Price of wheat ex farm    £65 - £100/tonne
Bread            £1000/tonne
Breakfast Cereal    £4000/tonne

Sponsors of Diabetes UK include

Kelloggs
Shredded Wheat

Notes: here we grow corn (maize) predominantly as whole crop - the
entire plant is chopped for silage for winter animal fodder - some is
grown as "pick your own" but in general it is not a combineable crop,
and we don't use HFCS much.

Wheat is pretty much of a no-brainer to grow, the main problem is the
"autumn bottleneck" where the previous crop is harvested, the straw
disposed of, manure spread and the ground prepared and sown with next
year's crop, all in a few weeks (many farmers and contractors go onto
24 hour working for the period). The rest of the year it needs a
couple of spreads of fertiliser and a spray or three and will yield
something in excess of 8 tonnes/hectare most years.

Also it is possible to follow wheat with wheat without the same
disease buildup of growing rape after rape, for example. Commonly here
they grow two wheats in the rotation between beans, rape and the other
less widespread crops.

Wheat (and the extracted starch - a new factory for processing wheat
into starch for the "food industry" has just come online) is put into
all kinds of "foods" including even some brands of oatcakes.

Sugar here has two sources: Tate and Lyle cane sugar (imported) and
British Sugar Corporation - beet sugar.

Wheat may be easy to grow BUT in a bad year costs may be £80/tonne or
more, so the farmer may even make a loss.

This is true of many foodstuffs, milk for example - the supermarkets
customarily pay *less* than the cost of production - it's the food
"industry" and supermarkets who make most of the profits from feeding
the population.

Here's where it gets interesting: due to last year's weather there was
a crap harvest. Crops were falling over, combines were getting stuck
in the mud, whole fields were drowned in the floods.

At the same time there have been poor harvests in several other parts
of the world.

At the same time there has been a huge increase in demand for wheat
from countries such as China.

At the same time there has been an increase in demand for wheat (and
other crops) for the biofuel market.

The result is, the world price has increased hugely, and current
ex-farm prices are £180 - £200/tonne.

Arable farmers are now suddenly profitable again. People who thought
they had done well selling at £120/tonne are kicking themselves)

The obvious downsides: processed foods will increase in price as the
processors hang on to their profitability. (This may well actually be
an upside).

The less obvious downside: animal feeds including grains are
increasing in price thus making meat more expensive (most of our sheep
and cows are fed predominantly by grazing, and winter feed is
principally silage/haylage from grass corn lucerne etc. but
"concentrates" are often added, and pigs whether outdoors or in and of
course all intensive factory farmed animals such as turkeys are fed on
grain and (imported) protein feed such as soy beans.) The net result
will be still more animal farmers going out of business.

Simultaneously with starch-based foods becoming less profitable, Gary
Taubes has come along and added to previous work on the disbenefits of
an excessive-carb diet.

Simultaneously again John Buse has taken charge of the ADA and appears
to be injecting some sense into their dietary recommendations.

Oilseed rape (canola) is also a base crop for biodiesel, prices have
gone from £150- £200/tonne to £350: it's not so easy to grow as wheat
and can really only be grown on the same land every 3 - 4 years.

We live, as they say, in interesting times.

Price of potatoes ex-farm    £80 - £150/tonne
Upmarket crisps (chips)        £14 900/tonne

so if you see DUK sponsorship by Golden Wonder or Walkers and find
their dietary recommendation suddenly becomes "eat more chips! Chips
are good for you! (You may need to increase your medication) . . ."
you heard it here first

Keep an eye on the changes at your local Diabetes Organisation and the
local crop market prices . . .