At a summit in Rome held by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said world food output needs to rise 50% by 2030 in order for the growing population to be fed.

“Soaring prices of grains, dairy and meat have been grabbing global headlines,” says Jennifer Yousfi in Money Morning, “but other commodities have been on the rise as well.

Wheat sank to its lowest price since August last year as US farmers began harvesting what is expected to be the biggest winter grain crop in a decade, reports Bloomberg:

Production will increase 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.78 billion bushels, the most since 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts. About 4 percent more acres were seeded from September to November, the agency said. Wheat prices have tumbled 45 percent from a record $13.495 a bushel on Feb. 27.

A perfect storm is gathering that may make investing in a livestock ETF one of the best profit plays for 2008.

According to a report by Bloomberg, cattle prices may rise 13% by the end of the year on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Brazil’s Bolsa de Mercadorias e Futuros. More from this story:

Not since 1996, when corn reached what was then a record $5 a bushel, have cattle been this cheap relative to their primary source of feed.

Last night, I had dinner with Gary, an Iowa commodities broker. As we sat down to steaks, Gary told me two large hog businesses had gone under this week in Sioux City. “I saw the banker down at the farm counting livestock heads,” he said. “The banker in this town never leaves his office. It’s the first time he’s ever had to get s**t on his shoes.”