I understand you argument about lower income countries buying more staples and less processed foods and agree on that. My point about the cooking oil is the article seems to imply that cooking oil is a large portion of the food budget in these countries and I seriously doubt that. I'm talking about the per capita consumption of cooking oil in those countries, not the total aggregate consumption. My guess is it is only a couple gallons a year and represents a small portion of the total food budget. If something only amounts to 5% of the total budget, triple the price and it still is a small increase in the total budget. The article seemed to imply that cooking oil is a significant portion of the total food bill and I have my doubts about that. I still think the article was written to sell papers, not give balanced information.

John