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January, No. 258a

On October 2, 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago held a conference that focused on the economic impacts of volatile agricultural prices and food policy, especially their intersection with the macroeconomy through food price inflation.

Last Updated: 12/22/2008

Agricultural Markets and Food Price Inflation—A Conference Summary (Special Issue)

David Oppedahl

The primary goals of the conference were to examine the roots of increases in agricultural prices, particularly the underlying global factors; to explore the implications of these increases for the food industry; and to discuss the potential implications of persistent changes in food prices on price stability at the macroeconomic level. The conference started by highlighting the intense media attention of the past year on food supplies and price increases. Yet, real crop prices never reached the heights of the 1970s, and they had already started to decline in 2008. Farmland markets responded to higher commodity prices, evidenced by a 16% jump in farmland values for 2007 in the Seventh Federal Reserve District.