Canberra Times: Almost 40 countries are facing critical food shortages as world food prices soar to record levels, the United Nations warns. The world’s food supplies are rapidly dwindling due to crop failures caused by global warming, natural disasters, wars, and a trend away from farming food crops to growing biofuels and grain to feed cattle, the agency says. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s global food price index reached its highest level this year, rising by more than 40 per …