With the Russian export ban and the summer spike in wheat prices dominating the headlines of ag publications it’s easy to overlook that the FAO estimates world wheat production in 2010 to be 646 million tonnes.  That’s the third highest crop on record; down just 5% from 2009′s numbers.  This isn’t necessarily a repeat of the situation in 2007-2008.  Wheat stock predictions show a strong supply moving forward, not a “Food Crisis 2.0″ type event.

Strong stocks aren’t the only silver lining to this situation.  Once again the issues of farm protectionism, climate events, distorted markets and global food stocks are hot topics both in industry and mainstream media.  And beyond the news stories there has been a huge increase in public interest and discussion around these issues, both at the coffee shop and online. (Just look at the spike on this Google Trends report.)

The question is, when the market normalizes and the newspapers stop telling us to panic, how do we keep these important discussions going?