FakeBen says: "Wow! This is bad. This shows how crazy this situation is getting. Government are negotiating secret grain deals?"

Governments are racing to strike secretive barter and bilateral agreements with food-exporting countries to secure scarce supplies as the price of agricultural commodities jump to record highs, diplomats and cereal traders say.

The moves coincide with a significant tightening of the global food market as leading exporters of agricultural commodities ban foreign sales. The government-to-government contracts could bypass those restrictions, diplomats say.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/25261de2-0760-11dd-b41e-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=... [1]