Stock up on bread now— at least until it rains again

The most well-known wheat crisis to date is the 1972 “Great Grain Robbery,” in which the Soviet Union combated a catastrophic drought that depleted their wheat supply by buying all the available surplus of wheat in the United States.  This Soviet spending spree triggered food price hikes worldwide.

Now, we may be facing a similar situation.  Russia is experiencing the worst drought in over a century, and consequently farmers have not been able to harvest wheat.  This shortage has caused the price of wheat to skyrocket, rising briefly above $7 a bushel Monday, the highest price since September 2008, when low supplies of grain caused a worldwide food crisis.