My apologies Dave. When I said commodity prices I realy ment metal prices, iron ore, copper etc and coal. I agree the prices of agricultural commodities are also rising. Wheat and corn is used in USA and Europe to make ethanol and this extra demand by ethanol manafactures is believed to be main cause of the price rises of grain compounded by lower production in Australia due to no rain. High demand for ethanol is due to high oil price in the first instance. If oil was still $20 or $30 dolars a barrel as it was before the Iraq invasion, nobody would be making ethanol from wheat or corn, it is better to make bread and vodka and tortilas and Bourbon.
Some of the increase in the price of oil is also atributed to increased demand from India and especialy China. I still argue that if the war in Iraq did not remove 30% odd of world supplies from the market the oil price would be much lower.
