Whats the cause of the price increase in corn?
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.  People will need to dish out some more money if they want to enjoy a favorite summertime food. One of the most important crops in the world is seeing a price increase. Corn is an ingredient in most foods that we eat every day. Jake Agee is a corn farmer and he says this past year the weather hasnt played in his favor. The entire month of May, we werent able to plant any corn, kept us out of the field, said Agee. That big wind event that we had in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana back in August, the result of a late-season drought, said Ben Brown. Brown is an Extension Economist at the University of Missouri and says thats one of the reasons prices are increasing. Corn prices increasing from anywhere from three dollars cash corn to trading around five dollars cash corn, said Brown. So If you figure that up, thats about a 60% increase.  The farmers in the United States arent the only ones struggling this year. Ukraine, western Russia, and the rest of the Black Sea region, is a growing area of corn production, had arguably their worst growing season in 40 years, said Brown. China, the worlds #2 producer of corn also, had a shortfall in production.  Agee hopes next year will be better for farmers. We like to think were going to have a really good year, but two weeks of weather can change anything for us, said Agee. So, its hard to tell.  On the bright side, Brown is confident next year will be better overall. The odds of everything happening that did, are very slim, said Brown. The probability of it happening two years in a row is even smaller. We expect Ukraine, Russia, the Black Sea region to have a much more normal growing season as well.