04/08/2011 (Wall Street Journal) - High food and commodity prices have hobbled poor consumers and triggered riots in emerging markets this year. But in commodity-driven economies like Indonesia, the rising prices are lifting millions of farmers and miners out of poverty—and creating opportunities for global companies.

Zulfan Effendi, a 36-year-old palm-oil farmer from the western island of Sumatra, says he used to struggle to make ends meet. But in the last two years, prices have doubled for palm oil, which is used in everything from chocolate to ethanol. That has let him add rooms to his house and fill them with luxuries he once.