Give Us This Day Our Daily Fuel (Bread): One Bushel At A Time

Most anywhere where corn is grown, you may substitute wheat in next year's planting. The opposite is not always true. In fact it's seldom true. As a general rule, corn won't easily grow where wheat is currently a dominant crop, unless irrigation is added. Hence, this year's record breaking wheat future price needs to be understood in the frame of competition for crop land, climate change, and corn-based ethanol demand. Risk for farmers is high, according to the National Association of Wheat Growers; but so is profit potential.

We are entering a period where family farmers will compete intensely with traders and distributors for a fair share of the benefits. With corn based ethanol tying up so much fertile land, there is a possibility that wheat prices may not, unlike every other time since the Great Depression, plummet a few years after peaking.

Wheat, corn, wheat, corn.... What's a farmer to plant?

Via::TwinCities.com, "Record wheat price ignites food inflation fears"