Global food prices have risen sharply in recent years and have become more volatile. In this paper, I examine how these developments are transmitted to domestic food and non-food markets in low-income economies and consider the options available to policymakers concerned with managing the macroeconomic consequences of global food price shocks. I first review the simple economics of the transmission of global food price movements to food and non-food prices in low-income countries. I then use a simple dependent-economy model to illustrate the real macroeconomic and distributional effects of alternative fiscal and trade policy responses to food shocks and how these are determined by the structural characteristics of low-income economies. In the final section, I consider how food price shocks impact on the aggregate price level and, in particular, the † A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the AERC Plenary Session on Global Food Price Shocks: Causes, Consequences and Policy Options in Africa during the AERC Biannual Research Workshop held in Mombasa, Kenya, 30 May 2009. I am grateful to support from the Oxford Department of International Development Research Fund, to Eleni Stylianou for valuable research assistance, to my discussant, Nii Sowa and to participants at the workshop for comments and suggestions. I also acknowledge a significant debt of gratitude to Steve O'Connell with whom I have worked on related issues in Tanzania prior to and since the original presentation of this paper in Mombasa. Many ideas presented here reflect these discussions. All errors are my own.