Conservation Reserves
But even so, duck hunters and conservationists are calling foul over the loss of that land, voluntarily dedicated to wildlife through the federal government's Conservation Reserve Program.
About 35 million acres are currently set aside through the program, which pays farmers to keep their land out of production for decades at a time.
Rising commodity prices are removing the incentive to keep land enrolled in the program, said Neil Shader, a conservation policy specialist with the waterfowl and conservation organization Ducks Unlimited.
A region of the Great Plains spanning Montana and the Dakotas called the Prairie Pothole has lost more than a million acres from the program this year.
"[Farmers] can get a lot of money for planting corn or wheat, and they're not going to get a whole lot of money for planting the native grasses that are going to benefit waterfowl," Shader said.
In the Prairie Pothole region, the program pays farmers about U.S. $50 an acre. The same land is worth around U.S. $150 an acre if used to grow wheat, he noted.
Free Market
Even with the price increases, farmers aren't resting easy. Many are reaping whatever they can sow, convinced the good times won't last.
Christopher Shaffer grows wheat at his S-Lightning Farms in Walla Walla, Washington. Right now, he said, is a good time to be a wheat farmer.
"Things cycle; we've cycled into some times where there's more profit," he said.
Assuming the next harvest season results in a solid wheat crop around the world, however, prices should fall, explained Shaffer, who is a former chair of the U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade group.
He is concerned that calls by groups such as the American Bakers Association for a review of export policies to ensure the U.S. has enough wheat stocks on hand could harm U.S. trade status in the world.
He added that the cost of wheat is just one ingredient causing the price of food such as bread to rise. There's the cost of making flour, shipping the flour to bakeries, and paying wages, for example.
"That's the thing that people tend to forget," he said. "There's so much more that goes in to making those products and the costs that go in there than just the raw commodity."
The rising cost of oil in particular is substantially increasing the overhead expenses of running a farm.
The cost of fertilizer has more than tripled in the past 12 months. Diesel fuel is at an all-time high. The dollar is exceptionally weak. If commodity prices drop, farmers will be unable to cover their costs.
"You're sort of hemmed in there, and you just hope the commodity prices will stay high enough to pay for the expenses," Stewart, the Ohio farmer, said.
According to Doering, consumers may need to get used to the higher prices because of the increasing demand and rising production costs.
"I don't think it's unfair to say we are reaching a different set of relationships for commodity prices and a different level of prices."
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