 The price of rice exported from Thailand reached a record yesterday, heightening concern about a global food crisis. It climbed more than 8 percent as importers rushed to secure supplies. It's the first time rice from Thailand, fee for its biggest exporter, has breached $1,000 a ton. Look at the whole world, and not just the United States. We've got to let these markets work. And I regret we've got higher price foods in some place, but we have lived with a low price food, cheap food policy, not just the United States, but globally for a long time. And that's kind of what got us into this pickle right now. By contrast, the Thai export price, rough rice traded in Chicago, is down for a fourth day. It's lost about 3 percent in the past week. Surgeon rice prices are affecting one Asian nation in particular, the Philippines. It's the world's largest importer of rice. And prices have hit the country hard, especially the poorest of its 90 million residents. Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin reports in the shanty town of Tondo in Manila. Jocelyn David's eight children will probably go to bed hungry tonight. Rice prices are high. We can no longer buy it to feed our children. We wait for subsidized rice. That's the only time we eat. Ever since the crisis began, we don't eat much anymore. The World Bank says 41 percent of Filipinos live on less than $2 a day. In a country where rice prices have doubled in a year, some worry about social stability. We are very much worried because the people might panic, so we'll start an uprising. Unlike neighbors Thailand and Vietnam, the Philippines has failed to become self-sufficient in rice and faces unique challenges. It has a rapidly growing population. It has a relatively limited land area. It's buffeted by a number of over 20 typhoons every year. And so even though its rice production growth is moving along in a good clip, with the demand growth from population, it's very difficult to keep up. To increase production over the next two years, the government will spend as much as a billion US dollars on irrigation, warehousing and fertilizers. The nation's demand for the grain is about 12 million tons a year. It estimates an output of 11 million this year. But some say it's not just about production. I think it's rice holders, rice holders, manipulators, high price of rice. I think it's only the buying power of the Filipinos that right now is experiencing like because of unemployment and underemployment. Back in Tondo, Jocelyn David worries not about reasons behind the high prices, but about her kids. At night, when they all go to sleep, I stare at them and wonder if I can provide proper education to all of them. My hope is for them to finish school. I don't know what the future holds for them. Haslinda Amen, Blemic News, Manila. We'll have more on the global food crisis later today in a special one-hour show. We'll find out how you will be affected, what's being done to alleviate soaring prices and grain shortages. That's at 2 p.m. Tokyo, 1 p.m. in Hong Kong and again at 9 p.m. Tokyo, 8 p.m. Hong Kong. The food...