If soaring gas prices are pinching your budget, get ready to make further adjustments: The cost of a number of food staples is probably going to go the same direction. Global wheat prices are presently at 10-year highs, and it doesn’t look like they are about to come down. Analysts warn that many basic food products will soon follow that trend.

Across the world, a number of factors are combining to reduce grain production and raise the costs of such staples as bread and pasta. We are witnessing, according to the Australian, the gathering of the “perfect storm,” as record temperatures in the northern hemisphere, low global grain stocks and the rise in demand for grain by biofuel companies unite to cause grain prices to surge. On top of rising wheat prices, a likely rise in corn and barley prices will further compound the consumer crunch at the grocery store.

Extreme hot weather and drought conditions have dealt America’s agricultural heartland a debilitating blow in recent months. Drought conditions have hit farmers throughout the Midwest and plains states especially hard. Although the surge of triple-digit temperatures is fierce, it’s the months-long drought that is inflicting the most damage.

For farmers like Harvey Heier in Kansas, wrote the Christian Science Monitor, “the effects of the current heat wave are exaggerated because they come on top of a dry winter and dry summer the year before” (July 20). Large swathes of topsoil across the plains and the Midwest of America are completely devoid of moisture. In northwest Kansas, where the average rainfall for the year to date is around 15 inches, Mr. Heier’s farm has only received 6.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture [usda] said that growing conditions for the U.S. spring wheat crop were the worst in 18 years because there was not enough moisture to germinate seeds” (Australian, op. cit.). Already this year, the usda has announced measures to assist farmers across the nation. “It’s given natural disaster designation [eligibility for farmers in those areas to apply for low-interest emergency loans] to dozens of counties in Colorado and Nebraska, as well as a few in neighboring states” (Christian Science Monitor, op. cit.).

The usda has also released large areas of land set aside by the Conservation Reserve Program (crp) to be used for emergency grazing and haying by farmers across the plains. In some states, like New Mexico and Oklahoma, state governments are using the usda’s Emergency Conservation Program to provide aid to drought-stricken ranchers.

Food production is growing increasingly difficult across America. Recent extreme hot weather in California damaged important crops and killed thousands of livestock. July’s floods in the northeast will likely cause a drop in crop production.

Nevertheless, even as hot temperatures and drought conditions persist in many areas across the U.S., farmers and government agencies remain hopeful that these weather abnormalities are just a temporary curse. But what if they’re not?

One may reason that, though this would be a difficult scenario, America could rely on supplies from overseas. Right? Wrong. In a number of areas of production, such as grain, the world’s crop producers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep levels of production up and meet the growing global demand. Hot weather and drought in Europe this year, for example, will severely impact the volume of wheat produced. In response to the concern over the Continent’s wheat production, UK wheat futures reached a two-year high last week, and are up more than 23 percent so far this year. The same trend prevails in France.

“The concern about wheat production comes at a time when global production is projected to fall short of demand this season, which would make it the fifth of the past six years where demand has exceeded supply” (Australian, op. cit.; emphasis ours throughout). According to the Earth Policy Institute, demand for grain will outweigh the actual supply by 61 million tons. “As a result of these shortfalls, world carryover stocks at the end of this crop year are projected to drop to 57 days of consumption, the shortest buffer since the 56-day-low in 1972 that triggered a doubling of grain prices“ (Energy Bulletin,June 15).

A rise in wheat prices will drive up the cost of many foods. If other crops such as corn, soybeans and barley follow the same route, which they are expected to do, the impact on the consumer will be amplified.

With high gas prices driving the growth of the biofuels industry, analysts expect the demand of crops such as wheat, barley and corn to grow over the coming years. With demand for these staple crops rapidly increasing, and it becoming more difficult to produce the volumes needed, it seems the price of food staples can only go one direction—up. The outlook for the world food supply doesn’t look pretty.

That said, this doesn’t mean the world is running out of food immediately. It is entirely possible that adequate rains next year, or the entrance of another supplier onto the global market, could cause grain prices to stabilize in the short term.

However, when it comes to the agricultural trends within such nations as America, Britain, Australia and Canada, taking a longer view does equip us with some facts as to what we should expect to occur in the future.

Consider the agricultural wealth of America, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada over the past 200 years. Each has been a major exporter of livestock, grain, or fruits and vegetables. These nations have led the world in the development of agricultural technology. These countries have been agricultural superpowers.

But look at the state of their agricultural industries now. It has only taken two or three decades for these nations to fall behind numerous other nations in agricultural production. America, Britain and Australia are among the nations hardest hit by extreme hot weather and drought. America and Britain, especially, are importing more fruits, vegetables and meats than ever. The agricultural industries of these nations are being slammed from every direction. How is it that these nations can go from agricultural superpowers to agricultural wimps in only a matter of years?

Notice how specific the Bible is with its descriptions of the curses that shall come upon these nations in this end time. “And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits” (Leviticus 26:19-20). “Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep” (Deuteronomy 28:16-18).

Read those chapters in their entirety. You will see that they are exact descriptions of American and British history over the past 200 years. These nations were wonderfully blessed, but now those blessings are being taken away and are being replaced by curses.

The Bible prophesies that America and Britain and its former dominions—to whom these prophecies are directed, as proved in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy—should expect production of basic crops to become incredibly difficult, and as a result, the price of food at the store to increase. It tells us that agricultural devastation is coming to these nations in the near future.