FOOD prices across the world are falling. But families everywhere are still struggling to put bread on the table.

The cost of food across the globe was already high before Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year; there is no doubt that the worldwide trade in grain and fertiliser was disrupted by Russia’s invasion. The price of food was sent soaring to levels many people had not witnessed in their lifetimes.

But the fact is the price shock caused by the invasion ended many moons ago.

The UN reported last week that food prices have actually fallen for 12 months in a row because of good harvests in places like Brazil and Russia, and also because of an agreement to allow grain shipments to come through the Black Sea.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation food price index is actually lower now than it was when Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

But hard-pressed families are still facing exorbitant and still rising food prices, contributing to soaring inflation levels across the globe.

Even though the price of grains, vegetable oil, dairy and other agricultural commodities have fallen steadily from record highs, this has not reached the real world of shopkeepers, street sellers and families trying to make ends meet.

Food prices skyrocketed by 19.2 per cent in Britain in March 2023 — the biggest increase in nearly 46 years.

The figure was even greater in the nations of the European Union where food prices soared by some 19.5 per cent.

In the US food prices were up 8.5 per cent during March from a year earlier.

Even though it clearly has the power to do something about it, the White House complained last year that just four meatpacking companies had cornered the market and controlled 85 per cent of the country’s beef market.

It also said, as if this was somehow a revelation, that just four firms control 70 per cent of the pork market and 55 per cent of the poultry market.

These companies can and do use their power to raise prices at will — and then, if they choose, to reduce them to a level that was likely still above previous levels.

Rarely, if ever, are any of the benefits of the multi-millions made by these monopolies passed on to workers through increased wages or longer-term reductions in the cost of food.

Much of the increased costs in food comes from rising energy prices and transportation costs which workers also need to pay — but instead, they continue to see a reduction in how far their wage packets will stretch across the week.

The fact that food markets across the world are so interconnected should not be a surprise if one understands that around 10 mega-rich companies control pretty much everything that we buy to eat.

Nestle, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Unilever, PepsiCo, Danone, Mars, Associated British Foods, Mondelez and Wrigley control a massive patchwork of subsidiary companies between them.

These companies monopolise not only the food we eat but also the medicines we need if we get sick and much of the technology that dominates our lives.

Even as large swathes of the planet have little idea where their next meal is coming from these companies continue to make eye-watering profits and systematically deny workers the right to organise into unions to give themselves a chance of winning higher wages and improving working conditions.

These companies set the rules of international trade by buying up companies that threaten their positions and lining the pockets of politicians to ensure access to the raw materials they need to increase their profits.

The doctrine of “full spectrum dominance” by the US centres around the notion that the military might of America will be used to ensure nothing can get in the way of these companies piling up profits.

There is only the pretence of a separation between the interests of the state and these powerful private companies.

Behind these companies are the shadowy investment firms such as Blackrock and Vanguard who provide the cash for the likes of our “top ten” to flourish.

I will write more about these shadowy figures in a future column.

Most international trade is carried out in US dollars. The price of corn and wheat, for example, are quoted in dollars per ton.

When the price of these vital commodities is translated into local currencies any price drops disappear.

There are, of course, other factors that impact the cost of food.

In Kenya, drought added to food shortages and high prices arose from the impact of the war in Ukraine, and costs have stayed high ever since.

Corn flour, a staple in Kenyan households that is used to make corn meal known as ugali, has doubled in price over the last year.

In Europe, people are increasingly unable to cope with the spike in food prices, leading to regular protests across the continent.

In Hungary, ingredients companies, such as Cafe Csiga in central Budapest, have raised prices by around 30 per cent.

It’s the same picture in South Asia. In Pakistan, the price of vegetables, beans, rice and wheat is up as much as 50 per cent in a country already struggling on multiple levels.

This all points to the need to wrest power from both the shady figures who decide on whether large parts of the globe will eat today and the mighty dollar, the currency of world trade.

This makes the move by countries such as Brazil and China to reduce the power of the US dollar so important. It undermines the very foundations on which so much of the power of the US lays.

It has the potential for cutting the all-powerful US capitalists out of the equation and giving the nations of the global South an opportunity to exercise some control over food prices, free from the political whims of the US.

But nobody should be under any illusions that the US and its allies will go along with these changes quietly. They have warned us and demonstrated on countless occasions that anyone who threatens their dominance will meet the full force of their power.

Socialists need to be ready to organise our own “full spectrum” resistance when the attacks intensify.

Roger McKenzie is the Morning Star international editor — follow him on Twitter @RogerAMck.