Is there a worldwide shortage of rice? No, but rice is more scarce in some regions than it has been in recent years. and there is an ongoing debate over what the next policy steps should be. In countries like Vietnam, neither the worst in the world nor especially notable for its economic freedoms, authorities temporarily suspended exports to avert a domestic supply crisis. Haitian authorities imposed price controls, and other countries like Cambodia have also limited exports countries or imposed other controls on exchange. Recent food-price-related unrest extends from Haiti to Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Egypt, numerous sub-Saharan African nations, the Philippines, Peru and other South American countries. Thankfully, rice prices have eased just a bit of late.

My initial idea in writing this Free Market Minute was to focus on the recent food riots in nations critically dependent upon rice as a staple food. Those riots have largely been sparked by the sharp rise in food prices in general and have in several places become deadly. It’s what is driving up scarcity and price that may be worth trying to discuss.

What appears to be a kind of worldwide food crisis is not a rice or other food commodity shortage. It’s not a massive crop failure. Mostly, it’s a crippling confluence of wishful-thinking monetary policies pursued by foreign nations as well as the U.S., and energy and other policies that have dramatically increased the scarcity and cost of providing basic foodstuffs. These are the basic foods—rice, corn, wheat and other grains—upon which large portions of the world’s poorest populations depend for survival. Survival just got harder.

Market prices for rice and many basic foodstuffs have jumped by 30 to 60 percent in the last 6 to 12 months. This raises the question of affordability, not availability.

In general, the debate in the worldwide community has not settled on a consensus of opinion. Is there too much freedom in markets, or too little? But then, this is not primarily a market created phenomenon, it’s the market response to a confluence of polices affecting trade, energy, agriculture, and credit markets.

There is clearly also a monetary part of the food-price-crisis phenomenon. Every central bank uses its credit and money-creating powers to accomplish policy goals. These range from job creation and economic growth to paying for government’s programs, subsidizing industries, and retiring government debt.

If a central bank could create prosperity simply by printing money and lending for various projects, it could generate the mythical ‘free lunch.’ No matter how many times that myth is played out, however, unintended consequences surface. Inflated currency drives up prices without creating prosperity along the way. Domestic as well as imported goods are more expensive for everyone. And the poorest people in the society are the ones most desperately affected by the rising prices. U.S. markets have the advantage of greater wealth and less dependence on any single food item. Thus, no riots are likely from U.S. consumers facing the same world price as consumers of basic goods elsewhere.

Countries that have experienced recent food riots are generally also countries that are inflating their own currencies. The cost of this free lunch to their own citizens has been dramatic and even deadly.

To conclude: there are multiple causes for what has amounted to a food crisis in a number of underdeveloped nations. The market prices—for rice and other goods—are the result of unintended consequences that have their source in monetary as well as industry-specific policies. Unless policy makers figure out how to eliminate the realities of scarcity that determine supply and demand, we will always expect secondary consequences. The more far-reaching and comprehensive are the monetary and market interventions, though, the more drastic the price result for the world’s most vulnerable populations.