Over the last two years, prices of agricultural commodities have risen spectacularly, and nominal prices for many crops and dairy products are at an all-time record high. This surge in prices is not unique, and when adjusted for inflation, the recent price spike is neither unique nor the biggest one to occur in the last three decades or so.

Several Sahel and West African countries have seen prices of agricultural commodities rising since September 2007 compared with 2006 and on into the first quarter of 2008. This has given rise to tension in some countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

Anyone looking for a measure of biodiversity loss should consider the expansion of farmland. More land was converted to agriculture in the 30 years following 1950 than during the 150-year period between 1700 and 1850.

Can cutting down on sugar subsidies lead to healthier trade competition and trimmer prices? The 2005 European Union market reforms aim to thin EU farmers’ sugar subsidies and cut out obsolete sugar mills. Sugar Policy Reform in the European Union and in World Sugar Markets maps out how this might work.

There were 102 million hectares of commercially grown transgenic (or genetically-modified) crops worldwide in 2006. In 1996 that total stood at 1.7 million hectares. These figures come from the international agribiotech concern, ISAAA, which notes that soybean, maize, cotton and canola are still the main transgenic crops, and herbicide tolerance and insect resistance the dominant traits.

Anyone shopping in fruit markets this summer will agree that judging the quality of agricultural products is a serious business. After all, customers want their apples to look and taste like apples. But ever wonder how those standards are ensured from the farm to the marketplace? Standards play a vital role in growing, pricing, trading, shipping and public safety. They serve the global market, simplify import and export procedures, and increase transparency, confidence and traceability.

More than two billion people in developing countries rely on agriculture to meet their basic food and income needs. While the development community has long recognised the importance of investments in agriculture to fuel economic growth, the strategies employed have been erratic, sometimes misdirected, and often ineffective. As a result, benefits that poor people might have derived from a vibrant agricultural sector have not materialised.

The global meat sector has suffered from bad press in recent years, with sales affected by trade bans and consumer caution in light of scares from the likes of mad-cow disease (BSE) and avian flu.

Free trade for agriculture is all very well, but what if the produce you are importing is not up to scratch? Who decides whether a mushroom is sold as Extra, Class I or Class II? How can farmers be sure their produce is priced in the right category, and consumers be protected from buying kilos of overripe gariguette strawberries?

Investing in African agriculture would help poor people to help themselves. The World Bank forecasts that in Africa and the Middle East, the number of “absolute poor” will increase between now and 2015. Nearly 80% of these people live in rural areas. Their options to improve livelihoods are largely restricted to agriculture.

How can we feed future generations without causing significant environmental damage? This was the challenge agricultural, food and fisheries scientists grappled with at a meeting in Rome in May to launch the next phase of the OECD’s Co-operative Research Programme, which contributes to providing the scientific knowledge needed for effective food and agriculture policies.*

Genetically engineered crops are no longer an idea of the future, but have well and truly arrived. Crops like maize, soybean, rapeseed and cotton are being approved for commercial use in an increasing number of countries.

Pascal Lamy, the European Union trade commissioner, has recently accused Supachai Panitchpakdi, the Director-General of the WTO, of using the “misleading” and “contestable” figure of US$300 billion on “farm subsidies”. This number comes from the OECD, the only institution publishing internationally comparable information on this topic. What lies behind the estimate?

Pigs have their fans and their detractors. Winston Churchill was fond of them because, while dogs looked up to us and cats looked down, pigs treated us as equals. But in Animal Farm, George Orwell saw them as clever, manipulative, beasts that were simply more equal than every one else. Pigs also divide opinion on another question: if, as is widely claimed, pigs are naturally clean, odourless, animals, how come they are at the root of some quite intractable environmental problems? Agriculture, Trade and the Environment: The Pig Sector, which examines how trade policies in the pig industry affect the environment, has some of the answers.

World sugar prices are likely to remain low over the next few years due to increased exports from low-cost producers and continuing high support and protection in many OECD countries, the latest issue of the OECD Agricultural Outlook found.

Renate Künaste, Germany's minister for consumer protection, food and agriculture, explains why the world's agri-food sector has to change some of its habits.

Earthworms, bees, Ethiopian wild barley, peregrine falcons, orchids, mangrove swamps and tropical rainforest: on the face of it, these might seem a motley collection, but they are all symbols of both the diversity and the fragility of the linkages between agriculture and nature.