I say inflated because they have risen by a significant amount.
You're right of course, they are a commodity like everything else.
In north America it is the decision to use corn as a biofuel source which has inflated the price of this commodity. That and a poor harvest which has decreased availability.But you can't eat biofuel and animal food here has a strong bias towards corn (maize)
Maize isn't a staple in Europe so things are different there but still the feed input to pig production has increased from about 40% of cost of production to around 70%.
Interestingly the Chinese government once infamous for poor decisions in food policy, looked at this idea and decided that making a staple food crop into fuel , in the face of a growing population, would have been a bad choice and have avoided it. I think the premier used the word "mad".
The times are a changin'.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Tue 29 Jan 2013, 12:13, 1 reply)

All makes sense,
although I'm not sure how far the Chinese governments pragmatic approach will stretch if oil prices start shooting up again.

'course the other big factor is the idiots on Wall street. They can drive the markets up or down by 20% after a boozy lunch.
(username failed moderation, Tue 29 Jan 2013, 12:43, closed)