World events have just taken a turn for the better, if your measurement happens to be soaring food prices. Otherwise, they are ominous, because food inflation centered on grains is on the way, and what follows next, more often than not, is social unrest in the poorer nations.
We’ve been following the wheat story here for a while, and today’s announcement by Russia is a stunner:
Putin announces ban on grain exports
August 5, 2010
Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, on Thursday announced a temporary export ban on grains after a severe drought decimated the country’s crops.
“I think it would be expedient to introduce a temporary ban on export grains and other agricultural goods,” Mr Putin told a Cabinet meeting. “We cannot allow an increase in domestic prices and we need to maintain the number of cattle.”
The ban will take effect from August 15, a spokesman for Mr Putin said
Wheat prices rallied sharply on the news. In Chicago, wheat jumped by its daily limit of 60 cents to a new peak two-year peak above $7.85 a bushel, up nearly 80 per cent in little a over a month. In Paris, European wheat hit €222.75 a tonne, up 6.6 per cent on the day.
Interfax, the Russian news agency, earlier quoted a source in one of the economic ministries as saying that the export ban could affect wheat, barley, rye, corn and flour. It also quoted Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Grain Union lobby group, as saying:
by cmartenson 
