This document was prepared by David Blandford, Penn State University and Berkeley Hill, London University. It is based on results from a research project funded by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture entitled "Policy Reform and Agricultural Adjustment" under a...

The recent period of high and volatile food prices has cast doubt on many longstanding assumptions such as the inevitability of declining real food prices, and brought to an end a long period of food price stability. Some of the key driving forces appear to have been declines in yield growth for...