Okay – this isn’t really much of a stretch, since there have been food riots constantly for several years now… but you heard it here, folks. Tough economic times push those commodities speculators to bet on higher prices, even though petrol is at the lowest price in almost a decade.

RTFA: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6f481fd2-06b6-11de-ab0f-…

Food commodity prices this year will remain above historical levels, hitting poor countries for the third year in a row, according to the US department of agriculture.

The forecast at the USDA’s annual conference in Washington points to lower prices than in the first half of last year, when the cost of commodities such as corn, wheat, soyabean and rice hit all-time highs.

Joseph Glauber, USDA chief economist, said the impact of the economic crisis on food consumption would depress agriculture commodity prices temporarily, but he warned that prices would remain well above average for the eight years since 2000.

Mr Glauber told the Financial Times that the outlook was “for a return to higher prices” as some of the pressures that drove last year’s increases and relatively strong growth in emerging markets “will return to play a major role” this year or in early 2010. “This is going to be again a tough year [for poor countries],” he said.