Rising wheat costs

The Black Horse by Giusto de' Menabuoi
Fresco (1376-78) in the Baptistery of Padua Cathedral

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand, and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s pay, and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!’ (Apocalypse 6:5-6)

Bink at Daily Kos alerts us to rising prices for wheat flour all around the globe:

Minneapolis shook the commodity world when a trader paid $25 a bushel for the high-protein hard red spring wheat that trades exclusively in Minneapolis and constitutes the main ingredient found in most breads, muffins and pizza crusts. That's about five times the price of wheat a year ago, a run-up mostly blamed on thin supplies and widespread speculation from fund managers.

In addition to bink's article you may read more at the NYT.

Bink concludes:

We need fewer people, or a bigger Earth.

I think it's unlikely that either of those things is going to be happening soon.

In the mean time, it looks like we can expect prices for bread, pasta, cakes and snacks to rise, further taxing the budgets of American households already trying to figure out how to make do with less.

--the BB