The Washington Post recently published a graphic depicting the supply and demand of the global grain trade broken down by regions. It was published in tandem with their article “The New Economics of Hunger,” which examines the roots of the current rise in global food prices. Notice anything peculiar?

To point you in the general direction: According to this analysis, North America imports about 24.8 million metric tons of grain while exporting 130.2 million tons. Comparably, the second largest exporter of grain is South America, at 41.5 million tons, while simultaneously importing 23.9 million. The Former Soviet Union comes in third - exporting 27.6 million tons and importing 6.6 million and Europe in forth - consuming about 26.4 million tons of grain and exporting 14.8 million tons.

So who are the main consumers of all this grain? If you guessed developing nations – you guessed correctly.

This begs the question: if developing countries have to spend up to 80% of their earnings to developed countries simply to cover basic necessities, what can they possibly do to increase their wealth – both as an individual and as a nation?