The roiling agricultural commodity prices in the last decade were largely the result of dollar currency devaluation by the Federal Reserve. The same patterns occurred across other global commodities like copper and oil.
Devaluation of the dollar shouldn't have been a problem for foreigners who want to buy wheat. They would have had more favorable exchange rates (their own currencies would have appreciated) that would have covered the higher USD-denominated wheat prices.
Agreed. Price growth is natural when you increase the money supply. It's one of the reasons that the CPI index is flawed, as it does not include food costs directly.
Increases in the money supply don't reach everywhere at once; inflation is not evenly distributed. It's distributed, often, through hedge funds that can borrow large amounts of money from banks. You're looking at the effect and the mechanism of easily-borrowable-money actually being borrowed to bid up a particular sector of the economy; much as, earlier, it was borrowed to bid up real estate.
Disagree. The fed does not devalue currency. They set interest rate policy on reserves aka the federal funds rate. Biggest factor in supply and demand for a currency is fiscal policy. Second biggest factor is trade balance and the desirability of foreigners to save the given currency.
The roiling agricultural commodity prices in the last decade were largely the result of dollar currency devaluation by the Federal Reserve. The same patterns occurred across other global commodities like copper and oil.