World trade in food grains (wheat, rice, and wheat flour) more than doubled from 1962 to 1983, while the number of countries participating in world trade increased 85 percent. Food grain consumption has increased faster than production in most countries so more countries entered world trade for...

In 2008, wheat futures prices spiked and then crashed along with prices for other agricultural and nonagricultural commodities. Market observers offered several theories to explain this common movement, or comovement, in prices, and have proposed policies to address the perceived problem of...