trends in world food commodity prices: costs and ... - FAO
www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2330e/i2330e0

[okaawhatever]

3. The OECD is a good source and you can modify the charts. Also, the World

Economic Forum provides data but also uses many food reports from the UN. Here are some links. Our own USDA puts out quite a few reports.

The Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum works on food costs. On this page mid way down they link to the UN. I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for so i'm being general.
http://www.weforum.org/content/global-agenda-council-food-security-2013

OECD
http://www.oecd.org/statistics/headline-data.htm

[JDPriestly]

7. I found this, but you would have to be an economist to make sense of it.

http://www.fao.org/giews/english/gfpm/GFPM_10_2013.pdf

I'm looking for charts that say how much a pound of, say rice, or wheat, or oats, or whatever costs in Rwanda, Algeria, France, the US, Brazil or any country in the world if you buy it off the shelf, retail. That's the only kind of comparison allows us to compare wages in various countries in any meaningful way.

I tried googling all kinds of things. I can understand that the figures would be retroactive, say for 2012 in 2013, but I don't find anything that a lay person can understand. I think this is important to know when we talk about "free" trade and wages.

[okaawhatever]

10. Well the OECD link is much easier and it has the topics you're

discussing. If you go to the statistics page it is listed by topic or you can search by topic. I don't know what you're trying to quantify, but OECD has pretty easy info on many topics including trade, wages, income disparity, corruption, agriculture, etc. Click on the download excel and it's pretty clear for each topic. Good luck, sorry I can't help more.

[JDPriestly]

5. Yes. That is what I am looking for. We often see comparisons of wages around the world.

But wages mean nothing without the context of costs.

When someone says that someone in a country lives on $1 per day, what does that mean really?

Is it the same as living on $1 in Los Angeles or New York City? What does $1 buy in Uganda, in India? How much food? Lodging if any?

[JDPriestly]

8. Yes. Los Angeles housing is expensive, but our food, if you live on the East side, is reasonable.

[StrayKat]

9. Did you ever see the Time photojournalism series on what the world eats?

It doesn't compare individual items, but does give weekly budgets and photos of what that looks like.

http://world.time.com/2013/09/20/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/