Yes, there is indeed that much control over prices.
I guess growing some crops around by the community could be done. However the following problems have and will come up:

-To do so everything that is grown should be consumed by those who work on it and not sold. But if that were the case, that is not helping much but only those growing the food. The rest of us who are involved in other sectors would have to stop doing what we do and just dedicate to agriculture. That's just not something possible in the 21st century.
-Supplies such as pesticides or fertilizers are not being produced in here, and must therefore be imported. The problem being you would need to get dollars to do so and there just aren't many of those around any more, unless you buy them on the black market. So micro economic agriculture is not the answer here.

The only way to improve the situation here is by promoting international investment by great proportions. Food can be found in here, just that prices are too high and companies can't afford to pay much money to their employees now. But if other companies invest money here (there are lots of reasons to do so), they could afford higher wages. The problem is that no one will ever invest a peny in here when you know there is a government that nationalizes your company when they don't like something you do. Put simply, the government must be removed first.