I don't know which country you are talking about the economic conditions of, but in general, such tragic events would not happen in developed countries and countries with large areas of agricultural land. There are many ways to overcome this problem, poor people will try to cultivate the land to plant plants that produce staple crops, they can also market agricultural products to maintain economic stability. The elite may be able to enjoy everything, but the poor can also survive by relying on food produced from agriculture.
Most people nowadays don't want to live as farmers anymore. The scenario is completely different from the past century, where the countryside was the home of big families who worked on the fields. The tendency is that youngs migrate to larger urban centers, leaving the countryside empty. So there is a minority of wealthy businessmen who own technological resources who purchases those lands and start growing crops and breeding animals in large scale. Without concurrence, they feel free to put the prices they wish on the products.
Of course there is also the taxes factor implied, which raises production's costs, but it doesn't justify the fact food is really expensive (and getting more and more expensive, while quality decreases). More competition would balance prices and quality, but that is a game for big players most of us don't have access to
, so it's more convenient that such big players just organize themselves in lobbies.