Farm Foundation is holding a forum at the National Press Club at this very moment to release a new study offering a comprehensive, objective assessment of the forces driving food prices.

Farm Foundation president Neil Conklin says what the study shows is that today’s food price levels are the result of complex interactions among multiple factors. “However, one simple fact stands out – economic growth and rising human aspirations are putting greater pressure on the global resource base,” Conklin says. “The difficult challenge for public and private leaders is to identify policy choices that help the world deal with the very real problems created by today’s rising food prices without jeopardizing aspirations for the future.”

The study was written by three Purdue University economists. Lead author Wally Tyner says they basically identified three broad sets of forces driving food price increases – global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and growth in the production of biofuels.

“We made no attempt to calculate what percentage of price changes are attributable to the many disparate causes and, in fact, think it is impossible to do so,” says Tyner. “But examining the interplay of the forces driving food prices gives a clearer picture of what has been happening.”

Read the full report here. There are some very interesting findings here and worth a read. Farm Foundation hopes this will add some reason to the food versus fuel debate which is running high on emotion and low on facts.

We did the interviews with Conklin and Tyner that are posted on the Foundation website. They are also posted below for your listening pleasure.

Conklin interview (runs 4:30)
conklin-interview-64.mp3

Tyner interview (runs 9:00)
tyner-interview-64.mp3

Also, Farm Foundation will host a free webinar on the report, July 30 at 1 p.m. EDT. More information is available on the Farm Foundation web site.