Once again, the Times demonstrates its outstanding roster of reporters who, when left to sort out a complex and opaque situation, can explain and illuminate.  Sabrina Tavernise’s piece in yesterday’s paper shows what happens when corruption and a failure to ignore the principles of crop rotation – anyone remember George Washington Carver? – combine to form, in effect, a region’s “agricultural policy.” Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt

Read that – think about the Midwestern floods – and wonder about near-to-medium term food prices.