Last summer, crude oil prices were skyrocketing to around $150 a barrel, and we were all sweating the $4-$5 a gallon fuel prices every time we pulled up to those gas pumps. It was during this time of anxiety that the debate around the role biodiesel and ethanol were playing in food price spikes that were also hitting everyone hard in the pocketbooks. Our friends at Farm Foundation took on this debate when they released in July 2008 the report, What’s Driving Food Prices?

What a difference eight months make, as oil prices have fallen back below $40 a barrel, and gas is a lot closer to a buck-and-a-half per gallon than the summer’s highs. Funny… food prices seem to have remained high… hmmmmm.

Well, in their never-ending quest to continue the conversation, the Farm Foundation folks have asked the report’s authors, Purdue University Economists Phil Abbott, Chris Hurt and Wally Tyner, to update their analysis of the drivers of food prices. Their findings will be the subject of a March 11th Forum at the National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW, in Washington D.C. The forum runs from 9 to 11 am, and they’ll even serve up a cup of joe starting at 8:30 am.

Contact my friend, Mary Thompson, Farm Foundation Director of Communications at mary@farmfoundation.org to RSVP by noon CST, Monday, March 9th. The forum is free.