I blogged this in February ... 2007:

This summer (Note: the summer of 2006 - BD), I seemed to remember reading that world grain stocks were at levels that sparked panic buying in the 1970s. I spoke with a friend of mine who's an agriculture expert. He said that was basically true, but agreed the market doesn't seem to be getting too excited about it.

However, one of the hot parts of the commodities future markets these days is agriculture. Some people are making big bets there will be a food supply crunch.

From the BBC:

The rapid rise in food prices could push 100m people in poor countries deeper into poverty, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has said.

His warning follows that from the leader of the International Monetary Fund, who said hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation.

Mr Zoellick proposed an action plan to boost long-run agricultural production.

There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

"Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty," Mr Zoellick said.

In late February, I blogged about a fantastic NYT Magazine article about the fighting in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.

Today, a comment showed up, purportedly from a soldier with the unit there -- the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

I obviously have no way to independently verify the information, but if what the writer claims is true, the situation there is worse than the NYT's Elizabeth Rubin painted it to be -- and I thought her article painted a very bleak picture.