It’s not exactly a secret that the price farmers receive for their crops and the price that consumers pay for food have risen substantially in the past year or so.
If you want to understand what’s caused the increase, the folks at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service have prepared an explanation.
The short answer is, it’s global supply and demand.
Read the longer explanation at http://ers.usda.gov/Publications/WRS1103/.
Fair warning: There are a lot of graphs, charts and statistics, which may put off some readers.
Ag producers trying to understand trends and patterns might be especially interested in the section on how so-called “speculators” may or may not have affected grain prices.
