Breakfast might be getting a bit more expensive in the near future. Wheat prices have surged nearly 20-percent since the beginning of the year, pushed higher by global demand from emerging countries including India and China. According to the U-S Department of Agriculture U-S wheat inventories will be at their lowest levels in more than fifty years. Tight global wheat supplies could lead to higher prices for bread, pasta, cereal and a host of other food products. My big question; Is there an investment play here???

Dean Haskell, senior vice president of equity research at Morgan & Joseph, says agriculture companies such as Monsanto is not a direct play on rising crop prices but if the business of farming is good then fertilizer, seed, and farm equipment companies should do well. On the other side of the coin Haskell says higher crop prices are really cutting into the margins of restaurants and food product companies.

In the end food companies will absorb higher costs for only so long before they pass it on to the consumer.