The Staff of Life

The price of wheat has been soaring lately, in part because of bad weather pounding crops all over the world. American reserves are at their lowest level in half a century and countries from Taiwan to Venezuela have been increasing their consumption. There's more competition for a dwindling supply.

These countries have been consuming more wheat in part because their standard of living has improved. Wheat is, and always has been, a high status food. You can grow a lot more barley than wheat on an acre of land, which is part of the reason people in Western cultures have tended to favor wheat over barley.

Wheat also makes better bread, in fact, once folks learned to use yeast to make their bread rise, they started growing varieties with more gluten, or better bread making properties, instead of the early strains of spelt and emmer, which have more protein.

This spike in wheat prices isn't so much a food shortage as much as a shortage of a food that we tend to think of as better than some other foods. Ironically, this spike in prices will put it outside the means of poorer people in developing countries, which will make it more desirable, which will up the demand, which will once again raise the price...