1. What were the major reasons for global food price inflation in 2007/08?

There are many explanations for the food price inflation in 2007 and 2008. Firstly, the population growth put pressure on the scarce resource which was food. Countries like for example in India the population increase is 1.548% (2009 est) while countries population is about 79,217.401 (2009 est).
This combined with the increase in the amount of urban population – which in last five years increased by 3% puts huge pressure on the scarce resource – food.
Moreover, there was an increase in production of bio-fuels, and as the supply for food and the bio-fuel is joint the increase in demand for the latter puts inflationary pressure on the former.
Another supply side reason for the increase in the food prices is the fact that in 2007 there was a very poor harvest because of the drought.
One might argue that because the developing countries were depended on the imports of cheap, subsidised food from the developed countries, when the trade was liberalised, poorer countries had a big problem with producing enough food themselves. Moreover, Restrictions were removed from Japan which contributes to lack of balance in the rice prices.

2. Is there is a link between rising oil prices and food price inflation?

Yes there is. The increase in the price of oil (demonstrated on the diagram on the left) lead to increase in demand for the substitute good, which was bio-fuel. As, noted above, increase in demand of bio-fuel leads to an increase in price of food, because those are joint supplied

3. Why are rising food prices such a concern for lower income consumers

Lower income consumer are most vulnerable to increase in food prices, because food is much greater part of their spending. As food is a necessity, and important part of what we spend, it can not be replaced by anything, and the closest substitute - cigarettes is expensive.

4. Why have the global cereal stocks been declining for the last decade?

Firstly, because of the reform of the common agricultural policy.
Moreover, the demand for food at that time exceeded the supply.
Much of the anticipated decrease in global cereal output in 2005 is in developed countries, mainly reflecting smaller coarse grain crops.

5. What happens to the price elasticity of supply for cereals when stock level fall?

The more there are stocks the bigger is the elasticity of supply, as the supplier can increase supply when the price rises. Therefore, when the cereal stocks fall the supply becomes more and more inelastic.

6. Why are the global food supplies susceptible to demand and supply side shocks?

Because they are price inelastic. When there is an increase in demand, or in some areas there is an decrease in supply it is very hard to increase the production overnight, as most often a change in output takes more than a year.

7. Can buffer stocks help to reduce the food price volatility

Yes they can, especially in the short run. If they are managed by the government which aims at making the prices stable they can be efficient in reducing the price volatility. They decrease the supply when there is an oversupply and increase it when there is undersupply. However, in the long-run this leads to an overproduction and the stocks are growing to big.

8. What are the key problems of running buffer stocks programs

Firstly the fact that these often are expensive. The storage and buying the food can cost a lot.
However, the main problem with the buffer stocks is that it unnaturally increases the demand for food, hence leads to an overproduction that does not fits the demand, hence wasted scarce resources.

9. What is the economic conflict between global transport demands and attempts to reduce the number of people below the poverty line

The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country. The global demand for transport is putting inflationary pressure on most of the products, especially on food. It is because of increased demand for biofulels which, as discussed above increases the prices of food.

10. Explain what is meant by income elasticity of demand. Why might the income elasticity of demand for meat and diary products be different for consumers in China than in the UK?

The elasticity of demand is the responsivnes of demand to chanes in other variables, those might be income, price of other goods etc.
The difference outlined in the question may stem from the fact that the Chinese have different eating patterns than the British.

11. Should governments consider a tax on meat so that more land can be freed up for human food rather than animal food?

Given that the demand for oil will constantly rise, while the supply is most likely to fall, there will be more and more land used for production of bio-fuels. There fore it is crucial to look for possible increase in the supply of food, for the sake of those who barely can afford it.
Because production of one kilogram of food takes about ten kilograms of food, if the tax reduced the amount of consumed meet, it would be very efficient in diminution of the hunger in the world.

12. ‘Higher food prices are good god for farmers and bad for consumers’ assess the validity of the statement

This statement is valid as long, as the high prices of food are not resulting from the problems of the farmers to produce their food