The Washington Post reports the US Agency for International Development and the United Nations are significantly scaling back emergency food aid to some of the world’s poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices. USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. USAID operates emergency programs in almost forty countries, including Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia, Honduras and Sudan. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, said, “This is really the first emergency we’ve faced without a drought, war, natural disaster.”